Purely out of curiosity, but if you are T2DM and prescribed a meter, how often are you asked to test (whether or not you test more or less)?
When searching for information on this and that I can come across different N.H.S. trust guidelines. Amongst other things this includes their guidelines on prescribing glucometers, and it is a little interesting to see which ones different areas recommend. But I have become a little fascinated by their testing requirements when given.
For type 1 they are pretty consistent in saying patients should test at least four times a day but be allowed to test as much as necessary, which is why I am only asking about T2DM. Because they all seem to suggest that, excluding special requirements, T2DM patients taking medications that can cause hypos or on insulin should test around three times a week. And so the prescription guidelines are usually one box of strips every two or three months. Some do say those on M.D.I. therapy should test as per T1DM guidance, but some do not! Hopefully that omission is only because specialists will be handling such prescriptions and not surgeries.
So I am just curious whether this is actually what happens?
When I was diagnosed I was prescribed Gliclazide, given a glucometer and told to test twice a day. So I did. And if a strip was wasted or I had to retest it made me anxious, because it meant I would be going beyond my prescription. I did not even realize at first I was supposed to test before suspected hypos, and only much much later still that I was supposed to also test after treating them.
But my surgery threw test strips at me, thankfully metaphorically, that it was never actually a problem to request more whenever I needed them. And the only time I was told to do anything different was at one review when they said I only needed to change lancets daily and not with every test. Which, as with most people, would have meant doing so more often. One time they even removed lancets from my repeat prescription list as I left it too long since the last one.
I have not seen any documents for my local C.C.G. come up online, but I assume they are not a strange exception to the rest of the N.H.S. But surely my surgery are also not a similarly strange exception who prescribe far beyond what they are supposed to. Which is why it has got my wondering if this is one of those policies that only exists on paper, once you print out the PDFs, but that in practice is ignored by everyone.
Fifty test strips to last ninety days, though.
When searching for information on this and that I can come across different N.H.S. trust guidelines. Amongst other things this includes their guidelines on prescribing glucometers, and it is a little interesting to see which ones different areas recommend. But I have become a little fascinated by their testing requirements when given.
For type 1 they are pretty consistent in saying patients should test at least four times a day but be allowed to test as much as necessary, which is why I am only asking about T2DM. Because they all seem to suggest that, excluding special requirements, T2DM patients taking medications that can cause hypos or on insulin should test around three times a week. And so the prescription guidelines are usually one box of strips every two or three months. Some do say those on M.D.I. therapy should test as per T1DM guidance, but some do not! Hopefully that omission is only because specialists will be handling such prescriptions and not surgeries.
So I am just curious whether this is actually what happens?
When I was diagnosed I was prescribed Gliclazide, given a glucometer and told to test twice a day. So I did. And if a strip was wasted or I had to retest it made me anxious, because it meant I would be going beyond my prescription. I did not even realize at first I was supposed to test before suspected hypos, and only much much later still that I was supposed to also test after treating them.
But my surgery threw test strips at me, thankfully metaphorically, that it was never actually a problem to request more whenever I needed them. And the only time I was told to do anything different was at one review when they said I only needed to change lancets daily and not with every test. Which, as with most people, would have meant doing so more often. One time they even removed lancets from my repeat prescription list as I left it too long since the last one.
I have not seen any documents for my local C.C.G. come up online, but I assume they are not a strange exception to the rest of the N.H.S. But surely my surgery are also not a similarly strange exception who prescribe far beyond what they are supposed to. Which is why it has got my wondering if this is one of those policies that only exists on paper, once you print out the PDFs, but that in practice is ignored by everyone.
Fifty test strips to last ninety days, though.
