I wish I could get relion brand strips here in Canada, they are less than what my co-pay is on the ones I can get up here.
I have not used a CGM. Why do you still need 8 tests per day with a CGM? I am not questioning you, I am just curious because I really want the Freestyle Libre when it becomes available to me, but if I still need as many strips as before I might just not bother since the sensors for it are very pricey.
Just make sure your doctor or whoever writes the rx is on board with you. Show records etc. if necessary. Itâs ridiculous to be harassed this way when this is life saving for us. Even with a cgm I still need to test a lot at times because it is frequently very inaccurate and sometimes my test strips are too.
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I use to test around 12x a day before CGM, so I am down in the number. While I find the CGM pretty accurate, I am very sensitive to insulin 1:100, so I feel much safer testing before each bolus or correction. And as I said before before driving each time. Some people get great results from their CGM and do bolus off them, but we are all so very different and what works for me may not and probably will not work for you. I was part of clinical trial for the Libre. It will be cool when it hits the market
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@Sally7 In your opinion, which is better, CGM or FreeStyle Libre in terms of how many additional meter-and-strips tests you needed?
I donât think one is a substitute for the other. A cgm gives you loads of data, at 5-minute intervals (at least thatâs how it works with my Dex), and if you donât get anxious about all that information, it provides a tremendous window in to how your body is reacting to various conditions and how things are trending in more-or-less real time. Iâve done some informal tests with my strips and find theyâre commonly off by 5-10%, and thatâs probably being generous. Likewise, the cgm can be off (lots of other comments here about that), so thereâs always error, thatâs just the life of D. But for tracking trends and making corrections and staying in range, for me the cgm is the way to go. And I still do plenty of side-of-finger sticks along the way.
there is a walmart website that you can order from. i dont know if they ship to canada but it is worth checking!
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And on top of that, try and get insurance to pay for the âoveragesâ Itâs a fight every single time I order. BCBS limits it to 5X a day.
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Me too, down to 9 - 10 daily. My CGM has never been accurate enough, consistently to trust it completely but for avoiding my lows and highs itâs âpricelessâ
Good for you for making them an âexâ.
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Sorry itâs been awhile since I did the trial and you have to remember these trials are blind. That was the same for a number of dexcom trials Iâve done. They give you a meter to test blood sugar but the CGM is blind so you donât know what the readings are. I did like the lower profile of the sensor but I didnât like the only way to get a reading was to wave the meter over the sensor where right now I just look at my reciever. Not everyone likes the same thing. I think it will be another option for people and they need to find what works best for them, just like pumps.
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My doctor prescribes 6-8X a day, because that is my average. Wake up, pre-work out, post-workout, pre-lunch, post-lunch/afternoon snack, pre-dinner, post-dinner and/or bed. Maybe middle of night.
How is that excessive?
My kids are in sports, and their endocrinologist prescribes 10X a day.
I once had a pharmacy tech say, âDoes he really test that much, I donât believe it?â I replied, "Yes, he has Type I."
I honestly think people are so used to Type IIs rarely testing, they think thatâs everyone. The same way they think everyone got every kind of diabetes from poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle.
We are now weeks into our new CGMs, and I am thrilled. Every 5 minutes?! Now thatâs what Iâm talking about!
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My diabetologist strongly recommends testing 2 or 3 days a week and at a different time on every day I test. When I told her I test at least 4 times every day, she was like âthere is no need to overdo it this muchâ.
I live in India where it is still very common for doctors leave it to the dieticians to plan the diet while they independently decide on the insulin units based on a random look at my blood sugar readings without trying to correlate the carbs that I eat and the corresponding insulin units that I have to inject. They donât talk about the quantity of carbs consumed and the corresponding insulin units to inject. It is as if all the food that the dietician recommends have the same carbs in the recommended quantities. They donât even talk about âcarb countingâ to the patients since they feel that it is okay for them to micromanage the patientsâ diet and insulin dosage. I have had a doctor (not the current one) tell me âYou can adjust your insulin dosage only to a maximum of 2 units. Beyond that you have to come to meâ.
Six months back the doctor recommended wearing a âprofessionalâ CGMS for 3 days so that she could see how my blood sugar levels vary throughout the day. The reasoning behind that was, doctorâs mother who was a type 2 diabetic kept having highs in the morning and she was able to detect lows that were happening at midnight and causing highs in the morning using a CGMS. She said that she will be able to detect such undetected lows that I might be having. I paid a bomb for using that âprofessionalâ CGMS for 3 days and when I went to meet her after that, she had the report on her computer and made some random conclusions and adjusted my dosage based on that. In the end, she didnât even give me the report!
Ugh! I needed to get this off my chest!
I feel so fortunate that I have not run up against this problem yet. Testing is the one thing that makes me feel like, âI can do this.â Maybe I just havenât been in the D game enough⌠(knock on wood that my insurance wonât suddenly notice that I check 8-10 times a day!)
We had a member in the chat room just two or three days ago from India, and he was in precisely the circumstances you describe so well. Didnât know how to determine the carbs in what he was eating, didnât know how to adjust insulin dosages accordingly, was given a fixed script to follow by rote that included testing once a day . . . was upset and appalled by the results and didnât know what to do about it.
Oh, and he was taking a bolus insulin PLUS a 70/30 mix.
Grrrrrrr. 
I was told that 4 was the minimum to maintain good control, so before meals and before bed. Testing more than that when not necessary (excluding exercising, driving, feeling low, etc.- just testing for the sake of testing) can make people neurotic and burn out faster. I found that this happened when I had a CGM, too. Just some food for thought.
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Different strokes. I get neurotic when I DONâT know whatâs going on. 
And saying that you neednât bother to test before operating machinery is just . . . . . recklessly irresponsible.
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I wish there was a way to test that doesnât break the bank and that you didnât have to disclose or justify to anyone. This would be a tremendous upgrade to my diabetic life.
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They only want to give strips for x number of tests per day. Then they say test if you feel low, during excecise, before you drive, when you are sick, etc. Where do they think all those extra strips are supposed to come from?
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I donât know the logic of instituting strip rationing. People dedicated to frequent checking will likely keep up that habit via appeals. The most natural limiting factor on strip use is personal preference. People donât want to check more, they want to check less. Theyâre tired of the drill.
We need to test as much as we want. Itâs good for us and society.
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