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little rant at Boots

I

ilnar

Well-Known Member
Messages
70
ok, i'm between GP surgeries at the moment, just moved, newborn baby, local doctor REALLY awkward to get to, so haven't registered, other doctor really accessible, but wont take me since i live 5 meters outside the catchment area. (literally 5m, i can spit on his practice from my bathroom window :( )

anyway, ive been feeling a little low at work the last couple of days, (really not like me to go hypo, i usually have excellent control but im not exercising like i did before the move and im worrying that im undercompensating on the carb intake) and, with a deficit of strips this month since ive not seen my GP, (i know, i know im late) i popped into boots to grab some.

they didnt have any in stock for my igbstar, but promised to get some in for today! not bad i thought, but i really want to test now. so i headed over to the meter section to grab one of those test at home kits, you know, you get 2 lancets, and 2 of those old paper tests,
£12.50!
£12 ****** 50?
i was agast! over 6£ a test!

madness,

thankfully a little browsing later i found a complete kit, electronic meter, 10 lancets, 10 strips. £10.50
thats not bad i though, more than my BGstars 45p a test but i get a spare meter. its doing the job, i was low, just under 4 but that was after 3 spoons of sugar a peice of shortbread AND a sinningly large piece of brownie.
just tested again 4.1 2 hours after breakfast, hmm. tea and bics anyone?

anyway! really boots? £12.50 seems a little steep. . .
 
Would you like to try and give me a good reason why you don't want to try the visually read strips that I've attempted to inform people about?

That would be around 2p per test.
 
How ridiculously expensive :( hope you can get into a surgery soon and get your rpts set up. I put in a Rpt every month, since going onto a pump I use 6 boxes (300) strips a month. Also increased because I test every time before driving. Feel like I'm being a drain on budgets because that is a lot of strips, and they ain't cheap :(

Michaeldavid, the strips you're talking about, are they the wee sticks (can't think of a better description!?)? Although they give you an idea, wouldn't the info be 'behind' as the info is not current (i.e. telling you the amount of sugar in urine, it's like telling you what your actual blood sugar 'was' few hours ago before it all got passed out of your body?) forgive me if I've got wrong end of the (wee) stick!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Hello weezer,

Er, no, Betachek Visual are blood-sugar testing strips, not urine-testing strips.

If you put 'Betachek Visual' into this website's search facility, you'll see that I've recently made quite a few postings in which they feature. I've just done that myself. And I notice that the name 'Betachek' also comes up in relation to Betachek G5, which is a meter system.

But Betachek Visual are strips which give you a blood-sugar reading without the need for a meter: you simply check the colour against the chart on the side of the tube they come in. So they're very simple, and very cheap.

The readings are very accurate for anything under 7-8mmol/l, which is where my blood-sugar is most of the time. (That's because of what I eat most of the day: ie. all morning and until 4.00pm, I eat RYE BREAD - usually with Biona Pear & Apple Spread, as it happens; this has tremendous moderating effect on my blood-sugar level.) 

They're available on the NHS anyway, but there is currently no UK supplier.

I note that your HbA1c reading is fairly low. So your blood-sugar readings are normally pretty good too. And that means you may find the visually read strips as useful as I do. (I test my blood-sugar a lot: between 15-20 times per day.) Eating rye bread, my blood-sugar never crashes. I often get fairly low readings during the day; but with care, that's not a problem for me.
 
michaeldavid,
Just had a look at the Betachek Visual promo & noted the following:
Incrementation of BG results go 4,6,8 mmol/l s :cry: o it would be way too coarse for my levels of control. As the saying goes on "Dragons Den", I'm out! :thumbdown:
 
I see that your last HbA1c was 5.4%, FergusCrawford. And that indicates a pretty good level of control.

Indeed, it would mean that your blood-sugar is normally around about where mine is: sc. practically normal, most of the time. (I can expect to have no long-term complications whatsoever - I've been a Type 1 diabetic for 30 years this month.) And because Betachek Visual are especially accurate for readings BELOW 8mmol/l, I believe you would find them as useful as I do.

You appear to misunderstand the gradations you mention. On the side of the tube of strips, there is a colour chart. And the chart shows the variations in colour for readings of 0mmol/l (I've never had one of those), 1mmol/l (I've been close to that once or twice), 2, 4, 6, 8 ... and so on. (Beyond 8mmol/l, the readings become quite inaccurate; but I can always use a meter-read strip to get a more accurate reading.) However, just because the colour chart goes up in discrete increments, that doesn't mean one cannot INTERPOLATE between those discrete increments.

After 30 seconds, you wipe the drop of blood from the strip, and then wait a further 30 seconds. (Nb. If the reading's going to be below 4, then I'll see that even sooner.) And I can readily tell what my blood sugar is with an accuracy every bit as good as a digital readout from a meter. 

Most of the time, my blood-sugar is well below 8mmol/l. This is due to a combination of what I eat, when I eat it, and the fact that I test my blood-sugar up to 20 times per day. With the visually read strips, that's around 2p per test - the strips can be cut with scissors. (With the meter-read strips, it's around 40p per test.)

One might think I'm employed by National Diagnostic Products, the manufacturer. But all I'm trying to do on this website is what the bloody GPs and diabetic experts SHOULD be doing: ie. showing how to control one's blood-sugar effectively - and WITHOUT EXORBITANT COST, either in the short term or the long term. (I note that there are plenty of the meter-read strips being flogged off on ebay.) Like I said above, I can expect to have no long-term complications at all.

It's just gone 11.00pm, and I've just tested my blood-sugar with the meter-read OneTouch Ultra. (Ideally, I only need to use these twice per day: last thing at night, and first thing in the morning.) The reading was 2.6mmol/l. But that's no big deal - I certainly wasn't having a hypo. This is due to what I eat most of during the day, especially in the morning: sc. slowly digested rye bread. This has a tremendous moderating effect: it stops my blood-sugar CRASHING.

