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Refused blood testing equipment

T

tandydog

Member
'It's not recommended by the doctors to test blood for type 2 diabetes' I was told this morning. I said that it was recommended by this site and she said that it was nonsense. 'Diet will be ample and we will test you every 3 months and put you on metaformin if need be'. I DON'T WANT TO GO ON MEDICATION. So it looks like I will be buying my own test strips. I asked how I was to know that the food I was eating was lowering my sugar levels? She said I would find out every 3 months.... THAT IS NO BEEP BEEP GOOD TO ME :x The Dr said she's diabetic and eats a healthy diet. Well its not working as she's very very overweight, I know that sounds bitchy, but I feel it at the moment :x

So its onto ebay and the internet to look for cheaper test strips instead of the £23 + at boots.

The other Dr's practice does give out strips as a diabetic at work gets them. But that practice isn't taking on any more patients so I can't change.

Will write to the practice manager, quoting as much info as I can. Will not see that Dr again if I can help it.
 
You're quite right to see the need to test. This is purely a cost thing, with excuses made by medical staff for not giving them to us.
We have an e-petition for this, to get free strips. Please sign it, and get all your friends, family and colleagues to sign. here's a link to it:-
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/petition/
 
I really hate that diabetics are being happily thrown to one side like this! How are you supposed to cope with this disease if you don't test? How do you know what to eat? How do you know how you are progressing?
It breaks my heart!!!
 
i had to fight long and hard to get my testing machine and strips. I take medication which is still not controlling it, the tablets are going up every 6 months (my Dr says 3 month testing is a waste of time!!) and the only way I know what is happening is to check.

i get frustrated at the lack of support. the only diet help I have received is eat food with less than 5% sugar per 100gms and less than 3% fat per 100 gms - very helpful!!!
 
I can't understand how I can be told to eat what I presume is a good diet and then get tested every 3 months. How am I supposed to know which food I can tolorate, which food I can't. I am NOT going onto tablets to please them and save their budget. The test I had in February ( the one that said I was T2 at last) wasn't a true one as I'd had 2 bad doses of tonsillitis and was only drinking fresh fruit juice as I was unable to swallow solids, but that wasn't taken into account.

Plus I forgot to say quote from obese doc 'You don't need to see the dietician, look on the internet for low GI foods. I manage mine that way, through diet'....... Look in the mirror dear, it's not working. :shifty: :silent: :eh:
 
I was diagnosed as type 2 almost a yr ago and have asked 3 Dr's at my practise about blood testing monitors. All three have said the practise does not recommend monitoring oneself. Main reason offered was that it makes you dwell on the illness !
I am told that a six monthly blood test is sufficient. I was prescribed Metformin but how will I know if it is helping if I have to wait fo six month check ups. I haven't started taking the tablets . Had my first Hba1c test last month and it was 9.2. Have read numerous books but find all the info quite confusing. If the UK website says ' to test ' why are Dr's now not recommending monitors.
Could purchase one but know to little about them to feel confident in a choice ?
 
jonesd said:
Could purchase one but know to little about them to feel confident in a choice ?
Click to expand...

Buy the one with the cheapest strips, which I believe is the SD Codefree. Someone will tell you how you can get hold of one.

The only way to get T2 diabetes under control is by regularly testing after you eat. Get yourself a meter.
 
Same here with test strips and blood testing even after I showed my specialist nurse it was working great and my levels were coming down. Still got the blindly dogmatic DON'T TEST, IT WILL SEND YOU MAD line and then in the next sentence the real truth which is it would cost them too much. Doesn't seem to matter that a surgery receives £2000 for you once you are registered diabetic. Would be nice if they spent some on us!

If you have an eBay account you can get the SD Codefree, a case, a finger spiker thing and 60 strips for under £20. Go to the healthcare.co.uk shop on eBay. Be careful to order the UK mmol/l one and not the US mg/dl version or else the numbers will come out strange. If you can afford to I'd order as many strips as you can on the first order as it will save you on P&P later on.
 
