Why "Free" can sometimes be better...

So I go to the dietitian a week ago and she puts me in food prison. Well, ok not really but when someone puts a tray of "realistic" rubber food in front of you and tells you this is what you get to eat it can feel like it! Also during this visit she says "Uh..I would like you to test 3-4 times a day." And I think FANTASTIC! Just went the puncture site closes up from the first round of the day with the vampire(my glucose meter) I get to do it again lol!

Fast forward one week...

For some reason when you go from eating semi-normally to counting everything and writing it all down it seems like time goes much slower lol. So when we went in for appointment #2 I was hoping and praying her scale and mine will agree and when it didn't because of many factors of which eating breakfast was one of...in the end I had only lost 4lbs. So when I stepped off and exclaimed "That's it?!" She looks at me and says "It has ONLY been a week! The average is 1-3lbs." That was when I realized that this lifestyle change is going to take a bit more time to get use to.

The hard part of it all,and diabetes in general, is that you can do everything right and still get high readings. UNLESS...your meter isn't working properly. Yesterday when I woke up and tested and it was 113 (below 90 is good for a non-diabetic) and then two hours later it is a dangerous 193..??? What??!! The only thing I did was eat breakfast ..the same thing I eat each morning. And THEN one hour later it is a beautiful 93...? WHAT?! So this got me to thinking ..what if the meter is faulty? I called my doc and she had me talk to the dietitian and in the end we decided I should change meters.

Now for those of you that are where I was a few weeks ago you are asking yourself "What is the difference between meters?" Well...the one I got first (pictured in the previous blog) seemed like a great idea...super easy, no loading strips, promised to be painless (that of course was not true and they all promise that...but when you are jamming a tiny needle into your skin...that feeling doesn't exactly rank up there with the top ten best feelings and that sounds good!). Well after years of pricking other peoples' fingers and testing this one seemed best. Call it karma... call it good marketing...either way I picked a bad one (and paid way too much since you can get it for free online!)! I tested with the new one that I got for free by just asking for one on their site last night (which isn't as painless but has a way to test it to make sure it's working right)...bottom line...my tests were 20points lower!! Which makes me almost non-diabetic! I have not been officially diagnosed and hope after a few more 10K's, bike rides and walks that I won't be at least not until I look more like the 70yr old people on the brochures and after kids...