[Diabetes-Talk] what am I doing wrong?

Tue Jan 1 17:48:20 UTC 2019

Amber,

To be honest, it's not that helpful having sighted people try to assist with showing blind people how to do things. They do everything, well, sighted, and we need to learn to do it nonvisually. I rarely find sighted help for things like this helpful. When I trained on my insulin pumps and now CGM, I had to explain to my nurse eds, who have worked with me for years, how it had to be done, because their directions and "ideas" of how a blind person would do it were just wrong. They have now implemented what I taught them when training other blind diabetics on things. Obviously, they can teach the operation of a device, but they usually have no clue how to do it nonvisually.

Some days are just different than others. Once you're more comfortable with all this, it won't be so difficult. How many times a day does your doctor want you testing? Your script should have been written to supply you with plenty of strips. Grant it, you're going through more because of this trial and error. If you need more, if you ask your endo office, they can sometimes give you a bottle. My endo office has done this with strips and even insulin before. And, you can purchase Prodigy strips on Amazon too if you need more before insurance will let you reorder.

BTW, Medicare isn't all that great, smirk.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Amber Wallenstein via Diabetes-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2019 11:03 AM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Amber Wallenstein <amber.wallens at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-Talk] what am I doing wrong?

Bridgit:

Thanks for the ideas. I just don’t understand what I’m doing wrong today that I wasn’t doing wrong yesterday.
I have no access to sighted people to help me with this, so I’m just trying every method I can think of to try.
Also I don’t qualify for MediCare, so I’m at the whim of my insurance company.  
I will keep trying. I’m going to run out of test strips soon, LOL. But I feel this skill is one I have to have in case the Libre I get goes down for some reason.
Amber

> On Jan 1, 2019, at 10:32 AM, Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter via Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Plenty of totally blind people test their blood sugars with success 
> every day. Even sighted people can struggle in the beginning with 
> testing; nurse educators don't just see blind patients, grin. Sight 
> can make it more convenient in the beginning, but I don't think it's necessarily a sight vs.
> blindness thing. Some of us don't have many problems testing 
> nonvisually, and some of us need more practice and patience. But it's 
> the same for sighted diabetics; I speak with experience here, grin. 
> So, it's very much an individual situation here and not always 
> specific to how much or little we see.
> 
> Amber, I'm sorry it's so frustrating right now. Perhaps using the 
> highest setting on the lancer is giving too much blood? Just keep 
> practicing and try as many methods you can think of. When you go to 
> the endo office, they wipe the finger after poking then squeeze again 
> to try to avoid smearing, so, maybe try that.
> 
> Bridgit
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of 
> Jude DaShiell via Diabetes-Talk
> Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2019 9:19 AM
> To: Amber Wallenstein via Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Jude DaShiell <jdashiel at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [Diabetes-Talk] what am I doing wrong?
> 
> My guess is you smeared the strip.  The blood needs to drip through 
> the air onto the strip in order for you not to smear the strip.  This 
> is why Medicare doesn't recommend totally blind people do their 
> independent blood sugar testing.  Much easier for those with sight to do this.
> 
> On Tue, 1 Jan 2019, Amber Wallenstein via Diabetes-Talk wrote:
> 
>> Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2019 09:54:30
>> From: Amber Wallenstein via Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Amber Wallenstein <amber.wallens at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Diabetes-Talk] what am I doing wrong?
>> 
>> I got my meter on Sunday. Sunday and yesterday I did OK with it.  
>> Today,
> however, no matter what I do it says my blood sample is not enough.  
> It beeps like it?s going to test, and does it really quickly like I 
> got enough of a sample on the strip but no matter what it won?t do a 
> reading.  I know there is plenty of blood because I can feel it on my skin.
>> Is something defective or am I doing something wrong?  Like I said I 
>> did
> fine yesterday.
>> I am finding the meter super frustrating to be honest.  But I want to 
>> be
> able to use it successfully when needed.
>> Amber
>> _______________________________________________
>> Diabetes-Talk mailing list
>> Diabetes-Talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Diabetes-Talk:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org/jdashiel%4
>> 0
>> panix.com
>> 
> 
> --
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Diabetes-Talk mailing list
> Diabetes-Talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Diabetes-Talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org/bpollpeter%
> 40hotm
> ail.com
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Diabetes-Talk mailing list
> Diabetes-Talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Diabetes-Talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org/amber.walle
> ns%40gmail.com

_______________________________________________
Diabetes-Talk mailing list
Diabetes-Talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Diabetes-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/diabetes-talk_nfbnet.org/bpollpeter%40hotmail.com