Whether your meter uses "E", "ER", or another way of designating an error, we've all run into those days where it seems like we waste a whole vial, drum, or disc of strips (and lancets, if you use the Renew device!) just to get that magical number. By the time you get that "beep", you're certain you're reading fifty points off one way or the other, just due to the stress of getting the bloody lancet to produce a bloody large-enough blood drop that beads up on -- rather than wets -- the surrounding skin, and the bloody strip to take up enough of that blood to produce a bloody glucose reading.

(And yes, "bloody" is meant both as description and expletive.)

For me, there are several parts to the challenge of blood glucose testing.

First, it's where to test? In the winter, my fingers get so cold that I can barely draw the almost-invisible sample my Freestyle Flash requires -- and because of those peripheral circulation issues, I'll routinely read hypo from my fingertips even when I'm running normal to a bit high. I find the forearm is usually my safest alternative -- except when I can't get to it through a winter coat, fleece pullover, and three or more layers of sweaters and longjohns. I have similar issues in high summer when I'm in garb -- Elizabethan and Tudor styles keep my arms covered to the wrist, and while I don't have the "cold" issues with my fingers, anyone who's spent any reasonable amount of time at faire will tell you that there is no way you can get your hands clean enough to get a sample that's not been contaminated by food, dirt, sweat, and everything else. (Washing one's hands is not an option at most Renaissance faires: there are no sinks at the port-a-potties.) Then there's the other summer issue -- the everyday-summer-issue of bare skin covered with layers of sunscreen, sweat, and insect repellent -- each of which is an excellent wetting agent for blood. The blood doesn't bead up for the strip to draw it up, and strip after strip after strip comes up with the dreaded error codes.

Of course, most of the time I'm not at faire -- and most of the time, I'm able to get to some place to wash up first. But sometimes, despite our best efforts, our meters end up acting like the script for an old-fashioned sound check. (Testing... one... two... three... Testing...)

What are your testing challenges -- and how do you meet them?