[Diabetes-talk] Problems With the Count-a-Dose?

[Joy Stigile]

Hi Everett,

I use a Count-A-Dose device everyday.  I do have a "soft" click on the 
number nine.  It developed a few years ago but I have learned to live with 
it.  I figure it is only putting in a half a unit.  I usually use eight 
units before breakfast and lunch.  At dinner I take twenty units, which of 
course is really nineteen and half units and twenty seven and a half units 
at 10 p.m.  If I have more "soft" clicks develop I will get a new 
Count-A-Dose device.

As far as air getting into the syringe I pump the plunger back and forth 
with about ten units of air a few times before I place it into the 
count-A -Dose.  I put in the required amount of air into the bottle and then 
go back and forth three times with about ten units before settling on the 
exact amount I need.  When I have a sighted person with me to check I have 
had the exact amount of Insulin in the syringe with no air bubbles.

Warmly, Joy


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Everett Gavel" <everett at everettgavel.com>
To: <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 5:31 PM
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] Problems With the Count-a-Dose?


> Hello All,
>
> I've recognized some serious issues with my Count-a-Dose usage, and am 
> wondering if anyone else has recognized similar issues? I don't know if i 
> should just order a new one, or bypass it and use another method if it's 
> perhaps more widespread and not just, hopefully, my current product.
>
> I bought a new Count-a-Dose a few years ago, after the patent was bought 
> by the new maker. I wanted to support their efforts to help blind 
> diabetics, y'know? I've recently come to realize that for who knows how 
> many years while I lived alone my Count-A-Dose may have been 
> malfunctioning.
>
> I've been married about a year and a half now, and I've now gotten into 
> the habit of asking my wife, who can see just fine, to verify that the 
> correct amount of units have gone into the thing, as well as checking for 
> air. I've known for a long while now that the clicks are sometimes 
> irregular, sometimes soft and unsure, and sometimes easy to recognize as a 
> 'click,' or, a unit of insulin. But I didn't think much of it. It always 
> seemed pretty much okay, not too unreliable I guess. But since having 
> someone sighted around to check the results, I've been frustrated over 
> time to find that I may have not only been injecting wrong amounts, and 
> quite often it seems, air rather than insulin. It's happening a lot more 
> than is safe to monitor one's insulin properly, safely. I hate feeling 
> like I need sighted assistance, but do not feel confident in the ability 
> any more, with this current product, to do it myself.
>
> Now, before jumping to conclusions and thinking I'm just an idiot or 
> something, please understand that I do pay pretty strict attention to 
> putting in the same amount of air that i'm about to remove from each 
> bottle of insulin. Still, I have a hard time getting all insulin, all the 
> time, back into the syringe. If you simply attribute it to user error, 
> I'll struggle to not argue that point (smile). But I also realize it may 
> well be something *I'm* doing wrong. So I'm simply asking, has anyone else 
> who used or uses the Count-a-Dose with bottles of insulin, had any issues 
> they've recognized?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Everett
>
>
>
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