Comments on: Virtually Pain-Free

By: Dayle

Dayle — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:43:47 +0000

I’m going to go out on a limb here (call me crazy) and say that at least it’s better than having to boil urine! Some of the folks I’ve talked with who have had type 1 for 60+ years really have amazing stories to tell.

It still sucks. It’s still a pain. It’s still not a cure. It could even be argued that it’s still “virtually” false advertisement… But I, for one, think it’s better than collecting and cooking up my pee. Anyone with me?

Apologies for being crass.

By: tmana

tmana — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:21:48 +0000

The “pain free”/”less painful” advert is aimed mainly at elderly T2s who test seldom, if at all (unless you’re on insulin, Medicare pays for so few tests it’s hardly worth it — even then, way too few IMO), and who have been around since the time of “fingertip only”. The premise is that with fewer nerve endings in the forearm and thinner-gauge lancets, there will be fewer nerves stimulated to a “pain” response.

For you old-time MDIers, consider the difference between 1950′s-era syringes and modern pens (heck, even modern needles).

As for me, sometimes I need the forearm just to get 0.1 microliters (Freestyle – smallest sample on the market) because my fingertips won’t always bleed. Perversely, some of the most painful lancet pricks I’ve had have been on the forearm.

By: Val

Val — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:08:28 +0000

Virtually pain free might be true if I used a fresh lancet every time like we’re supposed to, but who the f*ck wants to change lancets 10x a day? I change it when I move the clocks back or when it’s dull enough to make me swear in front of the kids while testing…

@tmana – LOL!

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:15:57 +0000

It’s an advertising ploy to sell test strips, but the irony is that all test strips are pain-free anyway, its the lancet/lancet device that inflicts any pain, and they’re all poorly designed and therefore inflict some pain. The Pelikan Sun supposedly worked differently, but the company announced in December that they would stop selling the device and lancet cartridge, so now that’s gone, too. But the bigger issue is that the ad agencies that come up with these taglines are clueless about what they’re doing, and the company has been sold a marketing plan that is unimpressive, but probably way to expensive anyway!

By: Bernard Farrell

Bernard Farrell — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:57:43 +0000

Personally, I think this is a crock. There are some lancets that make it less painful (Accu-Chek being one), but that’s NOTHING to do with the meter.

Unless they think that just needing an itsy-bitsy drop of blood means less pain. When I test, it’s really hard to just draw 0.3 mg of blood! The pain of drawing blood is the same whether it’s 0.3 mg or 1.0 mg for me.

By: tmana

tmana — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:54:24 +0000

You missed it. “Virtually pain-free” means free of “virtual pain”, which is like virtual numbers and virtual particles, which, as we all know, are imaginary. When they start getting real stuff mixed up with them, then they become complex.

So the real pain remains, the imaginary pain is wiped away because the package tells you to think it won’t hurt. So you imagine it won’t hurt and are surprised as (expletive deleted) when it does.

QED