Saturday, November 14, 2009

Checking Sugar


Last night I went through 3 test strips while trying to check Lainey's sugar. I even had to prick 3 different fingers. I just couldn't get enough blood on the test strip. Isn't that frustrating? Luckily Lainey's a good sport about it. She'll let out the frustrated sigh with me and will ask, "It's yellow?" (I once told her that the test strip needs to be all red with no yellow showing. The explanation stuck.)

I hate wasting test strips; it's like throwing away money. The cost of a vile of 25 test strips is between $25-$30, without insurance. That's roughly $1 per test strip, and when you check sugar about 7 times per day...well the $$ adds up. If you do the math, since I'm a number person, you're looking at paying $2,600-$3,000 annually for test strips (without insurance). And that's just for test strips, not to mention all the other supplies you need for one diabetic child. What about families with multiple diabetics?

I remember the first time I wasted a test strip. It was soon after coming home from the hospital after diagnosis. I swore (gasp). I swore in-front-of-my-mother.

I didn't regret it.

Sometimes it feels good to swear.

2 comments:

Meri said...

Sometimes, when it's a long night diabetes wise...when I get up and see on the dresser, like nine test strips laying there with dots of blood surrounding them, all I can do is shake my head and silently swear too.

AjsMommy82 said...

My husband wastes at least 2 strips a DAY not getting enough blood on them! So frustrating!!!

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