Hello Everyone!

By Lisa Gough

Hi bloggers! I'm Lisa and I guess you know a bit about me from my bio! Hope everyone is okay? I'm looking forward to 'chatting' with you all. Not totally sure where to start but I do have a question for you fellow bloggers - has anyone had problems getting their blood testing strips? I am limited to two boxes even when I ask for more (even if it is just three!). I test over four times a day (have a few bad hypos and lost my warning signals) so get through loads. My Diabetic Consultant has written to my GP and this still hasn't changed the surgery's attitude to strips, as well as Diabetes UK. Has anyone else encountered this and if so, did you get anything changed and how? How many testing strips does everyone else get given when they put in for a repeat prescription?  I saw Rachelle's email about Type 2 diabetics who self test getting anxious and depressed and to be honest...it's no surprise!!! Although it's good to keep a check on blood sugars, it does make you a bit paranoid and I don't know about anyone else but you stand there waiting for the meter to give the result hoping that it isn't too high (or too low!). If it is too high you then have to decide whether to inject a bit more or wonder what it was that you ate that made them go high. It's ongoing so I can totally understand why people get depressed. I am a Service User Representative for Diabetes UK and one of the things that kept coming up in the discussions and meetings was that there isn't any psychological support for people diagnosed with diabetes and we all felt it was something that was needed to help people come to terms with it. Not everyone will need it of course but it should be offered. Well..sorry to go on a bit! Hope I haven't bored anyone! Am off to enjoy the rain and the joys of supermarket shopping!

Comments

[Trinkwasser]

You probably saw or heard the BBC story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7352321.stm

You may not have seen this one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7062473.stm

aren't those A1c numbers scary???

The original paper is here

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.39534.571644.BEv1?rss=1

so even if you *are* still getting enough strips prescribed, don't expect that to last. :(

I get no strips prescribed at all, and even if I were to become fully diabetic (which I am determined to AVOID at all costs) I still wouldn't get any as a Type 2, this is down to the PCT. So far I haven't heard of Type 1s being so restricted.

In some areas you will even have difficulty buying your own strips from the pharmacy, yet in other areas there is still no restriction.

Strangely I have found testing to be liberating, what was depressing was being fobbed off with excuses by my previous doctors: now I can see how my FBG (the only thing they tested) is still normal but my postprandials have been everywhere from 11.5 to 3.5, and more importantly I have learned what to do about it ( basically restricting carbs and carefully balancing them against exertion and time of day) NOW I don't bother to test nearly so much, just when I'm feeling off, and every so often I will run a whole day to make sure nothing has changed.

The ONLY reason I can get away with this was from testing a lot initially. In fact I'm convinced that all newly diagnosed diabetics and prediabetics would be best served by using a CGMS for the first few months. You cannot control what you cannot measure.

[Terry Gault]

I find the idea of many T2s getting anxious when given the opportunity to test to be a fine example of what the tabloids like to call "spin". I have no doubt that many T2s do get anxious when seeing high readings, but my experience suggests that this is mostly because no one has ever bothered to tell them when to test, what levels to look for and/or worry about and what to do about them. When that is explained (by their peers, usually) they derive real benefit from testing in physical and emotional terms.
It's rather like experiments that choose well controlled T2s, allow them to test but stop them from acting on the results of those tests and then claim testing shows no appreciable improvement in HbA1cs.

On the outrageous limits on strips, I would suggest you ask your GP in writing which of the following tests he wants you to miss:
control test for new pot of strips;
upon waking;
before each meal to determine the amount of insulin required;
when you feel possibly hypo;
half an hour after any hypo reading to check recovery;
before driving;
every two hours on long trips;
before bed.

A written reply must surely either confirm that 7 or so test strips a day is reasonable OR confirm that he is recklessly endangering your health and possibly encouraging you to break the law.

[Trinkwasser]

Yes you have hit the nail on the thumb. The results of the dietary changes I made by testing have come through not only in relatively normal BG readings but vastly improved lipids and blood pressure, the result of the Healthy High Carb Low Fat diet was so appalling (especially the breakfasts of muesli and toast swilled down with orange juice (unsweetened of course)) that I was accused of not following it since it made my results worsen rapidly. (And for the first time in my life it caused me to gain weight, which has all gone away now).

If they are now trying to restrict insulin users and Type 1s from testing effectively, well words fail me . . .

. . . I suppose the logic is that if they waste money on test strips now they will not be able to afford the amputations and dialysis later. Which completely misses the point that we now have the ability to greatly reduce the level of complications with diabetes of all types.

[LISA GOUGH]

Thanks for the info about the DSOLVE website - very very interesting!have just put in another repeat prescription so will see what the outcome is and if i am still being restricted i shall be composing yet another letter to my Gp and PCT!

[Trinkwasser]

Best of luck!

If all else fails

http://www.diabeticshop.co.uk/

are about the cheapest source I've found - but about the only good thing about Boots buying out our local pharmacy is that they now sell strips at about the same price.

Nevertheless I am hugely unimpressed by current policies, I reagrd it as being FINED for trying to get better . . . and for Type 1s I regard strip restriction as attempted murder

[Obat Diabetes]

Thanks for the info about the DSOLVE website - very very interesting!have just put in another repeat prescription so will see what the outcome is and if i am still being restricted i shall be composing yet another letter to my Gp and PCT!