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Annish

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Type 2
Hi I am new here. I have type 2 . I have been given a glucose testing meter as I requested one so I can keep a check on my blood sugars. I didn’t get a sharps box, so do I buy one or do I get one free? Also as I am type 2 I have to buy my own strips and lancets. Where is the best place to purchase these? Thank you
 
Which testing meter have you been given?
 
The strips are going to be the expensive bit and are specific to the monitor so worth finding out the price of the strips for the monitor you have as it may be cheaper in the long run to buy a monitor with cheaper strips. The strips for some monitors are £20 plus for 50 but the cheapest are about £8 for 50 for the Gluco Navil or Spirit TEE 2 available on line Amazon or similar, you do not need to pay VAT. You would easily recoup the cost of the monitor in the saving on strips. Lancets are pretty cheap and can be reused.
A good step to provide the monitor but not much good without strips so their heart was in the right place but only half a job.
 
Leadinglights said:
The strips are going to be the expensive bit and are specific to the monitor so worth finding out the price of the strips for the monitor you have as it may be cheaper in the long run to buy a monitor with cheaper strips. The strips for some monitors are £20 plus for 50 but the cheapest are about £8 for 50 for the Gluco Navil or Spirit TEE 2 available on line Amazon or similar, you do not need to pay VAT. You would easily recoup the cost of the monitor in the saving on strips. Lancets are pretty cheap and can be reused.
A good step to provide the monitor but not much good without strips so their heart was in the right place but only half a job.
Click to expand...
It is a Contour
 
It is a Contour I did get some strips and lancets but sharps box or details of howto dispose of them As I am type2 NHS Scotland don’t give prescriptions for these
 
All the lancets I have seen come with a little piece of plastic (like a twist off cap). I just save the cap and replace it back on before disposing of the lancet. I use an old empty test strips box to hold both used strips and the old lancet. Not that I use many lancets, I don't share my BG meter with anybody so only change them when they stop being so sharp. This way I easily get several weeks use out of a single lancet.
 
Systems for sharps bins seem to vary depending on where you live - even down to the county boundaries. Some people get boxes prescribed by GP… some use hospital or pharmacy for issuing and collection, others deal directly with their local council.

Maybe start with your local council website?

I think Contour XT meters are at the upper end of strip prices - as others have suggested, even if you have to buy another meter, switching brand for one with cheaper strips might be well worth doing.

Welcome to the forum!
 
I had to phone a prescription request through on Friday, so asked for a sharps box at the same time, will find out tomorrow if I get it or not when I collect my meds. I was allowed one before for my son after his op, but it might be different for lancets. I saw my nurse this past week and she again said she wasn't allowed to supply me with a BG meter, even though I told her I'd bought my own. I think it is daft not to get one on script, it helps at the beginning when you need to check for spikes. Welcome to the forum 🙂
 
Thank you for your help. I think its daft the NHS pours money into booklets pamphlets etc about diets and things but doesnt give you the basics to check your levels. Maybe its just me!
 
Aaah @Annish - but you have omitted the fact that in a 10min average appointment, the NHS cannot possibly educate most people everything they need to know about their new diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes or give them a template of how to test and why, for them to get understandable results from the testing.

If everyone with D in the UK was engaged with learning properly how to help themselves, then this forum would literally have millions of members, wouldn't it!
 
Annish, I reside in Scotland and I was given all the necessary equipment on prescription, and on repeat, not the Sharps box, i would definitely be asking questions why they have made the decision not to provide them.
 
Just to clarify this was when I was classed as type 2 diabetes. Now type 1
 
Hi I have been told twice once from practice nurse and from Ninewells nurse. She sent me the box with meter,strips,lancets etc. No other instructions except to tell me over the phone she couldn't give me a.prescription as I am type 2
 
Annish said:
Hi I have been told twice once from practice nurse and from Ninewells nurse. She sent me the box with meter,strips,lancets etc. No other instructions except to tell me over the phone she couldn't give me a.prescription as I am type 2
Click to expand...
Annish you need to go to your doctor, that’s who prescribed mine and others I know. Inform your GP that you have this equipment and need it to be on your repeat. Annish be bold and confident if it was assessed you required this ( I know many type 2 diabetics manage without testing) then you need it to help manage your diabetes. Good luck.
 
Elizabethe said:
Annish you need to go to your doctor, that’s who prescribed mine and others I know. Inform your GP that you have this equipment and need it to be on your repeat. Annish be bold and confident if it was assessed you required this ( I know many type 2 diabetics manage without testing) then you need it to help manage your diabetes. Good luck.
Click to expand...
It is not unusual for Type 2 not be prescribed test strips, unless they are on hypo causing medication, and even then they often get very limited strips.
 
Well I got my meds this morning, but no sharps box, even got the assistant to check if one had been prescribed, it hadn't - so we are still teetering on square one. Ho hum.
 
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