What?  I'm a leftie, and I fly the American flag off my front porch!  
It's my flag, too.  (So there!)

Priscilla

Only to right wing conservatives who are now doing everything in their
power to castrate our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  ;-)

With Bush in the White House being called a left wing liberal is a
compliment.

--

Grandpa Chuck
-ô¿ô-
 ~

Keep George Washington's warning constantly in mind:
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence —
I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens — the
jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake;
since history and experience prove that foreign influence
is one of the most baneful foes of republican government."

I was wondering when someone would mention that.

Well, that sort of makes sense... You Antipodeans do everything upside
down or backwards, so why should your political definitions  be any
different?  :-)

I can go from 6-ish to 12-ish within 10 minutes or so, with no warning other
than a feeling of mild hunger.

Nicky.

I don't know that I'd call them dumps of any kind.  They may just be
variations in your meter.  

Priscilla

Well, I'm a seasoned and experienced old hand at this whole diabetes
thing.. I was diagnosed almost five weeks ago... <G>

Sorry to hear it happens at all. I know from my own false hypos that
they are no fun at all.

Chuck, I dont understand why you had to take out the quote if it is in
your sig line under your name.   Is it part of your post, or is it under
your name.

L

--
In tribute to the United States of America and the State
of Israel, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife and
terrorism.

[The attribions may be wrong]

IMHO playing guitar is more damaging to the fingers in the long term
than testing would ever be. All the experienced guitar players I know
have thick callouses and almost no sensation in their fingertips.

I try to test using all fingers equally. The way I remember which finger
is next is to use the right thumb first and move one finger along with
each test. So the eigth test of the day is on the middle finger of my
left hand. On odd numbered days I start from the other end and use the
other side of the finger pad.

I found this in the Royal Unit of GPs clinical guidelines for type 2
diabetes that i am reading through:

<quote>
The review by Coster et al also considered the role of self-monitoring
in people with Type 1 diabetes, and thus people using insulin.
Extrapolation of these findings may be useful in people with Type 2
diabetes requiring insulin therapy. Eight trials were also included in
this review looking at self-monitoring in people with Type 1 diabetes.
Four studies included children (age <18 yr), six studies included people
using twice daily insulin injections, one study included people using a
mixture of twice and one daily dosing. In concluding, for people with
Type 1 diabetes, Coster et al argued that the reviewed studies did not
provide evidence to support the clinical effectiveness of
self-monitoring in Type 1 diabetes. However, because the studies were
generally neither well conducted, nor well reported, and because they
had low statistical power, the review must be considered to give
inconclusive results. A recent study looked at the relationship between
self monitoring of blood glucose and glycaemic control. Karter et al
(2001) looked at the relationship between patients with diabetes, their
practise of self-monitoring (determined by redemption of test strip
prescriptions although redemption does not of course mean use and this
is not discussed anywhere in the paper) and level of glycaemic control.
The study was based on 24 312 responders to a survey (from 48 614 adults
on their Register for a continuous 2 year period from January 1996 to
December 1997). They found that patients who were categorised as more
adherent to ADA recommendations regarding selfmonitoring were more
likely to have better glycaemic control, at the level of statistical
significance. It included a so called control group but no primary data
is given for this group in the paper, rather a statement that by use of
models comparing this group with the analysis group it appears that
selection bias was not an issue. This study was described as a cohort
study, although it more closely resembled a cross sectional study, and
thus the major limitation is that no conclusions regarding causality can
be made. Franciosi et al (2001) had data available on nearly 3000
patients with Type 2 diabetes, the conclusions of this study were that;
self monitoring of blood glucose can have an important role in improving
metabolic control if it is an integral part of a wider educational
strategy devoted to the promotion of patient autonomy. In patients not
treated with insulin, self monitoring is associated with higher HbA1c
levels and psychological burden. They argued therefore that their data
did not support the extension of SMBG to this group. Overall, we would
argue that we can not give much credence to associations between blood
glucose control and blood glucose self-monitoring in observational
studies, as indeed it might be expected that patients and doctors who
use and advocate self-monitoring will be the same people who are
motivated to achieve better control.

Working group commentary Whilst self-monitoring per se cannot be
considered an intervention with impact on outcomes such as HbA1c,
decreased body weight, reduced incidence of hypoglycaemia or improved
health-related quality of life, it may prove useful to people in their
overall approach to self-care. For example self-monitoring could be
useful in allowing patients to see the impact of particular behaviours,
such as dietary habits, on their blood glucose levels. This may help
both in the process of identification of behaviours that prevent optimal
control being achieved (and also those behaviours that improve control)
and may also act as important triggers in behaviour change. This may be
of particular importance in for example individuals who were considered
to be moving in the direction of stepping up therapies, for example
moving on to insulin therapy. The information gained through
self-monitoring may be useful in reconsidering lifestyle behaviours and
allowing a further attempt at behaviour modification.
</quote>

The last paragraph especially has some suggestions that you could put to
your doc. As you (and the rest of us) fall into the small group who are
motivated to achieve better control.

Sorry for the long quote.

Bastian.

I see. I test a lot more, but I rotate among more fingers, too.  So far
no callouses.

Have you considered a Relion meter (if you're not already using one) or
buying strips on ebay?  Relion strips are relatively cheap, and bargain
prices on strips on ebay can be found pretty regularly.

Susan