Avoid applying glitter to your nether regions.
Ok actually Strip Safely is not a joking matter.
It is about holding Glucose Meter manufacturers and Test strip manufacturers accountable.
People with diabetes and the parents of children with diabetes rely on glucose meters and test strips to collect blood droplets multiple times a day. The numbers collected from the meters are used to dose insulin and treat low blood sugars.
A person with diabetes must take daily injections of insulin (or infuse the insulin via an insulin pump) to stay alive and healthy. Without insulin everyone diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and even other types would die. That same fabulous clear liquid (that smells of band aids) can also kill a person. The balancing act of administering just the right amount of insulin at the right time is something all people with diabetes (or parents of kids with diabetes) must perfect – and the amounts of insulin and timing change throughout the day, the week, the month, and a persons life (really perfection is a myth and one day a certain amount of insulin for a specific meal will be spot on – the next day the same amount for the same meal will leave us scratching our heads with the proverbial WTF.)
High-wire aerialists use a balancing pole to assist them in negotiating a thin wire stretched across two elevated points.
People with diabetes use glucose meters and test strips to navigate the thin wire that is diabetes.
So what happens if the accuracy of our meters/test strips are compromised? Well imagine what would happen to a high-wire aerialist if the weight of his/her balancing pole could vary +/- 20% at any given moment during his/her performance.
There is more to say. More to explain.
I couldn’t possibly do as well as Bennet – author/owner of YDMV, who started the StripSafely campaign. So without further delay please visit StripSafely. Take the Quiz (what you didn’t know there would be a test?) Read the issues page. Join the campaign. Write some letters. Give a listen to the DSMA podcast to understand more. In addition to signing the petition and sharing the campaign consider donating to the cause – you’ll even get a pin.
Stick With It Sugar 
Thanks, Christina, for this post and link to the info and the action. I know about the 20% variance, but tend to forget that throughout the day as we check and bolus. Could this be one reason t1d is so hard to “control”? (use that word loosely!) Why on one night I put her to bed at 106 and 45 mins later she’s alarming at 64 (with a meter reading of 58)….and the VERY NEXT NIGHT she goes to bed at 154 (and she hadn’t eaten in at least a couple hours) (and I think “cool! I have time for a bubble bath for sure:))…and 30 minutes later she’s alarming 205 with arrow up? Wow. I tend to blame it all on the wackiness of diabetes, but maybe a lot if it has to do with strip inaccuracy and the therefore over- or under-dosing of insulin based on an incorrect reading. Wow. Just Wow. I put so much trust in that meter. Crazy. Thanks again.
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diabetes is certainly wacky but inaccurate meters and test strips are a real thing. I mean if the result is within range – lets say 100 then it is still likely very safe because it could be between 80-120. But imagine if it is 300 – that means it could be 240-360. For my daughter that is more than a whole unit either way. Crazy.
So the night that she was 106 – she could have been 86 and dropping thus you get the 65 – or is it really 52?
With so many companies producing the test strips with no regulation after initial approval – who will protect us?
The FDA does periodical screenings of many things – things that aren’t likely going to result in serious danger to the consumer – yet no random checks on devices and products that patients use to decide how much of a life saving/life threatening drug to inject. CRAZY
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Thanks for helping to spread the word. I love the tight rope comparison.
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It is a great word to spread. Working on my letters. I have written them and have stamps but need envelopes. Thanks for helping launch it.
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Yay! Thanks for your post.
Yes. Diabetes is a balancing act and strips are key to finding balance. Well said.
LYMI
Bennet
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Yay. I trust you found those envelopes fast than I found time to say thanks. Still my late thanks for being an early voice sharing our StripSafely message. I put a link back here to your post on the StripSafely Social page at http://www.stripsafely.com/?page_id=78 hope more folks join us as a result.
Best
Bennet
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LOL – you had already said Thanks I just hadn’t approved it cus I was in FL. Sad I never shared a drink with you. Next time. As far as the letters – I didn’t get even a generic reply so I think I need to write again. Ill share my letters soon – trying to clean out the other 4 draft posts I have waiting. Thanks for including my link. Cheers.
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