G/l, mmol/l, mg/dl and all that
The glucose meter arrived from England on Monday. Firstly, I read the instructions from beginning to end. I managed to program the time and date but couldn’t get the coding chip in, so I went online and looked for help there. As the meter was from England I couldn’t use the freephone number. On Mondays our Chemist (pharmacy) doesn’t open till the afternoon, I waited and picked up the prescription for more strips and tried the new coding chip. No luck. It just so happened that I noticed a little yellow card in the box of strips and on it was the FRENCH freephone number. I called the number and explained my problem, the lady on the phone asked me to count the little bars inside where you put the chip; there were 5 instead if 6. That’s why it wouldn’t work. I gave her my name and address and she told me she would put a new meter in the post.

The new meter arrived Thursday morning and the coding chip went in no problem. Now I could take some blood, I couldn’t get a reading because I couldn’t get enough blood from my finger. After a few goes I adjusted the softclix (I love that name, anything to make you think it won’t hurt), to my thickness of skin (actually, it doesn’t hurt).

This morning I only needed two goes to get a reading: 117mg/dl. (or 6.5mmol/l or 1.17g/l)

The meter that came from England measured in mmol/l, the meter from France, mg/dl and the lab gives results in g/l and mmol/l; To convert mmol/l of glucose to mg/dl multiply by 18. To convert mg/dl of glucose to mmol/l divide by 18 or multiply by 0.055. Simple?