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Have you had trouble getting test strips?

Have you ever had trouble getting test strips?

  • Yes

    Votes: 96 56.1%

  • No

    Votes: 75 43.9%
  • Total voters
    171
i am a mother of a type 1, at 1st they only gave us 1 box every prescription, but that ment i had to put in a repeat every other day as she was only 12 at the time and had to test regularly, any way eventualy i was seeing the nurse for her flu jab and told her my scenario and she spoke to the doctor and we got them upto 4 boxes. now she has about 3 different meters and we can always get the strips we need.
 
My father in law like myself are type2, but my f in l religiously takes his blood sugars 3 times a day, making him paranoid. I think that if you are not on insulin, you should be restricted to the amount of strips you use. In wales we don't pay for prescriptions , the money saved should be reinvested into research.
 


Isn't this crazy behaviour on the part of the medical profession - and similar to my own experience. They are happy to keep giving us extra medication but get anxious when we take control in the form of testing or keeping a food diary or seeking advice from this forum or books. Why is this? There must be a reason as it is so prevalent.

I had to see my GP the other day, for something unrelated to my diabetes, and she said my Hba1c were very good and it must be because I have lost weight - I am sure it is partially, but I know this result is also down to my low carbohydrate/high fat diet, the exercise I am taking and all the supplements - but she just wasn't interested in hearing this. Grrrrr. And... (since I am having a rant!!) my diabetic nurse has NEVER encouraged me to lose weight and always said that diabetes is a progressive disease and I have to expect things to get worse.
 
iv never had a problem getting test strips as i take talbutamide, all i do is write on the prescription that i need new strips, however, picked the prescription up today and no strips and written on my prescription note is med review,
at my last checkup the nurse did have a moan saying they were expensive, but then again she gave me the meter and told me to check :x
looks like il have to buy them as due to losing weight, my sugar levels seem to be on the low side, yesterday morning was 4.6, last night was 4.9 and 2 hours after my breakfast today it was 4.9,
could be heading towards a hypo and wont know :shock: , not due back to see the nurse until 28 march so may just ease back on the metformin and see what happens
 
I cannot understand how those of us T2 who want to test and act responsibly with regard to our Diabetes by keeping a record of how certain things in our diet act on us and in order to keep our BG under control are refused strips on prescription whilst it is obvious from the number of test strips being sold on Ebay that an awful lot of diabetics (or their relatives) are being prescribed test strips for free which they are then selling on Ebay and making a nice profit from it. They must be either not testing themselves or asking for more than they need on a prescription in order to have surplus How can GPs regulate this impropriety? Seems they can't refuse T1 and those on insulin but us poor T2 who care enough about our condition to want to keep an eye on it by testing have to buy our own meters and test strips.
 
Just got back from an appointment with a GP. I'm newly diagnosed T2. With the help of self-testing this week (using the 10 strips that came with the accu-chek I bought), I've been watching my BG go slowly down.

The GP wants me to spend the next few weeks increasing the dose of Metformin to 2000mg per day, given that my HbA1c is 120(13%), but then said that it is not necessary for me to test as it's not necessary for me to know! :crazy: :***: She seemed reluctant even to tell me what my HbA1c was too - probably because it was off the scale of the info sheet she gave me.

Apparently I'll just have to guess which foods make my BG worse... :roll:

She also said *drumroll* that I don't have to worry what it actually is at this point, because nothing bad is going to happen until around ten years have gone past... when I'm 46.

If I end up in a hyperglycaemic coma, I'll make sure my mother has her name at hand to give to the authorities.

Frances x
 
FrancesB said:
She also said *drumroll* that I don't have to worry what it actually is at this point, because nothing bad is going to happen until around ten years have gone past... when I'm 46.
Click to expand...

the whole point of us testing is to avoid bad things from happening at all...

I'm sick and tired of them believing that it's inevitable that we'll end up needing more and more medication until we're on insulin with damaged eyes, lower limbs and kidneys...

It's only inevitable if they prevent us from testing and also keep promoting a diet that will result in a a progression of more and more damage to the pancreas and requiring more and more medication... and then they have the arrogance to accuse us of being non-compliant with their dietary advice...

