[Diabetes-talk] Solo V2 Announcement

[Veronica Elsea]

Jus thought I'd chime in again here. I too am a skimpy bleeder. Hmmm. 
Wonder what it is with those arthritis meds. <grin.> My fingers are 
also quite beat up from all of the testing trials over the years. 
Right now, what I do with my Free Style is if a fair bit of time goes 
by without getting blood, I just pull the strip out and insert it 
again. That restarts the count-down. The meter will beep at me if it 
turns out that there is some blood on the strip. My hubby and I 
always take new strips apart to see where the blood travels once it's 
shlurped up into the strip. Obviously I know nothing about the Solo 
strips yet, so this is just general. But many strips do have corners 
and channels where the blood can either miss going, or not reach the 
leads that must trigger. That's why I really like the design that 
does not allow the test to even start unless there's truly enough 
blood there. The thing is, if there isn't enough blood, and the test 
is triggered, the amount of time to add enough is really really 
short. That's where I'd get caught on some meters. Once that beep 
happens, there's no way for us to know we're still adding blood. So 
here's what my ideal would be for any meter. We insert the strip. 
Prick finger. Do the usual futs around to connect hopeful blood 
sample to the right place on the strip. When we hit the right spot, 
the meter would say something like blood detected. Then when there's 
actually enough, we'd here a beep and the test would start. But in 
between the blood being detected and the time a good test could 
start, that would be the critical timing bit. If we were going long 
enough that the blood sample would no longer be good, then we'd get 
an error message.
One of the things that drove me crazy with the VoiceMate was hearing 
that beep, waiting the stupid 45 seconds, thinking I was about to get 
a result and then getting the error message. At least today's meters 
are faster. Yet in a way, it cracks me up. All of these TV ads 
touting this and that meter with results in five seconds. I don't 
know about the rest of you, but for me, I can barely get my finger to 
stop bleeding in that amount of time, so the gain of five seconds 
over, say, seven? Uh, big deal! <grin.>
Of course, most of my friends around here have the meter built right 
into the insulin pump remote so they only have one thing to carry 
around. A talking pump with built-in meter and food data base, now 
we'd be talking!
Veronica
Check out my new CD, "We Woof You A Merry Christmas," at
http://www.laurelcreekmusic.com
	Veronica Elsea, Owner
Laurel Creek Music Designs
Santa Cruz, California
877-607-6407