I Forgot About Peeing on a Strip

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1

Ok, so I’ll admit something…I haven’t checked for ketones personally in years, like many years, as in I don’t remember the last time I peed on a strip. I know we lived in our old house, sometime before my senior year of high school…I am now almost 30. I was reminded they exist when I went to a pre-pump-getting class and was a little embarrassed to say I never check!

I’m not saying I’ve been such a good diabetic that I haven’t had the ketones in this long timeframe, but I really haven’t thought twice about them in years. My A1Cs have been in the low 7s for years, I try to keep the numbers down below 200, and am not super high ever, so I never feel that terrible. Now that I might be getting a pump, the “lack of insulin” risk is making me want to get back on the “peeing-on-the-strip-horse”
I was trying to think of some things that led me to stop peeing on the strip:

1. The doctors never asked-AND STILL DON’T.

2. I generally took care of highs w/ corrective shots...never felt bad for too long and now that I'm "older" drinking fluids/h2o all day long and peeing tons at work is sort of a given.
3. Why waste the money when I never use[d] them?

I admit it feels good to confess... I swear, when I go back for an appt. I'll ask for a Rx...I swear.

Its always a good thing to test when high and feeling wonky, just to be sure! Don't be following my antics...
2

I remember when we used to take two drops of urine , and put it on a pill to see if we had ketones. It has been a long time. I think the protocol is that if your numbers are high, then you test for ketones. Testing for ketones every day does not seems connected to the first test which is always , what is the number.The pump is the best ting that ever happened to me.

3

I (and others here) were diagnosed back in the pre-home-bg-test days where peeing on strips (or in test tubes… what were the little tablets called? I remember Testape strips but can’t remember the name of the little fizzy tablet that got hot) multiple times a day was the only way to get even a vague guess at what our control was.

I don’t carry Ketostix around with me (I do have some at home) or use them very often. I have some but I might go years between actually bothering to use them. bg testing is so way better at figuring things out 99.999% of the time. I’m not saying there’s no circumstances where a Ketostix reading might be useful but in my head they are mostly in the “stone knives and bearskins” days back when I had to pee into a test tube and they taught me how to boil glass syringes and sharpen needles.