Is It the Machine? Or Me?

So, in honor of National Diabetes Month, Walgreen's is doing a free A1C in their take care clinics or 24 hour locations.  Hey, you can't beat free.  And who doesn't obsess about their A1C constantly?  (What? You don't?  Good for you.) (Liar.)

So I went in.  He pulled out his little Bayer A1C now box, and ran the test.  Error Code.  Hmmm...look in the directions.  That particular error code means there is not enough hemoglobin to run the test.  Or, that he didn't shake it enough.  Let's do it again.

Prick the finger.  Shake the blood.  Lalalalala.  Wait 5 minutes.  Same error code.

"What's your hemoglobin?"

Um.  Well, I know a lot medically about myself.  Ask me my cholesterol.  Ask me my average blood pressure.  Ask my last a1c, or what my blood sugar was at any given time.  These are things I can answer.  But my current hemoglobin?  Can't pull that off the top of my head, sorry.

So I left without my free A1C.  Not the end of the world.  The guy at Walgreen's calls me a few hours later.  He ran a control on the machine and that worked.  He thinks I should have my hemoglobin checked, said "well, your blood did look a little puny there." OK, then. Huh.

So now I am obsessively googling  low hemoglobin, which the symptoms for are very vague.  Pale skin...well, I'm kind of a vampire anyway....difficulty concentrating....um..not sure?  I pulled out the results of my last CBC.  Last hemoglobin was 13.  So now I can answer that too.

My next appt is in a month.  So I think I can wait.  And a large part of me still thinks it was the machine.  But who knows.  It's not like my body is the best it can be.

It was nice of him to call and tell me he ran the control, though.  Super nice.

No More Texts, JDRF! You're too on the nose!

So, the JDRF is doing this "Be Type 1 For a Day" thing, where they will text you for 24 hours with updates simulating the disease.

I told my friends on Facebook about it.  I also signed up for it, just in case any of them did it, and asked, "was it anything like reality?" I did not want to answer "Uhh....I dunno."

I asked my sister if she signed up.  "Why would I want to do that? That would SUCK.  I have no delusions about how much your disease sucks, and I don't want to live it. "  Ok, then.

It did suck.  And what really sucked about it? It was incredibly accurate.  It told me I was high for no discernible reason.  It wondered if I would shoot up for an apple.  And it woke me up all night with inexplicable lows.  Of course, the fictional run I took right before dinner probably contributed to the fictional lows.

I don't want to do it again.  I already live with this reality.  I don't need texts pretending that I do.

But they nailed it.  It's like they've met a few people with Type 1, or something.

HOW is it that it's been 25 years?

No, not since diagnosis.  Since The Princess Bride was in theaters.  Man, I love that movie. And the book.  And this picture. (Click to embiggen).