I'm essenchally Type1 Diabetic. I'm kind of boarderline. It came after spending over 6 months of steriod medication.
What really buggered me about it was the pin-pricking, and this is a sollution to that. I hated having to do the following routen 6-8 times a day.
What I have to do using Usual Pinpricker
- Blah Blah Blah, Typity Type Type. Whatever it is i'm doing at that point in time.
- "Oh yeah', I haven't checked my glucose.
- Take the package with my kit out the bag.
- Take the fiddly strip out of the fiddly box that holds the strips - they're normally (but not always) in like a old picture film box.… put it down somewhere safe
- Wash my hands with alchole (not the tasty kind) and water, focusing on one of the pads of my finger.
- Put a new needle thing in the pen injector. I should do this every-time but life is too short. I do it until it stops working when I inject, which is about once a day. Ditto in the pin-pricker. It's super fiddly.
- Put the fiddly tab in the fiddly reader.
- pull back and load up the pin-pick machine against my finger.... and fire until I get a little gusher. his doesn't hurt, but I can't type eiher after - because hygiene means my finger will get blood on the keyboard. And I can't always type anyway.
- I then put the fiddly bit against my gusher, the other bit being on the machine.
- Wait 5 seconds
- Hopefully it'll tell me how much I need.
- Do some maths to see how much glucose I need... twist the nob to out 10, then twist again so for every over-10, every 2, I add one - so if i'm running at 18, then I need 10 + 4.
- Inject it in my belly... can hardly fell it most of the time, but sometimes I can really feel it.
- Put everything always neatly and tidy.
- REPEAT 6-8 TIMES A DAY FFS
But with the Abbots Libre Freestyle system - which is available at some GPs but not others #PostcodeNHS, I got to ONCE every TWO WEEKS buy a new sensor that's £57. That's over £100 per month. But it's worth it to me, compared to the following....
What I have to do with the Libre instead.
- [Once per foretnight]
- Open the box
- Load up the machine (it's two pieces that slot into each other)
- clean my arm with the alchole white
- Put the machine against my arm and press the button... it'll inject the reader, doesn't hurt one little bit.
- DO ABOVE ONCE EVERY SIX WEEKS, rather htan 5-8 times a day
- Press the phone/reader against my arm, just like Terrisa May does.
- And then my phone can easily and seculty open up the app on my phone. It can also read a history somewhow. Magic !!!
- Get moral outrage at the latest Health Secretary why not everyone who had to test so regularly, can have this. I have to self-fund every fortnight for £56.
It's not just the action of pin-pricking, it's that it takes you out of your zone.
It's not just the 5 minutes or so of the original one, it's the fact that it takes you away from whatever you're doing. It's like that annoying person, Jane from Accounting; at work who always interrupts you the moment you're "In the zone", to ask you some irrelevant question. Imagine being in a big important meeting and every 5 minutes someone asks you some inane irrelevant question like your name or what the green marker means compared to the blue... you lose your place. It's also one less thing to keep in your bag.
I don't like, it stings a bit when it first goes in, but once it's in, you don't feel it at all - after a
Anyway, back to me and faublous things and how to set it up.
This is what you get in the box
there are two units, the thing with the tinny-tiny needle (like, seriously, it's so small that you can't see it very well). And then there is the applicator.
You press down one unit into the other, and it kind of slots into place so you can't do it wrong - there is runners that does it all for you.
How to Install & what you get.
How all you've got to do is put the alchole wipe (again, not exactly a mojito in there), that you wipe tour arm with, and then press down the applicator on.
You should put oit on the fat of your and toward the upset of the upper arm (ie, your bingo wings should you have any. So here I am, applying the applicator after boozing my self up
How to Install
I can't take a photo of me doing the app, because that's what I wuse to take photos. But you'll have to trust me, all I do is open the open the app; then first time it'll say wait an hour, and then it'll scan every tiem.
IF I could wish one thing, it was what that this was capable with Apple Health. Or the Apple Watch - except that would be awquard AF and i'l be doing the Funky chicken menovour to get that working.
Ao Finally, the points, 9/10.
This is not 10/10 because A I have to pay £56 a month and it not being capable with Apple Health.
But all in all, if I can afford all the shit I buy, then I can afford this and cut down on the other shit. And if if it's good enough for our Prime Minister, it's got to be good enough for lil'ol'me.
That's it, hope you enjoy, xx.