Thanks for nothing, One Touch

I'm busy.  I'm sure almost everybody skimming this post can relate.  This time of year is especially exhausting; three birthdays in the span of a week, back to school for all three kids, soccer for two, birthday parties to plan.  Not to mention all the daily stuff that life brings.  

So it's no surprise that my to-do pile could only be described as the leaning tower of paperwork.  I think it's height now surpasses my youngest.  

I wish I were kidding.  

The other day I split it into three piles to try and make myself feel better.  It didn't work.

One of the things on that pile was a vial of test strips.  I needed to put a call into One Touch because these strips were reading dangerously wrong.  Like over 100 points over the actual BG.  Once I tested Elise and her meter said 230.  She was actually 108.  Thank goodness we have the dex and I didn't correct off of that number.

Just for chuckles, I also checked my BG with the bad strips... 198.  Oh dear...

Because we discovered the bad strips during a very busy time for us, I put the vial aside for when I had time to deal with it.  Because we all know that when we call companies about our supplies, they answer promptly and never make you wait on hold for 45 minutes.

One afternoon, when Elise was in school and the boys were napping, I tackled the pile and came across the strips.  They had expired in July and it was now August, but I didn't think it would be an issue.

Wrong.

When I got customer service on the line, I reported the issue and asked if they were the same lot number on some other vials I had called about a few months earlier.  Turned out, they were.  

Towards the end of the call, I asked about them replacing the vial of strips, which were a 50 count.  The guy said that because they expired, that they wouldn't.  I argued that they were not expired when I used them and he replied that I should have reported them when I called about the other lot numbers.  To which I replied that the person never asked me if I had any others and I didn't think to look.

Finally the guy (very reluctantly) agreed to replace them.  A few weeks later, I recevied this in the mail:

"Proven Accuracy"?  Yeah... right

Gee, how very generous One Touch. You replaced a weeks worth of test strips with a one day supply.

Jerks.

One is not like the other

It was with great amusement that I read all the comment regarding the state of Elise's meter in my Telcare meter review post. I had honestly never given any thought to the fact that we are still using the meter we were given when Elise was dx'd 3 1/2 years ago.

Yesterday, the kids and I were on our way to dinner, about 15 minutes away, when I realized that I had forgotten Elise's diabetes bag. GASP (bad, bad D-Mama)! And of course, Elise announces she doesn't feel well.

As I was stuck in the hell that is DFW traffic/road construction (seriously, is there a more vile place to drive than the DFW area?), I had to rummage through the diaper bag for Elise's back-up meter (the purple one pictured above) as well as look for an exit so I could get off the highway. I finally found the meter, stuck the strip in and was about to hand it back to Elise so she could check her BG, when... nothing.

The little sucker never even turned on and at this point I'm in danger of causing a major accident (or 5) as I try to get over 4 lanes to the exit. After many, many laws being broken, I'm finally turned around and headed for home; all the while cursing (in my head) and trying to figure out what was up with the freaking meter.

It was brand spanking new. Never been used. Just taken out of the box and put into the diaper bag for emergency use. And nothing I did would make it turn on. Finally we made it home and tested Elise... she was 68.

The lesson? Test your new meter to make sure it works. And even if you carry back-up batteries with your main meter, you should carry batteries with your back-up too.

And maybe a back-up meter to your back-up.

Test Strip rant

I don't know how it works with other brands of test strips, but with the One Touch strips we use, we have to test EACH new bottle of strips to make sure they are "in range".

This drives me absolutely bananas, because to me, if the test strips are not "in range" then they are faulty and should not even be put out there for us to purchase.

Never mind that we have to waste at least one strip per bottle testing them. I did the math, and if we didn't have to do this stupid test, then that would save us one whole bottle of strips a year. And if you added that up over Elise's lifetime... well, I'm just not going to do that math because my head just might explode.

Another thing that makes me want to knee someone in the groin (yeah, I know... anger issues blah blah blah), is that when one strip tests out of range, the brilliant people at One Touch want you to go ahead and test another strip. Yes, this was the advice given when we called up to complain that three out of four bottles in the box we just opened were testing high.

"Well did you just test one strip? Because sometimes you need to check more than one" was the enlightened council that we received. Yeah, I think my head DID just explode a little.

So if one strips test in range, and one out of range, then how-in-the-name-of-all-things-good-and-pure are we supposed to be confident that every other strip is okay? And what does this mean for Elise's numbers?

Not to mention that we're flushing more of our money down the toilet testing more than one strip per bottle.

Last night when I was testing a new bottle that had a range of 122-148 (or something like that), the first strip came in at 149. Now what the bleepity-bleep do I do with that? The next strip tested okay, but still... ARRRRGGGGGGHHHH!

Do ya see why I'm a little wound up?

Here's my idea, One Touch should put an extra strip (at no extra charge) in each bottle. Call it a goodwill gesture for those of us who basically have to open up our wallet to the pharmacy companies and go, "here, take it... you can have it all." I think it would be rather nice of them.

In fact, maybe they too could win a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.