• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

My name is Ronancastled & I have a confession . . . I haven't tested my bloods in over 3 months

Ronancastled

Ronancastled

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,234
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I use the Accu-Chek mobile which I've always admire for it's accuracy, cassette ran out back in late May.
I had 5 tests left but if you don't use them within 3 months of initialising then it shuts off.

Main reason I stopped checking was the superior data I got from my free Freestyle Libre trial.
I probably had anxiety from one off 2 hour PPs that showed 6.5 on a finger prick, realising I'd only peaked at 7 after a high carb meal then was in the 5s before briefly rising again was missed by my finger pricks.

I realised that the finger prick is just a snapshot in time & the overall insulin response is far more dynamic animal than can be captured on a single check.

That saying, I've kept up my regime, I've ordered a new cassette but I'm in 2 minds when to use it now.
Might just stick to fasting readings with the occasional 2 hour PP after a high carb meal.

Anyone else give up finger sticking post CGM ?
It's like a withdrawal of sorts
 
That's not really a confession .
Once you can predict what you BG is without testing, then only test every few months to verify.
I don't have a CGM and have only done a finger prick test about 4 or 5 times in 2021 so far.
Once it was as I expected, the other times I was pleasantly surprised how low the reading was.
 
I still test regularly. It helps keep me motivated. It is also a very good indicator of when I am ill or stressed or haven't slept. All of these are factors I do need to keep an eye on as well.

Do I enjoy it- no but I will keep doing it for the foreseeable future. I'm hoping that one day apple will come up with a way for the watch to do it continuously but I suspect that day is still some years away.
 
I (T2) stopped testing a while back too: I get my bloods checked at the clinic every 2 or 3 months for another issue anyway, so I have just been going by that. There's not much food I haven't tested for by this point either.
Also, as Ronancastled points out, it's a snapshot. I've had food like tomato pasta, and been happy with a fair reading 2 hours later, but who knows what it went up to later. There are also issues like exercise raising my blood sugars, then I don't want to exercise, or alcohol with a meal lowering my sugars, so I let alcohol give me a low reading: I now understand these things to be foolish short term views, but as an early T2, my focus on that 2 hour reading let them influence me. Something like the freestyle libre that measures all day seems to be the real option, but obviously, that's not available or affordable for many of us.

I think finger testing is generally a good idea for T2's , and it's going to be essential for most new diabetics. For me though, I'm just going by frequent hba1c's and my waistline.
 
I haven’t finger prick tested in years since starting Libre, I recently decided I need to after a big difference in my hba1c and libre predicted Hba1c, but can’t find my testing kit so continue to not *shrug*
 
I think anyone using blood glucose readings for insulin dosing MUST check with finger pricks at least once per sensor as they can be out. I finger prick at least once per day
- when my levels are flat (first thing in the morning) because I have found sensor accuracy can drift.
- when the sensor records higher than 10 or lower than 4 as it is always inaccurate outside "normal" range so I need a reliable reading when correcting.

Outside of this, o am happy to use Libre for dosing

If you are using Libre for trend analysis, I completely not finger pricking but please please please do not blindly depend upon it for insulin dosing. It's inaccuracies can be very dangerous.
 
In Response said:
If you are using Libre for trend analysis, I completely not finger pricking but please please please do not blindly depend upon it for insulin dosing
Click to expand...

Hi there, the problem is that the Diabetes nurses/GPs/Consultants tell you to do pretty much exactly that, when they prescribe it they tell you it is to be used instead of the finger pricks for dosing insulin and severely restrict the finger test strips given to you accordingly. Obviously if as you say you get a libre reading that appears 'off' you are to test it with a finger prick but the expectation is that you won't use any more than a box per month (50 strips, so one, maybe 2 a day!). That's not enough really because apart from using libre/finger pricks for insulin, there is the driving/exercise/feeling hypo/testing after hypos, all of which require accurate readings or close enough that you can rely on them.
 
A week after I was told my HbA1c had jumped to 108 mmol/mol ..I was consequently put on Dapagliflozin ..I redeemed my points on a super-duper glucometer ..because I wanted to ✻engage✻ with the disorder ..all the readings were in the random teens ..it took another intensification of therapy to get my HbA1c to go farther south ..it was at this point that I took the batteries out of my super-duper glucometer ..I’d merely been filling in time taking meaningless measurements ..as I awaited the all-important HbA1c ..which of course 'governs' the Type 2 diabetes treatment algorithm.
 
@KK123 my experience it different to yours. My strip prescription has not changed. I was just told to use it less often because the justification is the overall cost reduction.
It is a shame you are not trusted to use your intelligence with testing like I am.
 
I believe it is about accountability once control is nailed. I kept finding I was also running out of time on my Accuchek, so wasting money.

Eating to the meter is a great way of finding the individualised safe foods list. Once this is discovered, rotated, body mass is stable and any exercise routine (if selected) is maintained, I think it is safe to give oneself permission to cut back on testing.

If I were liberalising carb intake, testing would resume.
 
Am out of testing strips at the moment, but will be buying some as soon as am paid this month. For me if I don't test reasonably regularly I find it too easy to slide into bad habits. Although my last scare did teach me something and I probably wouldn't be anywhere near as bad, for me the finger prick testing is a tool, keeps me in check and with an idea of where my Diabetes is at. It's likely just me though, needing reassurance, dealing with my anxiety etc. Managing several conditions at once is hard work in itself. lol.
 
HBA1c is another snap shot of numbers though so I continue to test daily with new foods just in case of spikes.

HBA1c isn’t the holy grail as a lot of us don’t get tested every 2-3 months it’s yearly.

im in the group that does get tested every 3 months only because of a medication I’m on other than that I’d be yearly and left to get on with it.

I like to see the differences from my meter averages and my HBA1c tests and so no anomalies or I’d be asking questions on why and they don’t fob me off now as I keep asking. I think they actually hate me as I’m a nosy sod and like answers even if it’s I don’t know. I usually counter this will can find out for me.
 
Mbaker said:
Eating to the meter is a great way of finding the individualised safe foods list. Once this is discovered, rotated, body mass is stable and any exercise routine (if selected) is maintained, I think it is safe to give oneself permission to cut back on testing.
Click to expand...
That's what I've done. I test up to once a day as a good routine to make sure I don't go too far off, and then I treat myself to a libre 3 or 4 times a year to try new foods, or retry old ones and just see what my body is doing. Works well if combine it with a holiday or celebration.
 
Back
Top