[acb-diabetics] Solo V2 Meter

[Veronica Elsea]

In the end, they must make better meters! My sighted friends are 
blown away when I show them the Solo strips. They're so big! Is what 
I usually hear. Of course, this means a large pathway for the blood 
to travel. I once had someone tell me to take an aspirin a day just 
to make blood testing work better. A bit risky in my case, but it 
shows you how fussy these things are. I've met two meters that didn't 
do this. One was the SofTact meter from Abbott. Did anybody else on 
this list ever use this meter. Talk about easy to use! You put the 
strip and the lancing device in the meter itself and closed the lid. 
It was primarily an alternate site meter. Anyway, you'd hold this big 
thing against your arm or hand and push a button. It had a vacuum 
that would form a seal with your skin, then do the prick and schlurp 
up the blood. When it had what it wanted, it would beep and let go. I 
actually have the sound of this meter in the Diabetes Melodious 
section of my web site if you're curious. Anyway, then a number would 
turn up. It had a giant screen with big numbers. I actually tried to 
read it with my optacon but it didn't work. I did manage to connect 
it up to my computer using Hyper Terminal and that's how I read my 
numbers. But it was great because there was just nothing the user 
could do to mess it up. If it couldn't get enough blood, it wouldn't 
run the test. It was fun because you could also load the strip ahead 
of time. So for instance, on an airplane flight, you didn't have to 
fuss with unwrapping their strips from their foil packets and such. 
Just grab the meter, turn it on and away you go! I think the main 
reason it doesn't exist any more is because of its size. Everyone 
wants small now. But it was sure easy. True, finger sticks are more 
accurate in extreme situations. But I did well with it and the truth 
is I tested more often.
I have also never gotten funky low numbers from the FreeStyle. That's 
why I stay with it even though it's not ideal from an accessibility 
stand point.
So, a giant boo hiss to the FDA! <grin.>

Veronica
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