Just wish NICE would wake up and start promoting a proper diet for us instead of a "balanced" diet... after all, someone who is gluten intolerant is prescribed a gluten-free diet, so why don't they promote a carb-free diet for us who are carb-intolerant?

Albert Einstein defined insanity as continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result...
 
It was about a year ago ,i'm type 2 diet only and my gp said because of cutbacks only those on medication would be prescribed them
 
Elviscole, don't worry about pre-meal BG readings in the 4s. I try to keep mine within the non-diabetic range, which is between 3.5 and 5.5 before meals/fasting . . . of course, I do have lapses!

I was given a meter, strips and lancets on diagnosis, and I get 50 strips every 4 weeks on repeat prescription. I'm not testing as much as I used to now, but I still get my strips and am stock-piling them just in case - my surgery is happy for me to test but the PCT is billions of pounds in debt, so who knows when they'll try to stop them!

I'm Type 2 on Metformin. It is my personal opinion that restricting strips to Type 1s could almost be classed as attempted murder, it is so potentially dangerous. For instance, one of my Type 1 friends was told never to drive unless he's over 8. So how is he to know, without test strips?

It is so sad that so many HCPs seem to have so little understanding of this "epidemic" condition.

Viv 8)
 
Yes, my gp says because I am type 2 I don't need to test but how do I get my blood sugar under control if they won't get me strips for the meter I bought I am on metformin but my friend has tested me a couple of times in the evening and it is twelve in the morning when I first get up it is 4
 
I have no difficulties but I had to make sidesteps.

Last summer I rec'd a letter about the costs of blood test strips and was told I would get a replacement meter and strip type. When I went to re-order online, there was a new type of strip available to me but I simply chose my existing type that was still present to order, so I guess somoene made a mistake on my patient records and prescription meds. The order got past the cost-security guards and have had no difficulties since.
 
Good news for all you Type 1s today - look at the news items on the Home page. So you know your practice has had a letter telling them to give you your strips, and you can argue from a position of strength.

Now we must lobby for Type 2s . . .

Viv 8)
 
puxy said:
I have been refused the meter I was told to buy it myself, is this how it works?
Click to expand...

Up until recently I have always had to buy my own meter/s, I used to use 2 meters one kept at work and one for home use. One way to try and get a free one is to contact the diabetic suppliers like abbot medisense, bayer, lifescan as they will normally provide you with one free (they tend to ask how often you are testing and may be a factor in if you get a free one), as they make money from the test strips.
 
Hindsight is an exact science, but it would have been useful also to have a Type1/Type2 tickbox.

It now looks as if 37% of us have no problem getting strips; but how many of those are Type 1s?

Viv 8)
 
Hi all,
I was told this was the NICE guidelines now say that type 2's no longer need to test their blood glucose.

It is bizarre, how can we know what's causing postprandial spikes without testing?
regards
Derek
 
A search comes up with:

NICE Clinical Guideline 66 (2008)

1.4 Self-monitoring of plasma glucose

1.4.1 Offer self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with typy 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education. Discuss its purpose and agree how it should be interpreted and acted upon.

1.4.2 Self-monitoring of plasma glucose should be available:

* to those on insulin treatment
* to those on oral glucose-lowering medications to provide information on hyopglycaemia
* to asses change in glucose control resulting from mediations and lifestyle changes
* to monitor changes during intercurrent illness
* to ensure safey during activities, including driving

Does this mean there has been a change to those guidelines? If not, I'll be taking that bit into my doctor's surgery with me (I didn't even think of checking up on it before you posted Derek).

ETA: Looking through the NICE website shows it was up for review in 2011 and doesn't seem to have been updated. A concurrent T2 guideline was produced in 2010, but didn't address self-testing information.
 
Hi Viv,
i bought 100 test strips off t'bay for £20 for my contour,
what im finding due to losing weight is that at the moment, iv reduced my metformin down from 4 to 2 a day and im getting very good sugar levels, 1 day it was in the 4's all day, have tried reducing the talbutamide but it started creeping up again,
without my meter i would be stuffed, will try and get them again off the dr's but not holding out much hope,
will be an interesting day when i go back to see the nurse end of march :lol:
 
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