A Love/Hate Relationship With My Tester

As a Diabetic, one of the things that I always have with me is my Blood Glucometer, a FreeStyle Flash.

Of course, I don't go around calling it my "Blood Glucometer," as I'm sure you don't either. It's had many names over the years and keeps on evolving - from Glucometer to Blood Tester to Tester to Testie to Testicle. The last one is a joke I have with my husband because it lives in a little pouch that goes everywhere with me. But mostly, it's my Testie.

I've had a few glucometers over the years, but this FreeStyle Flash has been my favorite by far. It's small, the poker is small, it has a light on the end so I can test at night, and, I'll admit, my husband bought it for me because there was a butterfly on the box. If you knew me, you'd understand.

While it's certainly the best one I've ever had, I do have a love/hate relationship with it. I mean, it's this thing that has to go everywhere with me and I have to make myself bleed with it multiple times a day. Who wouldn't hate that?

My solution to this "hate" problem was to try to turn it into something fun. Hence the nicknaming. Something else that helped was to accessorize it. Yes, I said accessorize it! I'm a girl who loves fashion. So, why am I carrying this thing around in a not-cute, nylon, black case that's unnecessarily big?

Enter Chinatown, San Francisco. While shopping through silk-embroidered handbags in a little shop there two years ago, I came across a pretty little red zippered pouch. Fashion crisis averted! For $1, this pouch was the solution. Albeit, my equipment barely fit inside, but I made it work. And getting a red one was great for two reasons, blood won't show up if you get some on it, and it's easy to spot from across the room when you're in a rush.

I went back to Chinatown after a year and upgraded to a slightly larger beautiful red pouch for $5 that's actually made my negative feelings toward my glucometer go away! Who would have thought that's all it would take!

If my Testie and I have to go everywhere together, at least we'll look cute doing it!