Great Products too Late!

I am a fun of Roche’s Accu-Chek product line I do not have the Accu-Chek Spirit Pump I choose the Animas over it for personal reasons - best left for another post.
The old Accu-Chek Complete, some people may remember it in the late nineties, it was huge big and it took 26 seconds to produce a test result, Oh and the big blob of blood it took.

However, although it would not have won any design awards it was one of the best made truly complete meters of its generation in my humble opinion. It was the first meter to have inbuilt diabetes management software, stored and analyzed up to 1000 values, plus you could add information on insulin, activities, meals etc. The first of its kind on the market I believe it did not succeed because of its lack of appeal or let’s say design.

Accu-Chek seems to be missing its mark lately, don’t get me wrong, they still make great products and management software nevertheless, these products get into the hands of the consumers (me) a little too late. Point in case I have been waiting for their not so new to Europe – Accu-Chek Smart Pix for some time now unfortunately for Accu-Chek I have since upgraded to vista and it will be out in North America late May appearing to not be vista compatible.

The Accu-Chek Smart Pix is a Device Reader is a small, but smart device which imports and displays data from Accu-Chek blood glucose meters, Accu-Chek software for handhelds, and Accu-Chek insulin pumps, via a built-in infrared interface. A plug’n play functionality that connects to you PC via USB, most importantly data can be seen and manipulated in HTML, XML, BMP, PNG etc.

Here is to hoping it becomes vista compatible before I move on to a newest Operating system.

A New Inserter Coming Soon......

I love the fact that we live in a technologically advanced age that joins the continents together with a few clicks on a keyboard.

Today was site change day and for the second time in six months, a little bit of the tape got stuck to my quick setter. I carefully unstuck the tape and stuck it to my skin using IV prep over it to ensure it stays put. This got me thinking about a conversation I had with a follow pumper who lives in Switzerland, she raved about a new inserter that she is currently using telling me I would absolutely love it as much as she does.

I highlighted and copied the name, processed to search for the product on the makers’ North America’s site but there was no mention of this great, must have inserter. I drafted and sent an email to the makers’ inquiring if this product will ever be made available in North America and as to when?



I was glad to get a call from Jeff at Disetronic aka Accu-Chek telling me they will be made available in May of this year. I for one cannot wait to try this product and if it is as amazing as the Accu-Chek MultiClix

and or as great as Amanda says? I will be adding a new tool to my toolbox come may.

Investing in me

It had become harder and harder to tame the beast using multiple daily injections, I am also super sensitive to insulin that meant having to wait till I am super high to correct via injections or risk being a yo-yo. I do not like playing with yo-yos let alone subjecting myself to being one, this lead to erring on staying high to avoid being bouncer except weeks turned to months, months turned to a year I was waking up high feeling like I had just finished going a few rounds with Mike Tyson instead of the nine plus hours of rest I just woken from. Taking a correct dose with breakfast brought me down nicely till the evening hours when I got ready for my next boxing match - I mean sleep.

I started looking into an insulin pump; I knew my provincial and supplemental insurance would not cover a pump I had to pay for the pump out of pocket.
As I talked it over with my sister she quickly reminded me of the fact that I had happily paid for braces out of pocket adding, --

“With those high blood glucose you may be paying for some more dental work sooner or later if you want to keep that smile”…………

Hmm as I flossed that night her voice like a broken record played over and over in my head.
I had just worn braces for the second time in my adult life and was extremely happy with the results. I was planning my next steps in cosmetic dentistry and had already met with the doctor, a plan drawn, which involved removing some of my gums to expose a little more teeth although now straight they a little. I would have followed up with a whitening zoom treatment sadly all out of pocket after all that is what people see not high blood glucose!

My plans seemed so vain seeing that I was melting from the inside out - a melt that would eventually melt away, what people see, from high blood glucose. I did some research online got all the information packages and setup meeting with the reps. I told all the reps upfront that I was meeting with the other reps to compare and contrast some were very pusher and told me their pump is the best and to not waste my time meeting with the other companies some were pampers themselves and were nice, pleasant telling me the most important thing will be getting on a pump any smart pump.

I met the Animas rep at a Starbucks a block away from home, on my way for a run. He was one of the reps who were happy to be a pump resource regardless of which company’s product I choose. He also had three of the four pumps with him to show me, he went through all the screens on each and every pump pointing out the different names used for the same things on each pump. We swapped diagnoses stories and waited for my sister and running partner when she arrived, before I even introduced them to each other I asked my sister to pick the pump she preferred.

She picked the Animas pump over the other two, she preferred it looks she later told me. Reservoir size is not an issue I go six days before changing the reservoir, battery life is amazing plus pumpcy has been very good to me.

I may not have the Hollywood smile but an insulin pump has been by far the best better investment.