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Have you been told not to test your blood sugars?



I have type 2 and both my doctor and diabetes nurse have told me I don't need to test blood sugars while i take metformin, although both my parents test their's daily and are on the same meds as me. I drive and I am aware of having low blood sugars when driving is illegal so what am I supposed to do ? I suppose I will have to go and buy my own machine and buy my own strips. Is there anyone with any answers ?
 

The answer is, ignore your doctor and nurse. Buy your own. The majority of us not on insulin or the Gliclazide-type drugs have to do this. Otherwise you have no idea if your food choices are helping or hindering your progress.
 
I like your hobby! Beats crochet!
 
Angelofthemarches said:
I like your hobby! Beats crochet!
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Yes indeed! I'm a bit cack handed when it comes to achieving recognisable results poking crochet hooks or knitting needles through lengths of thread but I'm a real skilled needlewoman and a dab hand at poking my Fastclix through the skin on my fingers - I get great results all the time...

Robbity
(ETA That was a pretty ancient post of mine!)
 
I know but I just found it funny!
 
Angelofthemarches said:
I know but I just found it funny!
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Yes me too - it was one of the most laughable diabetes related comments that I've heard ( and was said in all seriousness) and I've had a fair few ridiculous gems mainly from my so called better half. Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I can at least recount them with a (hopefully!) straight face...

Fortunately he's no longer my diabetic support, my own GP has that dubious honour now and he is actually supportive of both my testing and eating low carb - and originally suggested I tried Atkins after I was first diagnosed and told I should lose weight. But he's also answerable to the practice manager regarding supply or not of test strips, so as the saying goes: He would if he could, but he can't...

I've also experienced similar ( but not diabetes related) financial restrictions in play at the eye hospital when my consultant wanted to give me a (repeat) prescription for my eye drops because I'd nearly run out. She wasn't allowed to have a prescription pad of her own, she had to ask permission to use one, and the answer was no - all repeats had to be issued by my own GP.

Robbity
 
I am shaking my head in disbelief with a "what the #$%&" exclamation, that's pretty pathetic.
 
70 year old type 2 diagnosed since 2005. Have now been told by diabetic nurse that testing is no longer necessary. 30 day avge is 8.2 and to continue testing I will have to pay for my strips. Can this be correct?
 
timistoon said:
70 year old type 2 diagnosed since 2005. Have now been told by diabetic nurse that testing is no longer necessary. 30 day avge is 8.2 and to continue testing I will have to pay for my strips. Can this be correct?
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Sadly, it is a financial decision. They can't afford to provide meters and strips unless you are on insulin or drugs that stimulate insulin production. The vast majority of us T2s have to buy our own.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Sadly, it is a financial decision. They can't afford to provide meters and strips unless you are on insulin or drugs that stimulate insulin production. The vast majority of us T2s have to buy our own.
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O. K. That I understand, but is correct to say that my Hba1c 6 monthly checks eliminate the need for self testing ?
 
Id say no - with a 30 day average of over 8, Id want an idea of how high the hghs aare and how low the lows are to arrive at that average. Id at want to do a couple of weeks of quite intensive testing at tthe very least to get the pattern and see wwhaat foods might be driving it.
 
@timistoon have you been testing before and after eating? Do you watch what you eat? Have you reduced carbohydrates? Personally, I would prefer a lower monthly average.
 
timistoon said:
O. K. That I understand, but is correct to say that my Hba1c 6 monthly checks eliminate the need for self testing ?
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Why wait 6 months? If you are getting it wrong with your diet it is a long time to find out, and further deterioration will result in more meds and more likliehood of complications. Self testing before mand after meals tells you instantly if that food is suitable for you. It gives you chance to reduce the portion sizes of the carbs or eliminate some of them, and by doing this and learning from what your meter is telling you, you have far more chance of improvement and less meds.

How did you arrive at your 30 day average? When were you testing? 8.2 over 30 days is high and could mean you are spending a lot of time in double figures.
 
