Diabetes Type 2 Support Group

Type 2 Diabetes is a condition in which the body either does not produce enough insulin or does not make efficient use of it. Insulin is a hormone needed to convert food into glucose, a sugar that the body uses for energy. Without enough insulin, glucose can accumulate in the blood, and can cause serious health problems such as heart disease and strokes and organ damage...

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Keep those test strips in a sealed container.....

katie
katie

I thought I'd make my mornings easier by getting the testing supplies set up ahead of time - my arthritis, expecially in the am, makes fumbling with the little strips for the tester a real pain, literally, and the dogs are always frantic to go out and pee, and it's extra stress.  So, I thought, why not put the needle in the tester the night before, and lay out the strips, so they're ready to go?  I pulled out three strips and set them on a sheet of clean paper on the desktop.  In the mornings, i thought, it would be easy to pick up just one, since they were already separated.


Here's what happened.  The first morning, my sugar was up.  It didn't make sense based on the previous day's diet / exercise / stress level, but sometimes there's a weird spike I can't explain.


The second morning, the number was significantly higher.  I still couldn't explain it and was starting to get concerned.  But I felt good, and by now I can usually tell when the numbers are high.


The third morning - today - it was insane, nearly 80 points above my normal.  But I realized the strips for these three days had been out on the desktop for 24, 48 and 72 hours respectively.  I pulled out a new strip, retestged, and had a normal reading.


You may be smacking your head and thinking well, you dope, what did you expect?  but honestly, it hadn't occurred to me that it could matter.  All I could thin about was the difficulty I have opening the test strip container and extracting just one strip in the morning.  I'm going to repeat this whole process for a few days, but do it both ways, to see if I can make the discrepancy happen again.  But I wanted to share the experience with you in case it could be of help.

tigertwo
tigertwo
Wow, that’s a big difference! I wouldn’t have thought leaving strips out of the container would matter.
Tired
Tired
I think the strip container says to keep the strips in closed container.
Sorry you couldn't make things easier for yourself.
Veronica77
Veronica77
When first diagnosed the pharmacist told me to quickly remove a strip from container and close lid securely!
Atpeacemary
Atpeacemary
wow, maybe that is why I get weird readings at time. I will have to pay attention to it too.
katie
katie
Following up on the original post: I've had the three month bloodwork done and confirmed that my blood sugar levels are decreasing, as the doctor and I had hoped. This makes me feel more certain that those crazy high numbers I saw for two or three days were in fact errors. He said that the unusually humid weather we had during the week in which I set the strips out ahead of time was probably contributory.

This does not, of course, help me figure out how to physically handle the tiny strips in the early morning (when dogs, goats, cats, sheep, chickens and turkeys are also making it known that they need to be fed, like, right now). The best I can come up with is to transfer four or five strips at a time from the full container to an old one, and seal it back up right away - it's easier to get a strip out if there's only a few in the little cylinder.

But perhaps someone could create a sort of dispenser, something that pops out just one at a time on demand, and keeps the remaining ones sterile and airtight. I'm certainly not the only person who needs to test daily who has limitations.
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