Monday, April 6, 2009

Average Fingersticks?

On average, how many fingersticks are you/your child doing a day?

When Kacey was on shots, she used a Freestyle Lite meter and tested between 7-10 times a day. Now that she is on the pump, she is using the Freestyle meter connected to her Cozmo but she is testing about 12-15 times a day. Most of those are because of lows and retests in 15 min or because she "feels weird". Plus we're doing middle of the night checks EVERY night.

When she was using the Freestyle Lite meter, her Endo wrote the prescription for 300 strips a month. We used every bit of those and by the time it was time for a refill, she was ready for more! When her Endo wrote the prescription for the Freestyle strips, he wrote it for 200 a month. HUH?!? I questioned it when we were there and her CDE said for us to let her know if we needed more than that. We do! I have to fax a note over to her and let her know that 200 isn't going to get us through the month if she's testing as much as she is.

Is it normal to test this much when you're on the pump?

10 comments:

Kelly said...

Definetly the amount of testing continues to be high, especially when you are working on getting all the settings right on the pump! We check Maddison at least 10 times per day, though we would ideally shoot for no more than 8! Its not uncommon to test 12-15 times a day or more for us, still after 2 years. I think the pump is alot more work sometimes!

Karen said...

Oh yes, I test a whole lot more now that I'm a pumper. I think part of it is because with the pump, you have much more control and can correct blood sugars with partial units, so I tend to want to test more and keep myself close to my target range. With MDIs and only being able to bolus in full units, I would often not correct for a slight high reading. I hope your doctor doubles your strip prescription!! Mine didn't have a problem at all when I told him I needed my prescription to include more strips for more tests.

Penny Ratzlaff said...

10 times a day is a minimum for us. It's often more due to lows or highs. We get 400 strips a month and I've never run out.

Also, we tested more like 12-15 times a day when Riley first started on the pump because we didn't know what to expect and were trying to make sure his basals were OK.

Lorraine of "This is Caleb..." said...

We get 400 a month and use them. My son Caleb is 6 and T1. 10-12 times is a slow day for us. We've been 15+ lately. It goes through waves and recently I've been checking multiple times at night (yawn). Thanks for this post - I'm glad to know I'm not alone.
Lorraine

Shamae (Ghost written by Loren her hubby) said...

Ya we check a lot more with Syd too. Her script is for 600 every 3 months and we go through about 500'ish'. I like to have the surplus though so I haven't said anything. Anyway we def use a lot more! When she has her CGM in we only test about 6 times a day but w/out her CGM it's 8-10.

Rachel said...

For us, it didn't really change when we went on the pump. We check on average 8-10 per day. When we have issues, lows or sick days, we check more. Sometimes up to 15 times per month. We get 250 per month and we at times come close to running out... like this month, called the prescription yesterday but they can't fill it yet :( I think that I will ask them to change the prescription tomorrow when I see them.

Anonymous said...

We average 15 these days (puberty/late preteen). Endo has written a script to cover. I have to test once an hour after dinner until about 2 or 3am due to crazy sugars (high until midnight), sometimes dropping 1am and 2am, sometimes staying high. There are two different "patterns" vying for dominance. Also another pattern 2am to 5am (high or low) on tested basals has started to emerge. Maybe her period will begin soon? Not sure, but it sure is wacky. Only way to tell which way she is heading is to test, sometimes hourly.

Kathy Groenbeck said...

Katie tests 7-9 on a good day. Sick days LOTS MORE. We have a script for 800 strips for 90 days. We do have a small surplus but are hoping to start pumping in the summer. So, I'm sure we will catch up on using the strips. I keep hearing horror stories about puberty/preteen(Katie is 12 1/2). I'm sure they can write your scrip for more.
Good Luck,
Kathy Groenbeck

:) Tracie said...

On a good day 8-10. Depends on the feelings throughout the day. With basal rate changes, a little more at first to see if things are hunky dorey. We get 800 one touch for 3 months, one box goes to school though and we usually overlap prescrips.

Anonymous said...

Nikki tests a lot every day - we did an 'experiment' one week just to see how many strips she uses, on a "good" week, and she used 71 strips in 7 days - and that's after being on a pump for 5 years.