Faulty test strips.. A Cautionary Tale.. You could lose your Drivers License ??

[raffajaffa]

Well Hows that you may ask ?
Basically I received a batch of 50 test strips and as usual kept them in their box.
Sometimes at night JUST before my insulin doses I check my status as I am mostly high in the 9-10
range.
However after a few error readings I realized the test strips were cut incorrectly and no blood was being drawn
into the test yellow part.
After a few annoying fails I decided to empty the box out and sort the visual faulty ones from the rest.
Easy ? no problem ???? except I located these on the work surface next to my bed,
After several weirdly high readings (and subsequent double checks) I was forced to increase my Levimir/novorapid intake
By a small amount.
The following evening I repeated the increase and felt unusual.
I was so concerned I did not let my self sleep
mainly due to the symptems of a hypo.YOUR WORSTE NIGHTMARE???
This was really weird for me as I was normally quite high and have been for years.

Too high and I obviously get mega tired quickly.
I booked myself in for a Doctors visit and HBA1c test which surprisingly was the same as previous.About 9.
This did not square well with the mega high readings for a month.
It turns out that locating the strips on the table had contaminated them and I was getting false high readings and adjusted
the insulin levels accordingly.Result ....One hypo event.
Yep the net result is the Doctor seems to have reported that I can not tell when I am going hypo or has reported 2 hypos in a year ?
No she did not tell me in advance but neither did I tell her of the findings by a very efficient medical supplier.
Since then ,I have received new meters and test strips and advice to triple check a bad result.
Apparently this faulty test strip senario is very rare but making the mistake of contaminating the strips
on a waxed or dusty table is not...
I NOW HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE APPEALS PROCEDURE TO TRY TO GET MY LICENSE BACK.

 

[Ali H]

You can have lots of hypos in a year, what the DVLA ask is are you hypo aware and have you had 2 or more hypos in the last 12 months requiring assistance from another party. ie, were you unable to rectify it yourself, it doesn't count if somebody fetched you food or drink if you were able to do it yourself but they offered anyway. They are interested only in if you know you are going hypo and are able to deal with it yourself.

Ali

 

[raffajaffa]

Thank you Ali H and yes I completed the original form stating that I was aware and I did not need any assistance. In fast In my opinion I became aware that I was heading towards the hypo condition very quickly as probably most senior or long term diabetics would.
Again it was so unusual. It is a mute point that the condition I was in could be called hypo as it warranted anything other that a banana in one case and 4 wine gums in the other .The point being it was caused by faulty readings and people should realize that taking these readings is the be all and end all of the subject can be far from correct.

The problem seems to be that the Doctor is of the opinion that I do not know ?? despite the fact that I have discussed my condition and many many other highly complicated issues relating to how and why my personal control is not as good as It should be with her . These discussions with her and many other Diabetic specialist in the Diabetic industry over many years and She is the only person that seems to think I have a problem... She has no answer to why I had the recent problem .Also she is not aware of the effort I put in to resolve the cause . So it may well be my personal response to her so called treatment is a source of the problem.

Either way I posted my experience for the benefit of anyone who could like me accidently get dragged into a situation not of their own making (or is it?)

I should add its not so much whether the DVLA ask you are you hypo aware ? as they seem to take on board the medical opinion of someone who may only have seen you for 15 minutes several months ago,