It is a long grey strip of plastic with a block of glued-on glucose at one tip. The diabetic places the calibration stick in the hole designated for the glucostic in the machine, then holds the start button down. As he does this, he watches the built-in timer count down until the seconds disappear from the display screen. A second after the numbers vanish, another numeral between seventy and eight-four should appear in the display window. If not, the calibration stage should be repeated until an acceptable digit does show, and then the sterilization segment can take …show more content…
As soon as there is a large enough blood drop to cover the appropriate end of the glucostic, the diabetic picks up the strip and places the blood on the end of the stick with the yellow padding, pushing the start button to activate the timer. Beginning at sixty and counting down, the machine is internally preparing to give a reading. As soon as the machine reaches twenty-three seconds, a beeping noise will sound with each countdown until twenty seconds is reached. This "bleep" informs the diabetic that he has twenty seconds left to blot the glucostic twice on the tissue, put it in the necessary hole, and receive a reading. After the blotting is completed,. the strip placed in the hole, and zero seconds remain, the display will show absolutely nothing for one second, and then the results of the blood sugar test will emerge in the display