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Day 5 of Diabetes Blog Week: Wild Card

Okay, I know that today is supposed to be about exercise, love it, hate it, habits, tips, etc. Well, that's easy. I hate exercise. I need to get over myself and do it anyway. But there's not two ways around it. I hate it. I hate sweating and I live in Florida so I sweat sitting down! And when I sweat I get itchy (I know, weird, but I've always been that way). And I'm easily bored and have no TV to stare at while on the treadmill. So when it comes to exercise, I kvetch and complain and do my best to ignore it's existence, meanwhile feeling disturbingly guilty as that dusty treadmill stares at me from the other side of the room.

Well, that didn't take long, did it? Now onto more pleasant topics. Since I obviously don't have too much to say on this topic, I'm choosing to use the "wild card" option for today's post. This is an awesome option that Karen gave us for those days when the topics just weren't up our alley. She gave us two wild card options to choose from "Blood sugar Nirvana" and "Moronic Moment." Let's see if you can figure out which one I picked:

So back in January, I got started on the Animas Ping pump. I had been on a pump before but never one that used a specific meter. Considering all the meters I've been through in the last 19 years, I really liked my previous meter and was a little bummed to switch. My favorite things about the Freestyle Lite?

1. No coding.
2. Nifty backlit screen for testing in the dark (i.e. in the movies or middle of the night lows).
3. Even niftier light for the strip so you can see where to put the blood in the dark. (NONE of my old meters had parts that lit up!)
4. I also liked that it didn't have as many errors as my other meters.
   

But having the Ping, a meter that was also a bolus wizard and could be used as a remote for my pump, was pretty freakin' awesome too. So I went with it.

So for the last few months I've been testing in the dark. And a couple of weeks ago, Cara blogged about testing in the middle of the night. Funny enough, we both use the same trick of shining our pump light over the meter so we can actually see the darn thing! So here's the stupid part:

I've been annoyed since letting my Freestyle go that I can't easily test in the dark. I've even considered stashing my Freestyle in my nightstand drawer so that I could at least use it to test at night. Problem is, I use my meter as a logbook and those night-time lows are important to record. And with the Ping I can't make an entry based on a test from another meter. So I kept on using my Ping meter and grumbling under my breath.

Until the other week when, for some reason, I let my finger linger (I rhymed!) a little too long on the "OK" button. And the backlight flashed on! A bright shiny blue! My meter. Has. A. Backlight. Awe-some.

Wait? Now I'm officially retarded.

Did I see that little sunny-looking icon over the "OK" button? Sure. Did I press it hoping it would actually do something . . I dunno . . . light-y? Yep. However, apparently I don't have the magic touch. So I'm feeling pretty dumb that I've had this meter for nearly 6 months, kvetching the whole time that it doesn't have a backlight and testing in the dark . . . all the while with that little button just sitting right there. Mocking me.

DOH!

~Layne