Trippin' on Strippin'

When I was diagnosed with diabetes I was introduced to 2 things from my doctor that I would have to live with for the rest of my life.

Insulin and a Glucometer.

Besides the insulin I needed to live I knew I was going to have to check my blood sugar for the rest of my life. So test strips have been showing up in shoes and in the washing machine for a long time.

All that time I have trusted that the number they give me is correct. And why wouldn't I? My doctor never told me to check twice or question a number. As long as I wash my hands (usually do) and rub alcohol on my finger (which I never do) I should be good.

The fact is that is not true. Test strips are not as acurate as you'd think. In fact they are not even as close as they are SUPPOSED to be! That is a big deal!

Check out Strip Safely. As their About Me page describes, "StripSafely is an ad hoc Diabetes Online Community (DOC) collaboration to help the general public understand that there are inaccurate blood glucose test strips. We hope to get folks involved to do something about that. By something, we mean write the FDA, elected officials, and the news media."

Awesome! So now what? You can start by taking the quiz on the site. 10 questions that will open your eyes pretty quickly to the problem we are facing.

I would suggest also checking out some articles regarding the Test Strip problem. After that let you voice be heard! The StripSafely site has sample FDA letters for you to customize and addresses of where they need to go.

My grandma is currently in an extended care facility. She takes insulin daily to manage her type 2 diabetes. The other night when they tested her bg before bed it was 199. I asked what the correction dose of insulin would be and the nurse said they only correct if it is over 200. So they didn't correct. 

According to FDA guidlines a bg over 75 must be accurate within 20%. So grandma was really somewhere between 160 and 240. THAT IS A BIG DIFFERENCE! And the FDA says they only have to be that accurate 95% of the time. AND, this is going to blow you away, MANY METERS CANNOT EVEN DO THAT!

If this bothers you at all please get involved in sending a message to the FDA. Also let others in your life know so they too can add their voice to the message we send.

We are a powerful community when we work together in a contructive way. Visit StripSafely to get involved and make a difference in your health and the health of others.