About two months ago I collected my diabetes supplies from my chemist only to discover when I got home that there was an extra box in the bag. It happens sometimes but thankfully not often, whoever’s filling out the order ends up putting extra in by mistake.

It’s not a big deal because the next month I didn’t order this product as I still hadn’t started on the extra box yet. I still ended up with another box but the next month I did the same thing and it worked. I also always keep at least one month of supplies, always, what I mean by this is that once I start on my current month’s supplies I reorder and I have just enough space for this much.

The reason I do this is because when my pump prescription was written the quantity was waaaay more than I needed, like 3 months worth of pump supplies while my other prescriptions were a one month quantity. And I don’t think anyone has a house big enough to store that much plus I don’t want to be wasteful as all of the products have an expiry date.

I wrote another post in 2019 titled Strip Savvy about how I reduced the number of blood glucose test strips I got every month if you want some light entertainment.

Do you get only what you need or do you take what you're given?

I’ve thought a lot about this question over the years and sometimes it comes up in some discussions with other people with diabetes but recently it’s come up a bit more in our diabetes groups probably since we were concerned with Covid stockpiling or not being able to access enough supplies with Brexit.

Then there was the 2015 HSE’s guidelines on test strips allocations for a person with diabetes who don’t use insulin which caused and still does cause huge confusion to pharmacists and then the 2021 HSE preferred test strip list being published. The wisdom of preventing access to a very basic and cheap tool that helps people with diabetes manage their diabetes better is a post for another day.

I wanted to post about this because there is an assumption that people with diabetes just take what they are given at the chemists and end up with way too many supplies such as test strips, than they need and they go out of date and unused. I feel this assumption is completely unfounded but I don’t have access to any of this data nor the will to look for it.

I’ve been “rockin’ up” 😳 to my local chemists for 28 years and walking out with my diabetes supplies for free. I appreciate this hugely.

In the beginning, the list of things I needed was short and the bag was small, but even in those early days, my chemist would ask what I needed and how much of it. I would get extra to cover holidays and such but I never ended up with a huge stash of supplies that were unused or even went out of date.

These days the list of things I need is a bit longer, the items got bulkier and the bag is much bigger. I love big bags! :-D I have a list, typed and sliced, that before Covid, I would drop off and return to collect once I’d done a quick trip to Tesco and possibly a wee browse in Penneys. The staff loved me and chuckled at me at the same time when I presented my list, and I loved putting a smile on their faces. Now I phone my list in and collect it later. It’s very rare that I end up with more or less than I asked for, if it’s less it’s easily fixed.

I don’t think any of us have enough storage in our houses for the excesses that we are believed to be stashing. However, it feels like the test strip allocations of 2015 were decided without very much input from people with diabetes and it turns out that it’s not working for some people, it might even be disempowering them from being proactive in managing their diabetes. I think this ‘notion’ that people with diabetes don’t need test strips needs to be reviewed?