Earlier this week, my Freestyle Mini meter started behaving strangely. I often keep it on my coffee table out on the patio as that's where I tend to use it the most, but I'd noticed that if the temperature got below 18c (64.5f), the battery indicator would start to show. According to the manual, once you start seeing the battery indicator on every screen, you had enough battery life for approximately 25 more tests. It didn't show on every screen though. It only showed when the outside temperature was at a certain range. It did give me a clue that it'd need new batteries soon though. One thing the manual didn't tell me was that if the batteries are slightly low, when you plug it into your computer, it apparently doesn't have enough juice for the meter to be read. I discovered this on Wednesday, so had Rod pick me up a new set of batteries while he was out the next day. The Freestyle Mini uses a fairly standard lithium battery - a CR-2032.

Last week, Rod took down these two little flashing LED lights that we'd had in the lattice of our patio for the last couple of years - at least. The LEDs had come from a couple of boxes of vitamins I'd bought online. These LEDs were attached to the box so that presumably a shop keeper could lift a tab allowing contact with the batteries and causing this tiny little light on the box to flash and draw customers attention. The LEDs had lasted for a couple of years, flashing continuously until recently. Rod's always been the type to pull things apart and since the lights no longer worked, he dissected the little boards and discovered not one, but FOUR CR-2032 batteries (about $14 dollars worth) in EACH of the two LEDs. Dang, I wish he'd taken those little lights apart while the batteries were still alive. They'd be much more useful in my meter or as emergency backups than in a little tiny flashing light. Sheesh.

Today started out as most days do. I got up, tested my glucose level, grabbed a coffee, fed the cat and sat down to read the Tweets that came through Twitter overnight. When finished, I made myself breakfast, which is where I got adventurous and without giving it much thought, tried something new. I had one lone chicken tender in the freezer and figured it was high time it was cooked. I had this and a bowl of cottage cheese to start the day and was quite pleased with it. I got ready for my walk and sailed out the door. I had a great walk. Yesterday, I'd walked a little further past the shopping centre before turning around and walking through the crescent shaped centre to pick up my usual scratchy ticket. I walked at a good pace and had been feeling really good about adding another thousand steps to my routine. Until I started feeling funny. I just felt like someone had sloshed my brain around a bit - not really very clear thinking. I had a swig of my water I brought with me, and it felt like it was sitting on the top of my stomach sloshing around. That's not right. By time I reached Southgate, I pretty much knew my blood sugar was low, but had no idea how low. I've learned not to trust this feeling too, as sometimes my body lies to me so I do something about feeling low and then I find out the body is just reacting to a large change rather than an actual bona fide low. It's like it's trying to be sneaky about talking me into having something sweet when I don't actually need it. My body is not to be trusted! Oh, well, today I knew it was definitely low, but something else happens when you get low -- you stop thinking like a reasonable human being and instinct sometimes really doesn't help. Like what happened next...

I found a shady park bench just outside of Target and sat down to take my glucose reading. About a year ago, I received a free glucose monitor (the MWD Pen Sensor) that's fairly small, and while it has a few drawbacks - it requires a larger blood sample, and takes longer to give a result - it's perfect for my purse since it doesn't take up a lot of space. I pulled it out, put the strip in the meter, took my blood and put it on the strip as quickly as possibly (this meter also times out fairly quickly). I looked at the screen and it blank. As in OFF. What the heck? So I went through the steps again, noting this time when I put the strip in, the meter came on, and watched the read out as I again added my blood to the strip. I was just able to see a battery symbol flash, and then it turned off. I turned it on again, and no battery symbol. Yet it wouldn't actually perform a reading because the batteries were low. Bad design. Crud.

If I'd been thinking clearly, I should have just pulled out the granola bar I keep in my purse for such moments and not worried about the batteries or the meter. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking clearly. Instead, I headed off to the grocery store which is in the middle of the crescent shaped shopping centre (I was on the right side of the crescent at the time) in search of replacement batteries. When I got there, I pulled the meter out, took off the battery cover and came face to face with two lithium batteries that weren't the same size as the other meters I own. I checked the shelves and didn't find any in the size I needed. As the chemists carries glucose meters and other medical devices I went there next, but they didn't have anything either. So I backtracked and stopped into Tandy's. They'd have them for sure I thought, but no go. Tandy's suggested to try the key maker (next to the grocery store) and if they didn't have the batteries my next place to try should be the Jewellers. So I backtracked some more, but the guys at the Key maker shop couldn't help me, and so it was down to the Jewellers - which is quite near where I'd started out my meter misadventure. I'd never stepped foot in the jewellery store so I was surprised at how large the store was, and how busy it was. Weren't we in a recession? I stood at a glass counter and waited my turn, with my meter out on the counter showing the batteries I needed. The woman who helped me puzzled over the battery number (CR-1632) as she'd never heard of that size before. Fortunately someone in the shop who stocks batteries had a reason to stock them, as she was able to find a couple. They were $7 each, which is not cheap, but it's also not as dear as I was anticipating. I paid for them, and then had my next issue. To remove the batteries from the meter, you need to use something very thin to fit into a tiny slot in order to lift each battery. Fortunately I was in the right place as the lady serving me was able to grab a tiny jewellers screw driver to use and lifted them out for me. So even if I HAD had replacement batteries with me, I still would have needed help (or at least a bent paper clip) to change the batteries.

The meter was free because it was part of a large scale test of a new type of meter. I'm not sure how the business is going that makes these, but I will be letting them know that there are several key areas where this meter really disappoints and is user unfriendly.

So my reading? Was I low? For me, yes. for others, maybe not. My reading was 4.2 (about 75 mg/dl). Had I tried to walk the rest of the way home with this reading, it would have put me much much lower which would be unsafe. Still forgetting all about the fact I keep stuff in my purse for this type of event, I went back to Coles (the grocery store) and bought a
Freddo Frog and a 250g Egg Nog. I had half the Freddo and the whole container of Egg Nog and felt much better. It brought my reading up to 6.7 (120mg/dl), which was much better. Unfortunately, I ended up with the 'post-low' headache though and still felt a bit shaky, so I had Rod come and get me. With all the walking back and forth at the shopping centre, I'd managed to reach my step goal so I at least achieved my goal for the day, but wow, not the best way to get there.

So, I guess this is a little reminder to myself and my Diabetic friends ....
Do you know what type of battery your meter requires?
Do you know what to expect if the batteries are getting low on your meter?
Do you keep spare batteries handy - especially for meters that you rely on when you're not at home?
If your meter requires you to use a tool to remove the old batteries, do you have something you can use for this purpose with the meter?

Please don't get caught out like I did today!