Crazy hours waking

[Kathyh]

Miss Maisey, used to be fine at waiting until I got up or 6am. Last two mornings she has been up and ready to go/play at 3am. Needless to say mommy isn't. Is there some way I could set up the monitor so that when she tries waking me I could easily access and then prick and test? ps I live in a raised basement - means front half is walkout, but back is 1/2 under ground - read cool and high humidity.

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

I'm not sure what you mean, Kathy. Most monitors will only allow the strip to be in for seconds/minutes before it times out. If you mean you want to have the strip in and all ready to go and leave it till 3am, I don't know any meters that will let you do that. Maybe someone else does.

If she is waking you to eat, have you tried an automatic feeder? You can set it to go off at 3 am. We love our PetSafe 5.

Another idea, is there any chance she is going low on 3 am and wants to eat to bring herself up? It might be a good idea to get a test then and see.

 

[Kathyh]

monitor set up

I have the Wal-Mart RelliOn Micro . I was wondering if I just place the strip at the entrance and put the monitor w/strip in a ziplock bag. So all I'd have to do is push it in and then use the lancet pen to do sample. 3am is not my best time of day, but think she may need to be checked to see if too low or high.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

The vials that the test strips come in contain a desiccant to keep the strips dry. The instructions say you should minimize the amount of time that the strips are removed from the vial before they are used. I would be leery of getting inaccurate BG values if you preloaded a strip in you meter in your humid basement.

 

[Gina & Yittle (GA)]

I had to test Yittle so many times when I was sleep deprived it wasn't funny. He ate up to 12x a day in the beginning and I was the one who had to do the curves often during the hours I slept. I can tell you that after a couple of months I could get up from a dead sleep, go to the next room and prep the lancet pen, get the strip, prick his ear, tale the sample, record the results and then secure the lancet and throw it and the used strip away in under 90 seconds. Took me another 2 minutes to feed him (5 if I had to inject him) and I was back in bed and asleep in minutes.

There were times I realized later that I'd apparently tested him and fed him without remembering it (bg and food logs had entries but I had no memory of it).

Trust me - you'll learn how to do it in your sleep :mrgreen:

 

[Donna & Buddha]

Do you have an old empty vial? Maybe before you go to bed you could put just one strip into the vial. Put the vial and meter and lancet next to your alarm. The alarm goes off, you punch the button, open the vial, slide the one strip out and put it into the meter.

(I've started using a Contour TS. The TS vials are skinnier than the regular Contour containers. When I open a new one, I often split the contents into two vials. Makes getting just one out so much easier, even when fuller alert.)

Or, another idea, maybe you could do a test, with the pre-almost inserted strip, meter and plastic bag. If you have one of those little packets of silica, maybe that could be tossed in. Leave it out for a couple of hours. Test using it. Then immediately retest with a normally stored strip. See if there is any significant different.