I understand that some people sell their "excess" strips on the grey market. I'm more than happy to demonstrate with my meter that I'm using all the strips I order. Why do they think it's necessary to come down on all of us because of the misbehavior of a few? The biggest ripe-off artists in the health market are the insurance companies themselves. They are no-value added parasites.
Yes. Find them and prosecute them, go right ahead. I have sold exactly zero test strips and bought exactly zero test strips on the grey market. I've bought some out of pocket because of those $%&*#@! $%&*(+=!!
I would suggest that without insurance coverage I'd be screwed so, as much as I kvetch about them, I like them too. I think that hospitals and medical providers can give insurance companies a run for their money:
Time Magazine: The Bitter Pill
Is *full* of examples including $18 test strips, for people without diabetes!! Sheesh!
apparently Medicare is cutting even more benefits, so expect the “grey market” strips to all but disappear it at the very least, spike in price 
I'm calling one of you (AR and Terry) if or when my insurance company tries to *ahem* screw me!
Y'all ROCK!
PS ... Never have had dealings with the grey market. Now, the Grey Goose? That's a different story.
This is a big change in policy the we, as a community, ignore at our future peril. The Medicare policy limits test strips for T2s to 1/day and T1s to 3/day. Mitigating this disaster is a path for your doctor to appeal on your behalf.
Medicare policy will impact private insurance policies. Strip rationing will eventually come to an insurance company near you. We must push back in the most aggressive way possible. Where is the ADA and JDRF on this? What have they done in response to this drastic cut in benefits? How did we get blindsided and steamrolled on this?
The social and medical costs of underusing strips are tremendous. One avoided open heart surgery will pay for test strips for a lifetime. Not to mention the poor insulin using diabetic that wraps him and his car around bridge abutment on the freeway due to a severe hypo and not testing before driving in the interest of “saving” a strip!
WHHHAAAAT. that is INSANE. MEDICARE FOLKS - I am furious for you!!
Ugh. This absolutely disgusts me. We get punished for trying to manage our condition in a responsible manner just so some ■■■■■■■ wearing a suit can buy more expensive suits and save a buck to save the bottom line.
3 strips a day is just laughable. That’s not even enough for half the amount of times I test before eating. I agree, there needs to be much more pro-action on this front on the part of the diabetes advocacy groups. I refuse to accept such ludicrous insurance policies.
haha I literally just got off the phone, trying to make an appointment for a breast ultrasound, which was recommended after my recent mammogram. I was told “your insurance doesn’t cover that”. I called another radiology place and they said it was covered. we just have to keep pushing, self-advocate and help each other find the loopholes!
I can't speak from expierience since it is my 8yr old daughter who has type one. What I can tell you is that my husband who was type two when we were first married is regretting exactly what you are doing. He was diagnosed at 27 and he ignored it for years. In the last five years he has had a stint put in and in January was put on dialysis and is now on permanent disability. It is very hard for me and my daughter. Remember the physical things you may have to deal with but it effects everyone that loves you as well. Try some of the suggestions that were given to you here. Keep in touch with people and find a good endo that can help you get back to taking care of yourself. The people that love and care about you will thank you for it. :)
You need a CGM,
And the best one is Dexcom.
It changed my life. It probably saved my life.
To know your BG every five minutes is priceless.
Some foods that I eat, show in my BG in two hours, some already have spiked and gone down in two hours.
Only Dexcom showed me how each food affects my BG.
It also showed me how insulin works for me.
Knowing your BG at all times is the most motivating factor.
I agree with Isaac. Getting the new Dexcom G4 could give you the motivation you need,
Funnily enough, I only just read these replies right now but decided last night that I was going to start using my MiniMed Paradigm's CGM. Will update how my trial and errors go.
Time to save my life too.
My Daughters Doctor just ordered one for her she is a little nervous. Let me know how it goes and I will update you as well. Have a great day!
I´m happy for you and your decision, Dave.Ladner. Hope it works out for you. You´ll find groups for CGM-users here too.
Good for you, and good luck. We control this thing, not the other way around!!
Dave,
I am brand new today but I do have a suggestion. Have you tried a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System? They r great and they require u check your sugar at least 2 X a day and they give u readings every 5 mins and trends. Hope this helps.
Welcome to TuD! I think that everybody at some point gets into a testing hiatus. Everyone has fantastic input on this site. You however, have to decide what works best for your lifestyle. One suggestion not yet mentioned in this post/comments is getting yourself on a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor). For example the Dexcom G4 or the Animas systems - I'm not quite sure what is available to you in Canada. These systems test your bg frequently (like every 5 minutes or so). You just have to press a few buttons to see your number. This might help you. Also, get an endocrinologist - this is important. Even if you are traveling - pick a location that is most convient for you. You and your endo CAN have a long distance relationship in my opinion. Technology has made this possible. No matter where you are around the world- you can send your endo #s and such...consider it. Hope my advice helped. Let us know what you decide.
Just thought I'd update everyone and say that since I've made this post - I have successfully been testing 3 times per day (except Saturday this weekend... bad day heh). Which I'm pretty proud of. I've managed to make my readings into a sort of "game", where I feel like I'm winning when they are below 8.
I'm mostly surprised at how GOOD my readings have actually been. With 3 tests a day, while I did have a few 15+'s on the first few days, for the most part I have been between 4.5 and 9, so I'm glad I don't have to do much basal work. I think my high readings prior were just me being scared to give myself 15 units of Insulin, even though that's how much I was really eating.
Going to keep it up - will reply back in a month or two with my A1C :)
Thanks everyone for all your help, I am going to continue to visit the forums and this site to keep me motivated.
Hi Dave,
I've only had T1D for about 8 years. I am a horrible tester, and my A1C was taken just last week. My educator said just to start testing in baby steps and not all at once. She recommended (since I have two meters laying around) that I leave one meter in my bathroom, so that I can test while I brush my teeth. Cuz hey, I'm doing something mundane, might as well multi task. If I just focus on that for a couple weeks, I will have two regular sugar tests on the "books". If you have the kind of meter that shoots the number to your pump, use that one. After that, integrate one more test somewhere easy in your day for another couple weeks, and so on and so forth. I like this method so far. Also, I like taking care of highs when I'm on the way to bed since I can sleep through symptoms of the sugar fall via correction and not feel so much like crap during the day like I do when I'm all over the place. Hope that helps.
Having a blood sugar log has certainly helped us test my wife's blood sugar. It also prevents us from going insane. Simply checking blood sugars and keeping the numbers in our head makes me feel kind of crazy. Writing it down gets it out of our head and into a format that is easy to reference and learn from.
Having a "fill-in-the-blank" log also makes us accountable. If at the end of the day it's still "blank" than we know we're off-track.
Dr. Bernstein's Glucografs are a well thought-out tool, or you can make your own.
We customized our own log/chart using Open Office. I've attached a copy (in three different formats) in case you (or anyone else) would like to use/modify a copy. We use the same sheet to record meals, boluses, long-acting insulin, etc. It helps make managing blood sugar a concrete part of our life. If it's not on paper, it's really hard for my brain to take it seriously.
1822-DiabeticDharmaLog.pdf (36.8 KB) 1823-DiabeticDharmaLog.xls (11 KB) 1824-DiabeticDharmaLog.ods (12.2 KB)