Mainly testing early morning and the averages are shown on my contour meter.
 
similar story here.

I Decided i may not get a choice in having the beast, but i DO get a choice of being in charge and looking after the Body its invaded, however i think best.

So went the Code free route.

and as for authorities knowing best..didn't those same types tell service men, that just turning away from the blasts on christmas island nuclear test blasts., would offer sufficient protection....
 
timistoon said:
Mainly testing early morning and the averages are shown on my contour meter.
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So your averages are simply of the snapshot early morning fasting levels? This does not show how you are post meal, which is when we normally see our peaks. Testing before and after meals tells us so much more, and shows us if we are going haywire with our food choices. It enables us to tweak our diets so we eliminate any nasty rises and keep our blood sugars as near normal as we can. Doing this is the healthy way. You may find that after a while your morning fasting levels will come down as your insulin resistance improves.
 
I'm sorry to hear that. But i don't understand why would they do that and advised that T2 doesn't need to check. I guess, because it's not as dangerous as having T1 that they need monitoring not to let sugar go down to hypoglycemia state.

But how about the fact that if T2 don't monitor and blood sugar goes up and stay up and damages your kidney after sometime, will it be more worth to them if people needs to go thru dialysis because they are told no need to monitor and just hope everything will be alright? That's not right...not to mention numbness of fingers, blurred vision, moodiness, tiredness and UTI's/yeast Infection, amputation..so on and so forth.

Anyway, i guess the main thing here is, they don't want to increase their expenditure and expect you to take care of it yourselves. Here in asia, i never experience getting free strips. I buy my own and I'll continue to monitor my sugar cuz that's the only way I can control my T2.

I'm doing my best to eat healthy, but since i have this already, i have to be more responsible and extra careful of my life style. I don't want to end up doing dialysis later on in life so I won't listen to anyone telling me it's not necessary to check. I won't risk my life further by not keeping in control of my sugar.

This is just my opinion but i hope I'm making some sense here.
 
Dear Meliza,
I can't speak for the rest of the world (I note you refer to Asia) but here in the UK we pay a National Insurance to our Goverment which acts much like a form of insurance policy, covering us for seveal things including FREE health care.
Like many other countries and ecconomic situations, austerity and cut-backs have been necessciary to ensure that things are kept withing a tight financial control, including our National Health Service (NHS) which has cut-bact many of the former things that it once readily provided.
Blood glucose testing strips were a target for these cut-backs, and type 2 diabetic's on diet and most other diabetic medications were the first choice for cuts, Type 1's being exempted at least for now. The fact that many medications given to a Type 2 can also bring on a Hypoglycaemic result (Hypo) seems to be generally overlooked, and it is often a random decision as to whether the test strips will be issued to the patient often depending on where they live within the UK and the Local Health Trust policy.
Yes we can indeed buy them, but many of us are on a limited income, and the test strips, though costing pennies to produce are sold on by the meter manufacturer at a 'considerable mark up;'
The test strips are in general not interchangable between the numerous B/G meters, and in my particular case a box of 25 strips costs approximately £25.00 leaving little alternative other than to throw my fully working B/G meter in the dustbin and purchase an alternative model where the test strips are a more realistic and sencible price.
Our NHS tells us diabetics to take care of ourselves and do things to control our diabetes, but they are failing to make it easy for us to comply with their advice and recomendations over B/G monitoring.
Most Type 2's are advised these days 'Not To Test' claiming that it is 'no longer necessciary' and that the HbA1c test that we diabetics periodically get 'Once' or sometimes 'Twice' a year (if we're lucky) should be all that is needed or so we are frequently told..
Perhaps the powers that be within the NHS should look further as since these cut-backs were introduced, the number of weekly amputations, kidney failures, circulation problems, heart and eye problems and numerous other diabetic secondary complications are increasing as time passes.
Issuing FREE test strips in the UK won't solve all these problems, but it's most definately cost effective in the long term to do so.
 
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