A history lesson?

[noblehead]

Early 80's was my big blue reflolux. My dad paid £100 for it and it was kept in a small shoebox.

To be honest though I can't recall instructions I was given for testing...

The bg test took 2 minutes DD, you would leave the blood on the strip for 1 minute then wipe it off with a piece of cotton wool and place the strip inside the meter, after a further minute it would display the bg reading.

 

[kevinfitzgerald]

I think the orange, red, was the alert colours ?

I remember the test tubes. I think it was 5 drops of urine from a pipette and then you had to wear gloves to but that course tablet in and then it would start to bubble and froth (like a scene from Jekyll and Hyde). The bottom of the test tube actually became really hot and if you touched it you'd burn yourself.

Metal and glass syringes with metal needles the length of javelins that you had to boil for 5 minutes before injecting.

Just seen your picture. Brings back memories !

Kev

 

[graj0]

I'm feeling too lazy to search on the internet so thought I'd just ask some of you directly:-

As I'm fairly new to this lark I was wondering, roughly when did people first start daily home monitoring of BG levels???

My question is prompted by a post in the testimonials forum where someone is saying that his HbA1c has been on target for many years and I was wondering how you knew what was going on between hospital visits?

Tongue in cheek reply - WARNING

"World's first BG meter" in Google got me http://www.bjbs-online.org/pdf/pp83-93 BJBS69(2).pdf

A good read actually.

 

[Jaylee]

As I recall I had my first HbA1c test around the early 1980's. Before that it was hospital blood tests for a snapshot glucose result and home urine tests. Urine tests told you very little, a positive test showed your renal threshold had been exceeded - your blood glucose had been above 10mmol/L at some point in the previous few hours and your kidneys had been excreting glucose.

I was outraged when home blood glucose monitoring first appeared in the 1980's with BM strips as I was a stroppy teenager and could no longer manipulate my results. I used to use tap water instead of urine if my Mum demanded to see a test result not believing my results had been constantly negative for the past 6 months!

I used to log my pee results in a half sized green "sugar paper" covered lined/boxed paged text book.. A bit like the old school geography book??
i would take this log book to the clinic in a dried pi55 stained state to the clinic & smile sweetly while they chopped sense into it...
Since i always went in with trepidation & came out feeling worse than i went in. i thought i'd "spread the love"..

 

[phoenix]

An interesting article.
It reminds me of something that used to puzzle me.
In France ,nurses and people with diabetes, still say 'faire un dextro' (to do a blood glucose test.) I guessed what it meant since dextrose is glucose but it certainly wasn't in my dictionary. (glycemie is the 'real' word )
In the UK people often say to do a BM .
They both come from the earliest blood glucose meters.
dextro= dextrostix (dextrometer)
BM = Boehringer Mannheim, manufacturer of one of the earlier meters.

 

[Dodo]

Remember doing the Clinitest procedure for years. It just wasn't accurate enough as the urine could have been in the bladder too long to accurately show your blood sugar level.

 

[dancer]

Remember doing the Clinitest procedure for years. It just wasn't accurate enough as the urine could have been in the bladder too long to accurately show your blood sugar level.

Didn't you empty your bladder then wait a few minutes for a "fresh sample"?

 

[noblehead]

Didn't you empty your bladder then wait a few minutes for a "fresh sample"?

Mid-flow I was told.

 

[scoyyt57]

This was the meter I used from about 1984. I remember calibration was a nightmare, involving pulling a strip of film printed with a barcode through a front-to-back slot on the machine. It had to be done at just the right speed. I remember getting very frustrated as I often couldn't pull the strip through at the right speed and had to try over and over again. I bought this myself after being loaned one by the hospital when I was pregnant 30 years ago!

 

[donnellysdogs]

This was the meter I used from about 1984. I remember calibration was a nightmare, involving pulling a strip of film printed with a barcode through a front-to-back slot on the machine. It had to be done at just the right speed. I remember getting very frustrated as I often couldn't pull the strip through at the right speed and had to try over and over again. I bought this myself after being loaned one by the hospital when I was pregnant 30 years ago!

I remember that machine!! Nigh on £100 I think my dad paid for it!

 

[scoyyt57]

I think I got mine on an offer and paid about £70.00 which was quite a lot of money in 1984.

 

[Jaylee]

Mid-flow I was told.

Indeed Mid flow.. Any urine sample normally is... .. LOL i used to collect my sample in a white glazed tin mug to test. & use the Clinitest lid for the water.. Was it 5 drops of pee to ten of H2O??

I still cant drink out of tin mugs when camping...

 

[Flowerpot]

I remember that machine and the dratted barcode that wouldn't register. I used to give up and just compare the strip to the chart. I also used to cut the strips into 3, length ways, to make them last longer , they were like thin splinters with a tiny area to apply blood.

 

[robert72]

Indeed Mid flow.. Any urine sample normally is... .. LOL i used to collect my sample in a white glazed tin mug to test. & use the Clinitest lid for the water.. Was it 5 drops of pee to ten of H2O??

I still cant drink out of tin mugs when camping...

Yep - 5 pee, 10 water

 

[scoyyt57]

Did you also use acetest tablets to check for ketones? I drop of urine and then wait to see if they changed coolur. I think it ranged from pink which was ok to dark purple which was very bad!!!

 

[Flowerpot]

I remember Acetest were in a smaller bottle than the Clinitest tablets, bright orange Clinitest result followed by a dark purple Acetest result meant trouble!

 

[noblehead]

Indeed Mid flow.. Any urine sample normally is... .. LOL i used to collect my sample in a white glazed tin mug to test. & use the Clinitest lid for the water.. Was it 5 drops of pee to ten of H2O??

I still cant drink out of tin mugs when camping...

Yes it was as Rob has confirmed, sure I used a measuring jug.

 

[Jaylee]

Yes it was as Rob has confirmed, sure I used a measuring jug.

Somebody "stayed over" once & used my mug for their tooth brush....

 

[robert72]

Somebody "stayed over" once & used my mug for their tooth brush....

 

[noblehead]

Somebody "stayed over" once & used my mug for their tooth brush....

Wow, hope you washed it first