Feeling rather strange, I went to the clinic on Monday, 9 May 2004. Kathie and her father stayed home as I was simply going to pick up the medications and the blood sugar testing stuff. I was wrong...
The Pharmacist was out to lunch and was due "back in 15 minutes" so I sat down to wait. I wait closer to a half hour (it must be nice to be the boss and thus able to set your own hours.) While waiting, a friend (a retired minister) in his 70s came in. I told him why I was there and he said he was a diabetic himself and had been taking "the pill" for years. It was a comforting feeling to know that I wasn't the only person with this problem.
The Pharmacist had the medicines all right but no instructions on which blood sugar meter to sell me. He had a little pen shaped needle device meant for poking holes in one's finger. I asked for one that would punscure the forearm. He also had a couple of varieties of testing devices, some cheap and the best a bit more expensive. I told him that I wanted the "take-it-from-the-arm" device and he said he'd check with the family MD. Unfortunately, the family MD and his nurse had taken the afternoon off. I said that I'd be back the next morning between 9 am and 9:30 am.
We (Kathie, her visiting father and I) rolled in at almost 10 am on Tuesday, 11 May 2004. The Pharmacist had asked the family MD which blood sugar tester to sell me. Dr. H. said to leave it up to me...
I figured that if I was going to be using this blood sugar tester for years to come, I might as well buy the expensive one, the US$80 one. I asked the Pharmacist how to use it. He pulled out the device and showed it to me; then, he gave me the pen shaped puncture device and said to practice with a supply of old test strips. At this time, my MD's nurse (Midge) showed up and took charge of the situation. We went to a vacant treatment room and got ready.
First, we had to calibrate the meter by setting the time in it. (We used my wrist watch as I had set it to the nearest second a few days before.) Then, we tried opening the pen to put a needle in. We could not get the damned thing to open. We thought we were in danger of breaking it when Dr. H (family MD) stuck his head in the door. He showed us how to open it and insert the needle.
Next, it was time to learn how to use the device.
I figured that since I was going to be using it, then I should be the one to be stabbing myself. We wiped off a section of my left forearm, set the needle depth at a medium range and I stabbed my arm. You could tell that a hole had been made but no blood came out. I then reset the needle depth for the maximum and after a total of seven (7!) trials, realized this needle was never going to lead to a geyser, just dry holes. I poked the finger and it bleed nicely. Then, a last failure on the forearm. Midge went and got a different variety of needle device, one with a stronger spring and made for forearms. This produced a nicely productive hole.
We were in business and we then tried using the testing device. We couldn't get it to work. Dr. H dropped by to see how we were doing and told us the test strip had to be positioned just right for capillary action to suck in the blood. After that, it worked just fine.
By this time, it was past 10:30 am and Kathie and her father had been sitting out front in the waiting room. I bought the required gear and we left. Kathie said that she'd seen quite a number of people that she knew and they had not gotten bored.
When I went to work that night, I told my boss that I'd become a diabetic and would be taking blood sugar readings twice a day, two days a week. (Tuesday and Friday about 7 am and 7 pm.) John, my first level supervisor simply listened and said "OK". My second level supervisor was obviously creeped out at the notion of poking holes in one's self and asked if there was anything that I needed. I said "no" and that I would be doing this in private.
That evening, I wondered over to an office cube that was hidden from the rest of the audience and did my first at work test. It was far more stressful planning for and anticipating the blood test than it was to do it. Odd how that can happen...
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