Diabetes Technology Struggles - Part 1

I finally have time to download data from my Animas 1250 and my bg meter (One Touch Ultra Smart). I figure this should not be too difficult - after all, I am pretty technology friendly, I help my friends set-up their computers, add hardware, etc. But for the life of me, I can not get one single reading to download from either device!

Of course I am doing all of this on a Saturday night so neither company has the "support" people available! If anyone else has had issues trying to download their data, please offer comments, or once I do figure all of this out, I can post what I have learned.

Let's start with my bg meter. When I purchased my pump for Animas they had a deal where I got the newest bg meter from One Touch - the Ultra Smart. I had been using the Ultra for many years, loved it and was very excited about the additional capabilities this new meter would offer me. As soon as it arrived, I started using it. I still had a month before I was going to get my pump, so I figured I would have lots of data to share as we started this new pump adventure. The night before my first pump appointment I load the software from One Touch (Yes, I know, I always tend to try to do this stuff at night – there might be a pattern here!) and I can NOT get the computer to recognize the meter. I am using an old serial cable that I had used successfully with my older meter. After several failed attempts, I call the 800 number to find out that I need to call them in the morning. So I do just that, I set my alarm for early the next morning, call and walk through all the steps I tried the night before and we still can’t get it to work. So they decide it is the serial connection and agree to send me a USB cable. Of course none of this happens in time for my appointment so I just manually pull the numbers form the meter.