The policy for this doesn't seem to be aligned between all the health authorities. I've just moved to Derby from London and in Derby they manage diabetics differently (effectively). Firstly, the nurse takes on primary responsibility now for diabetics (in London, I had a doctor who really wanted me out the room as soon as possible). Secondly, they have a selection of 3 glucose monitors for patients to pick and they fully support this method of managing diabetes (London had a reluctant glucose meter policy). Why this is not standardised across the country is completely beyond me. Surely it could actually save money in the long-term by enabling people to manage their condition more effectively and thus become less reliant on medication. Your hba1c could be consistently high and the only way to lower that is to monitor the impact of everything that you put in your mouth! It seems like a no-brainer to me, but what do I know? :crazy:
 
jonesd said:
I was diagnosed as type 2 almost a yr ago and have asked 3 Dr's at my practise about blood testing monitors. All three have said the practise does not recommend monitoring oneself. Main reason offered was that it makes you dwell on the illness !
I am told that a six monthly blood test is sufficient. I was prescribed Metformin but how will I know if it is helping if I have to wait fo six month check ups. I haven't started taking the tablets . Had my first Hba1c test last month and it was 9.2. Have read numerous books but find all the info quite confusing. If the UK website says ' to test ' why are Dr's now not recommending monitors.
Could purchase one but know to little about them to feel confident in a choice ?
Click to expand...

PM'd you.
 
Defren said:
jonesd said:
I was diagnosed as type 2 almost a yr ago and have asked 3 Dr's at my practise about blood testing monitors. All three have said the practise does not recommend monitoring oneself. Main reason offered was that it makes you dwell on the illness !
I am told that a six monthly blood test is sufficient. I was prescribed Metformin but how will I know if it is helping if I have to wait fo six month check ups. I haven't started taking the tablets . Had my first Hba1c test last month and it was 9.2. Have read numerous books but find all the info quite confusing. If the UK website says ' to test ' why are Dr's now not recommending monitors.
Could purchase one but know to little about them to feel confident in a choice ?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...



Tried to PM you, but it says you don't exist?
 
Because Metformin hasnt worked for me since being diagnosed in the New year I wasnt testing.
After my latest Hba1c and high LFT'S My Diabetes Nurse has changed my Medication.
I am no longer on Metformin instead a drug called Glimepiride which I was told helps your Pancreas and she said I need to test.
She gave me a BG STAR monitor with 50 test strips and 100 lancets inc and these have been put on repeat prescription, what I dont understand is I test once one day (fasting test b4 breakfast) next day twice ( main meal and 2 hours after)
She will phone me in 2 weeks time and Increase my tablets from the info I tell her on the diary she gave me and told me to fill out.
Im wondering if it depends on the Medication your on as to wether you are offered monitors/strips/lancets on prescription? Luckily my Prescriptions free.
 
I have obviously been very lucky with my GP. When diagnosed in Jan '12 he prescribed me a freestyle metre and strips. He wanted me to test 6 times a day for 6 weeks and then take the readings and diary to see him to discuss diet and help me to understand the spikes. I am still ableto get lancets and strips on precription even after our discussion so I can test once a week defintiely, if I eat something new or that I am not sure about or if I feel ill!
Clearly I am one of the lucky few. :D
 
I must be one of the lucky ones too, as the practice nurse gave me a Glucomen LX tester, and put me on repeat scrip for 50 strips & 100 lancets. I find it strange that you get twice as many lancets as strips though. I also registered the meter online with the manufacturer, and you can get free diaries and replacement batteries. Thankfully I have a medical exemption cert, so the lancets and strips cost nowt. It does anger me that some GP practices are treating us diabetics like garbage. My old GP in Leeds took levels of incompetancy to a new level, and kept misdiagnosing my diabetes, just saying I was run down. A trainee doctor tested my bloods, and I found out then I was diabetic. The idiot GP also lost my claim form for medical exemption twice! I also had to kick up a right stink to get a meter. The first time I tested it, my levels were 28! That idiot GP could have killed me!
 
serendipity said:
Because Metformin hasnt worked for me since being diagnosed in the New year I wasnt testing.
After my latest Hba1c and high LFT'S My Diabetes Nurse has changed my Medication.
I am no longer on Metformin instead a drug called Glimepiride which I was told helps your Pancreas and she said I need to test.
She gave me a BG STAR monitor with 50 test strips and 100 lancets inc and these have been put on repeat prescription, what I dont understand is I test once one day (fasting test b4 breakfast) next day twice ( main meal and 2 hours after)
She will phone me in 2 weeks time and Increase my tablets from the info I tell her on the diary she gave me and told me to fill out.
Im wondering if it depends on the Medication your on as to wether you are offered monitors/strips/lancets on prescription? Luckily my Prescriptions free.
Click to expand...

