Veteran Diabetics

General
61

I agree with you--with the CGM, I'm checking A LOT more often than I did before.  It's kinda hard to forget about it when there's something attached to your abdomen and is beeping at you if you go awry.  

Has anyone noticed just how disgustingly expensive test strips are?  My doctor told me I'm checking the right number of times a day, and I should keep up the good work--then I look at my pharmacy bill and I'm paying through the nose for these things! Is it just me, or does diabetes seem to be an obscenely expensive disease that pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars off of? 

62

My testing is mostly like this:

  • When I wake up
  • Two hours after each meal
  • Once before meals
  • 2 hours before bed
  • Test at bed time (helps me know if I are going in the direction of low or high a little based on this and the previous test)

This is abour 8 tests a day assuming nothing is off (too high or low).  However, if I have lows and highs, which I will, I will need at leat 50% more (i.e., 4 more strips a day). 

63

Honeymead,

The other people making out other than drug companies:  snack companies, juice companies, etc.  Any company in which we use a product to adjust from lows as well.  We should make a petition so that we can have juice and snacks added as medical expenses for purposes of taxes for example!

David

64

[quote user="David Shapiro"]

We should make a petition so that we can have juice and snacks added as medical expenses for purposes of taxes for example!

[/quote]

Can Skittles be classified as a FSA-eligible item?  That would be greeeeeeat.

65

What's slightly funny to me about this is that I test 7 or 8 times a day and people normally respond, "That's a lot!!!"  Even my endo commented that it was a lot... and two other diabetics who happened to be at the pharmacy while I was straightening out a prescription issue for my strips (though, they may have been T2).

So seeing answers like 15 times a day, or 20 to 25 times a day blows my mind a little bit!  :)

On the flip side: unless I develop magical properties that keep my BG exactly where I need it at all times, I couldn't imagine regularly testing fewer than 7 times a day.  Sometimes, if I'm super busy, I'll skip an after-meal test if it was a meal that has had consistent results before (and only if there are no other weird variables going on, like my period or a different activity level)... But I don't feel it should be a habit unless I manage to get a CGM.