Feb. 23, 2009 Monday

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There's a commercial on tv that really annoys me. It's for a glucose testing meter that doesn't require coding and testing can be done on the arms rather than the fingers. The paid actors praise the fact that their busy lives are not disrupted by testing and coding. The fact is that, if you're a diabetic, knowing your blood sugar levels on a regular basis can save you from such nasty complications as,oh ... death. On that basis I wouldn't think that glucose testing would be such an imposition.

The testing needle that comes with the meter is a spring loaded gadget that stabs your finger then quickly retracts. The depth that it penetrates can be adjusted to produce the least painful jab.

I've been checking my sugar levels three times a day for the past seven years and I've pretty much gotten used to it (some folks hafta check 10 times a day or more). It's never what I'd call painful. And as a result my blood glucose levels have been pretty stable, which means my diabetes is under control. If it's too high, I drink water and exercise - if it's too low, there are chewable glucose tablets that bring it back to normal. It's never gotten so extreme that I've been in any danger.

Yeah, it's annoying having to put up with that every day, but my days have never been so busy that it's a disruption.

And, as they say, it beats the alternative.