Glimeperide is hypo-inducing medication and that is why you have been given the strips. You should be Ok testing in the way she has said, If you have problems you will see when they occur.
Metormin never worked at reducing my bg either but I still take it because it is supposed to protect you from strokes and heart attacks, Just watch the glimepiride for the weigh gain If your levels soar after meals and they want to increase the glimepiride I would ask for sitagliptin {janvia] to be considered instead. Its very good for spikes after meals and doesn't cause weight gain. I once read that noone really knows whether more glimepiride actually works better than the starter dose of 2mg. After an initial huge drop n my levels it stopped working for me. I ended up on six mg and it didnt have any effect at all. II saw a specialist who recommended Januvia and gradually reducing glimepiride. I had to reduce it quickly as I was having daily hypos. i found however that if there was the slightest difference in my daily routine I stdill neede something extra. I learned that glimepiride is available in 1 mg doses .and asked the dr to prescribe it. Sometimes I could do wihout it but I find that the 1 mg works beter than the 6mg did,
Your nurse appears to be quite good. Hold on to her!
 
It sounds rather silly to have medical staff tell you that you shouldn't be testing yourself because it may cause you stress. Either way you need to know how to manage the condition. You need to have an understanding of how everything impacts on your BGLs. Food is only the start of it. Thankfully here in Aust we have a scheme set up to assist diabetics by discounting cost of testing equipment... the only things that don't get discounted are the lancets and sharps containers. Maybe there should be something similar there... as there are so many people affected nowdays and there needs to be some help offered. Cost of test strips without help is too costly. Here my test strips costs $86 without the discount... with the discount I pay $15. That's a big difference and it helps. I test my BGLs a lot every day as I like to keep tabs on things. I can get a hypo very quick too... so I need to be alert about what my BGL is.
Wishing you all the best :)
 
Reading these posts make me realise how lucky I am. I am on a repeat script for 100 strips & lancets and the surgery don't question how often I ask for a repeat. I have never had any problems getting them. I could test about 6 times a day when I was finding out what different foods did to me and I test frequently (on my doctor's advice) if I am ill. Without testing I would have gone on happily consuming food that was recommended by the hospital clinic but was in fact causing long, sustained spikes. If my BG is fine and I am eating foods where I know the effect then I probably only test a couple of times a day.

I am still convinced it was the ability to test as often as I liked that let me get tight control over my diet to the extent that we were able to half the number of Metformin tablets I was on (went from 4 x 500mg to 2 x 500mg). That was almost two years ago now and they have never increased the dosage again. They also have a very good diabetic clinic at my GP''s surgery where they see you every 6 months if all is going well (every 6 weeks if you are having problems). What I have always liked is they always have time to talk things out and it isn't just "have another pill". The only thing I have to convince them to stop saying to me is "This is a progressive disease" - No, it can be flaming irritating at times but it doesn't have to be progressive!
 
@Magill.... yeah know what you mean about being told it's progressive all the time. But as for me I've found out that is the case as I now don't have a choice and have to take insulin as I don't produce enough of my own. So I guess that's what they're trying to tell us. We can only do our best with what we know works. :)
 
I still have Starlix on my repeat prescription, although i don't actually use it. I don't usually collect it either! However, since it can cause hypos, I received a sheet about the new driving regs from my Health Centre plus the 1 box of strips I got my husband to ask for for me, when he last went to see the doc.
With the new Driving Regs, some PCTs are going to HAVE TO re-think their policies. Drivers using any medication which might cause a hypo are required to test before driving and every 2 hours on a long drive. they should also carry a meter and some fast acting glucose.
Hana
 
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