Okay, 2.6 is pretty low. But the effect of the insulin in my system is all but exhausted at 11.00pm, and it wasn't an emergency. (I know that my blood-sugar will continue to slowly drop, by a further two units, until 12.00pm.) So I've just eaten a single slice of the co-op's wholemeal bread (with some Meridian yeast extract). And I've taken a little over 2 units of Insulatard insulin. So I'm now perfectly safe until the morning. Good night. 
 
@nomistheman, that's right.
But the site you've linked to is based in Australia - I'm not sure whether you'll be able to purchase the strips from there. But then again, I may be wrong.

I note that the manufacturer, National Diagnostic Products, has been seeking distributors in the UK (and elsewhere): 
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/I-am-loo ... _mSplash=1

They can definitely be obtained them from the German diabetic association, Insuliner: http://www.insuliner.de/insublog/wordpr ... tstreifen/

You mention what you call 'the DVLA rules about recorded readings for evidence of no hypos for people with insulin dependent diabetes'. (I thought the DVLA was the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority!?) But although low readings may be evidence of hypos, they do no actually indicate hypos: a low reading is merely a SYMPTOM of a hypo.

I commonly have such symptoms every day, and throughout the day. But due to a combination of what I eat (and when I eat it), the insulin I take (and when I take it), and my (quasi-obsessive) blood-sugar testing throughout the day, I very rarely have an actual hypo.
 
Thanks very much for your explanation. It would never have occurred to me that universal, meter-read blood-sugar testing for diabetics might be driven by the DVLA. (The pun is intended.) Though I note you make clear that it's only your opinion. And I think it must be wrong.

Indeed a familiar, vehicular figure of speech immediately springs to mind: it would be a clear case of putting the cart before the horse. For not all diabetics have a driving licence - indeed, many are tiny children. And it would surely be more reasonable simply to ban all diabetics from driving. (When I was first diagnosed 30 years ago, I promptly returned to work as a motorcycle messenger in London. Fortunately, I never once had a problem.)

Moreover, if what you suspect were true, then surely Betachek Visual would not be included on the UK Drug Tariff.
 
In the long-term, diabetics' health would be vastly improved if doctors were to prescribe the visually read strips - and strongly encourage far more testing - in addition to prescribing a limited amount of the meter-read sticks. Also, that would save the NHS a vast amount of resources in the long term, and perhaps in the short term too.

I believe the root problem is a general, pathological tendency of thought. And medical professionals are certainly not excluded from what I have in mind. One small feature of this pathology is the thinking with regard to what people eat, and the way that they eat. (I have some respect for Jamie Oliver; but I wish he would dissociate himself from the likes of Sainsburys and UKIP.) Medical professionals seem to assume that diabetics need to eat like everyone else: ie. they must eat breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner. (In contrast, I simply 'feed the insulin' I take.) Accordingly, under this orthodoxy, blood-sugar testing comes a very poor second to the impossibly difficult task of getting the insulin-doses right. (Nb. Under my regimen, unlike under the orthodox regimen, the insulin I take - aside from a very small amount of long-acting insulin - has almost completely run its course by the time I go to bed. So I always go to sleep safely.)

Another small feature of the pathology I have in mind is a form of inverse-Luddism: the idea that visually read strips are old fashioned.

I'm afraid I've no idea about the relevant pip code.  
 
How long to the visual strips last for? They'd definitely make a great "emergency backup" when you've forgotten or run out of "nice" Avivas ;-)
 
Hi Simon,

Betachek Visual have a long use-by term.

I'm afraid I'm not sure how long, exactly. But I think you'll find it will be several months, at the very least.

I know that the ones I'm currently using are a bit dated, yet their use-by date is November 2013.

And I know from experience that they remain usable for some time after the use-by date, SO LONG AS YOU DON'T KEEP OPENING AND CLOSING THE CONTAINER.

If you buy two packs, then you can keep the bulk of them in one tube; and in the other tube, you can keep a few for daily use.

If you simply make an inquiry to the following National Diagnostic Products website, I'm sure you'll get an answer regarding the use-by date of your would-be purchase.

Please note that I don't find them to be particularly accurate for readings above 8mmol/l. But for anything below that, I find them to be pretty accurate. And for low readings especially, I find them to be very accurate.

So, since my blood-sugar is very well controlled, and since I test a lot, I find them to be invaluable.

The following recently-set-up site gives the cost in pounds sterling:

http://www.betachek.com/uk/store
 
michaeldavid said:
Would you like to try and give me a good reason why you don't want to try the visually read strips that I've attempted to inform people about?

That would be around 2p per test.
Click to expand...

Also worth noting that visually read strips are useless to those of us with poorer eyesight or where colour intensity is compromised due to laser surgery. Great that they work for you; but no one should have to "give you a good reason" why they didn't use the strips you recommended.
 
I never suggested anyone had to give a reason, good or bad.

But I think you've given a very good reason not to use visually read strips.

Another moderately good reason is that even though Betachek Visual are on the UK Drug Tariff for July 2013, there is currently no UK-based supplier. So if one wants to use them, one must pay for them oneself.

The reason why there is currently no UK-based supplier is probably that UK GPs are disinclined to prescribe the visually read strips. (I believe I'm the sole UK user of them.)

And the reason why UK GPs are disinclined to prescribe them is, in part, possibly because they're not much use for diabetics whose blood-sugar is not well controlled. (The readings they give are only suitably accurate below around 8mmol/l.)

But I believe the fact that most British diabetics blood-sugar is not well controlled is, in part, a function of the mostly pretty appalling medical advice that's given with regard to such control.
 
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