How Times Change!!

[Lyndesay]

Just seen this picture and has brought back memories! My first machine and my most recent one! How times have changed and also size!! :shock:

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[Lyndesay]

Also the Countdown book! This was the Diabetic Bible back in the day!

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[anna29]

Just seen this picture and has brought back memories! My first machine and my most recent one! How times have changed and also size!! :shock:

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How were these huge machines used Lyndesay ?
Compared to the meters of today .

Anna.

 

[sticks71]

Wow, that really is a blast from the past. I had that test meter - didn't it take about 2 minutes to give a reading?

 

[donnellysdogs]

Ooh goodness.. Now I'm old.. I had a huge blue meter before getting the one in your photo which I considered to be then miniature!!!

What a sight!!!

 

[carol39]

Yes time had change l use to had that meter as be diabetic 28 years in August were the years gone

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[iHs]

Seeing the photo of that meter, takes me back in time as well. I can remember my dsn showing it to me on one of my clinic visits together with that dreadful finger pricker....

 

[Thundercat]

OMG! Had forgotten them completely! They were so big and so slow. When testing I have a race with myself to get cap back on lancet and put it in bin before result comes up. (maybe I am a little nuts!) . Could almost make a cup of tea on that tome with old meter! You've got to love progess.

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[Lyndesay]

Hi Anna,

The Cream coloured machine was the first one I had. It was massive in size! You had to put alot of blood into the strip and there was 2 different colours in which calculated your blood sugar. The smaller one is the one which is used with my insulin pump, how technology has changed and for the better aswell!

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[Lyndesay]

I was the same Thundercat! A cup of tea could of been made, it was crazy! Also the finger pricked was the worst ever! Hated it!! :-x

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[Julie1471]

God I remember those, my grandparents bought my first blood glucose machine ad it was bigger and fatter than that. And the carb book, went in colours, red for foods to avoid,amber- ok for treats(once in a blue moon) and then green for everything you could have day to day. Just wait till I show hubby the picture of that blood glucose machine, he remembers that as I had one at home and one at his house. We were talking the other day and he was saying remember that machine where you used to put the blood on, then have to wipe it of and then put it, in the machine and you had to wait 2mins for the result. Not like it is now only secs, to get a reading. And the old way of checking BM's put blood on the strip time it and then check the results on the colour chart on the side of the tube. If my old memory serves me correctly the machine was made by a company Boringer Manheim, who also made the test strips, that we use to use with the colour chart, then they made the machine. I know say I'm gonna check my blood sugar, when I had these I used to say I'm gonna do a bm, I still sometimes still call it a bm. . I also remember the finger clix the finger pricking device with 3 different coloured platforms, Orange for thick skin,yellow for normal and white for sensitive skin, no depth adjustment like we have now. God this post has made me feel old, I can remember the day I was diagnosed 12March 1981, how things have changed in 32 years.

 

[sueycl]

The original meters look very high tech compared to the awful enormous glass syringes, which were kept in a blue (I think) plastic 'tube' full of some type of spirit. The needles were as thick as knitting needles (well, maybe not!) and I'm sure they weren't changed often as they were stored in the tube, which had a spring in the bottom to stop the needle getting blunt. And what about the clinitest urine testing kit...a plastic 'box' with test tubes, and a tablet was dropped in to a tube of wee, then it fizzed until the colour stabilised. Then it was compared to a chart. I seem to remember that orange was the highest colour! I wonder if we'd still be here unless technology had improved the equipment!! We still say 'bm sticks'!!!

 

[sticks71]

That's right, orange was the highest reading, and wasn't the lowest blue (known as negative)? I had the plastic tube for the syringes too. It's all coming flooding back now!

 

[Delphinum]

Oh my, that is a blast from the past. You had to put loads of blood on then wipe it off before putting it in the meter if I remember correctly? And you could check the colours against the ones on the testing strip box to see if it lined up. I still call them BM sticks too, Sueycl.

 

[michellehayward]

hi, i too remember that meter, i also remember (shows how long i have been testing), the tablets that you had to drop into a test tube with your wee in it, it changed colour and you recorded the results.... seems so long ago. does anyone else remember the original blood test sticks??? they needed a huge blob of blood and gave a result range like 11-17, i cant believe i actually adjusted insulin going on those results. now my machine uses the tiniest drop of blood and tells me an exact reading as well as how much insulin to take. this is fab for the newly diagnosed like my daughter who laughs when i tell her about the good old days!!!!!!! :lol:

 

[karla0304]

Hi there all

Do any of you remember the urine tests that had to be done, long before these blood machines came on the market. I can remember the 5 drops of urine and the 10 drops of water in a test tube. Then there was a fizzy tablet dropped into the mix. It went different colours depending on the sugar content of the urine.

I am really showing my age now. Been diabetic since I was 3. Almost 37 years now. Yikes!!!


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[Thundercat]

I remember the urine testing in the early days. There was a warning that if moisture got in to the tablet bottle there could be a "bottle explosion". I was only 12 and that used to make me a nervous wreck when testing!

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[carol39]

Yes l remember the old test as be diabetic since l was 12 and l am 40 this year l on a insulin pumo now

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[Julie1471]

Yes I remember those, a lad I was in hosp one time, had instant blue results and they couldn't understand why. And the size of the steel bed pans remember those

 

[etmsreec]

Yup, I remember comparing the colour on the flaming great test strip with the colour on the tube. We then had the issue of the BM sticks were too expensive and you had to cut them in half.
I used an Autolet until comparatively recently (maybe the last ten years - I'm in my 32nd year as a Type 1) and half inch insulin needles. Then it was 9mm needles, then 5mm and now 4mm. Some people still say it's fine to reuse single use needles as well... :shock: