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Won’t prescribe Testing Strips and Lancets anymore

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Laconic

Laconic

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I saw the diabetic nurse last week, she was happy with my progress. I mentioned that I was running low on Testing Strips and Lancets. She replied that Since I am just on Metformin now I don’t need to test I was only given them because I was on Gliclazide briefly.
I’m going to ask my doctor when I have a medication review, because with my medical exemption certificate I can get them at no cost, but am I really not entitled to them anymore just would like to know what my doctor thinks
 
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Mine was stopped after I came off Gliclazide which causes hypos. Happens to everyone, no hypo medication = no test strips.
I self fund mine now for peace of mind. Mind, @grovesy held onto prescription strips...lucky sod.
 
Yes I did manage to hold on to them but a Pharmacist at last years medication review did mention withdrawing them, then said she would leave it to the Diabetic Nurse.
I suspect if the Diabetic Nurse withdrew them, you will be lucky if your Doctor reinstates. What meter do you use?
 
Yeah unfortunately most Type 2's self fund their test strips if they aren't on hypo causing medications, my MIL has never been on hypo causing medication but was prescribed strips for a while but she had them stopped the other year xx
 
I have an Accu-Chek Performa nano meter, trying to find out how much self funding would cost...££££
 
@Laconic Accu-Chek strips are one of the more expensive to self fund, I think Boots are £20 for a pot of 50 Nano strips, you may in fact be cheaper in the long run buying a new meter and funding strips for that, the cheapest meter to self fund and that quite a few of the members use is the SD Codefree meter xx
 
i got 50 Acco Chek Performa test strips from Boots today for £13.65. i get mine on prescription but miscounted how many i had left
 
Laconic said:
I have an Accu-Chek Performa nano meter, trying to find out how much self funding would cost...££££
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Sorry to hear you are having test strip woes Laconic :(

Hope you can have a productive conversation with your GP and demonstrate the improved outcomes and quality of life you are getting by being able to self monitor your blood glucose.

If you are let down and the strips are refused, it may be worth considering a meter with more cost-effective strips. One of the most affordable meters members here have found is from SD, and has been recently updated to the SD Gluco Navii which has test strips at around £8 for 50
 
Thanks all I’m going to try and twist my doctors arm before resigning my meter to the bin, watch this space....
 
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The Nano uses the same strips as my pump meters have always used, for which I had to pay £28 for a tub of 50 whilst on a camping holiday on a farm not that far from Doncaster airport. I'd missed the GP surgery in the village by half an hour, and it was Friday. You would NOT wish to self fund the strips for that meter I assure you!

I'd get one of the Gluco Navii ones with 50 strips for £8 instead, if I were you.
 
My friend still has his provided for him but he does have multiple health problems with COPD and Parkinson's so maybe that is why.
 
When I was first diagnosed, my nurse gave me the Braun meter, strips and lancets. Later when I went on to Metformin this stopped. I am now on Forxiga (Dapagliflozin), and have been for some time, I have therefore been purchasing my own strips and lancets. I have been told it makes little difference to check when you are on certain meds, but I think most of us just want to know we have some control of our BG. I sometimes do well and other times, such as just recently, not so well.

I hate being diabetic, I constantly have side effects which cause me a lot of stress which I'm sure are not helping my frame of mind. It seems to me that no matter what drug the medics put you on, they all have side effects, and as we all know these happen not to everyone, but to those that do get them it can be (in my case at least) utterly intolerable, and embarrassing. Need I say more. I am very fed up right now.

I am just wondering if I should ask my GP to put me on a different med than Forxiga, because I'm pretty miserable.
 
Annette&Bertie said:
When I was first diagnosed, my nurse gave me the Braun meter, strips and lancets. Later when I went on to Metformin this stopped. I am now on Forxiga (Dapagliflozin), and have been for some time, I have therefore been purchasing my own strips and lancets. I have been told it makes little difference to check when you are on certain meds, but I think most of us just want to know we have some control of our BG. I sometimes do well and other times, such as just recently, not so well.

I hate being diabetic, I constantly have side effects which cause me a lot of stress which I'm sure are not helping my frame of mind. It seems to me that no matter what drug the medics put you on, they all have side effects, and as we all know these happen not to everyone, but to those that do get them it can be (in my case at least) utterly intolerable, and embarrassing. Need I say more. I am very fed up right now.

I am just wondering if I should ask my GP to put me on a different med than Forxiga, because I'm pretty miserable.
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I am sorry to hear you are suffering with awful side effects due to meds.
Oh yes I most definitely would ask for different meds . I would give graphic them graphic details of what you are going through as sometimes they don’t really understand just how bad they are.
Please let us know how you get on.
 
I changed my GP practice in July/August last year and I can honestly say I wish I had done so a long time ago. The attention I have been getting is second to none. I moved to this village in 2010 but still stayed with my old practice until last year which I had been with for 30 years. I was not alone with my reasons for changing practice, so glad I did. I do think if I explain how bad it is, I will go on to something else, but no idea what next to try.

Over the time I have been on this very helpful site, I have seen people on the meds I had previously been on, therefore I don’t know what else to try. Diabetes terrifies me and yet I find myself wondering if all hell will break loose if I take no medication at all.
I just know that all the unpleasant things happening to me nowadays, never happened before.
 
Had my lancets taken off my repeat 12 months or more ago, if I was to come off hypo causing meds the test strips would be taken off as well. As someone has already posted the SD code free is around the cheapest to self fund, did notice the other day the SD code free has been superseded by a newer meter and strips are still at a sensible price, compared to others.
 
Annette&Bertie said:
I changed my GP practice in July/August last year and I can honestly say I wish I had done so a long time ago. The attention I have been getting is second to none. I moved to this village in 2010 but still stayed with my old practice until last year which I had been with for 30 years. I was not alone with my reasons for changing practice, so glad I did. I do think if I explain how bad it is, I will go on to something else, but no idea what next to try.

Over the time I have been on this very helpful site, I have seen people on the meds I had previously been on, therefore I don’t know what else to try. Diabetes terrifies me and yet I find myself wondering if all hell will break loose if I take no medication at all.
I just know that all the unpleasant things happening to me nowadays, never happened before.
Click to expand...
I think @AndBreathe says she attended a talk by a Diabetic Specialist who said there where lots of different options, I seem to remember a number in the hundreds being quoted.
 
Well I know I can’t live this way, it has affected every aspect of my life. There is something else that bothers me about type2 in that we constantly hear people get typ2 because they are overweight and/or obese. While this is true in many cases. Typ2 diabetes is in my family history going back 50 years or more, when it was described “late onset”: I can honestly say not a single relative of mine was or is overweight, even mildly. One of my uncles was skinny, my brother who is 10 years my junior, never had a weight problem and has been diabetic type 2 for 15 years. On the other hand I have been on and off diets all my life being the only one to ever have a weight problem, but not obese.

There is a common perception that you only get type 2 because of your lifestyle choices. I used to be a very outdoor person, walking literally for miles. I have very painful arthritis in my spine and both hips, meaning I cannot even take my dogs walking, and pay someone to do that. But more and more I so miss the exercise I got from walking, even a short distance. I also know if I could it would help my health but it is just so out of my reach!

What I would give for a walk along the beach, or through the woods. If any of you can do this, please don’t take it for granted. I’m sitting around too much which cannot be good for me!
 
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