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I was diagnosed in June of 1982.  In those days, home blood glucose monitoring was about as common and as advanced as listening to music on the go.  In other words, think no ipod, but plenty of cassette player walkmans.  Home blood glucose monitoring was primitive and expensive. 

For the first two years of my life with diabetes, we used various forms of urine testing to track my levels and determine dosing.  First, in the form of tablets dropped into glass tubing filled with pee that heated and turned colors - then in the form of nifty sticks that turned colors after being dipped in urine based on the amount of sugar you were carrying.  Since you weren't actually testing bloodsugar, management was largely a guessing game.

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My relationship has changed, and I'm not happy. Over the past three weeks, I've lost so much trust in what I'm being told that I'm looking at "playing the field" again.

The relationship I'm talking about is the one with my glucometer.

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In accordance with American Diabetes Month, dLife bloggers are focusing on how we can improve in different areas of our diabetes management.

Numbers. A decent one to us might be not so decent to you. It’s a matter of perspective.

The nurse couldn’t reach Susanne earlier so she called me at work to give me Charlie’s number.

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When I wake up and go downstairs I see an abandoned bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and what looks like an explosion of medical supplies. Susanne is flicking a syringe when I enter the kitchen.

"It's the worst color I've ever seen," she says.

She's referring to the color chart on a canister of urinalysis strips.

The deep plum color of the strip that had been dipped in Charlie's pee shows the highest level of ketones - an acid that builds in the blood and spills into the urine.  When Charlie's body doesn't find glucose to convert to energy and when there's not enough insulin, his body begins breaking down fat for energy, creating a poison-like substance which, if left untreated, would kill him.

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Lately, I've really been annoyed by the daily math that goes into this disease. Maybe it's just because my mind is on other things at the moment so I'm just sick of calculating and remembering. Especially since I'm supposed to be switching my carb ratio from 1:10 to 1:8. It's made the math a lot harder for me...even with a college degree.

I really want a meter that calculates for me. Perhaps there is a meter out there like this and I'm unaware (if there is, please enlighten me!). But my ideal gadget would include all my meter capabilities as well as the pump capabilites (minus the insulin giving part).

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