I Need Better.

After my third snack of the day (it's for the baby, okay), I realized I'd been relying on Dexcom-supplied glucose guesses for the whole afternoon. "Huh, I should probably test." I pulled out the iBGStar from my meter case and stuck a strip in. Lancing my finger mindlessly, I then let the strip suck the blood off of my right ring finger.

....3.

....2.

....1.

>600.

Excuse me, what?

Frantically throwing open my "random stuff" diabetes drawer, I fished out my go-to backup meter: the Verio. Except that...

...the meter's battery was completely dead. As in, insert the strip in the top and nothing happens. AWESOME. Meanwhile, I'm having mental images of my child being drowned in maple syrup (because that's what the blood of high blood sugars is made of, yes?) inside me, while my stupid diabetes equipment won't just. work. when I need it to most.

Third try, I grab my purple OneTouch UltraMini and find a bottle of the test strips (because of course all three of these meters have to use separate ones; picky little divas). Guess what? They expired in October.

FANFREAKINGTASTIC ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW ASLKNDOWOEIUNGOIE. Cue Yosemite Sam.

I decided expired strips would have to do, and so they did: after realizing I'd just eaten an apple but hadn't washed my hands or used an alcohol swab - and alleviating that situation - I tested at 210. Better!

I went back to the iBGStar, and this time it spat out a 204. Okay!

Should I have been better prepared by having a charged backup meter, or test strips that weren't leftover from Halloween? Yes. But would it also be great if meters could distinguish between blood sugar and leftover food on my hands sugar? Yes.

(Speaking of meters, Lifescan issued a recall of all VerioIQ meters today. Check out this press release, and the OneTouch website for more information.)