Wednesday, October 26, 2011

One Touch Waste

 Recently my mail order pharmacy called me to let me know that I use a "non-preferred" brand of test strips.  They informed me that if I switched to the "OneTouch Ultra" strips I could save a solid 40 bucks an order.  That sold me so I made the switch.  Now I see why they are cheaper, becuase the are lower quality strips.  What is that saying something like fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me?  I hope this is the first fool and in 90 days I will switch to another of the pharmacies preferred brands.
 The first thing I noticed with these strips is that I get a box of 100 strips.  The box contains 4 vials of strips.  That makes each vial 25 strips.  Simple math right?  The thing is that each bottle is half filled so 50% of the vial is wasted space like the strips need elbow room or space to move around.  I am not sure why they only put 25 strips in each vial but of course me being an opportunistic person.  When I open up a new box of 100 test strips I put all the strips into 2 vials.
 There has to be some reason why they only put 25 in a container made for 50 but, I have not found or seen a reason why my 50 strips in a 25 strip vial does not work.
I test 8 to 10 times a day so a vial of 25 strips goes pretty fast.  My briefcase is loaded with at least 100 test strips at any moment (back to my end of the world thought mentality).  Not sure if anyone else does this but it sure does save me space in my briefcase for much needed other items like snacks and candy.

3 comments:

  1. Maybe they know you're a backpacker and they're giving you small waterproof containers.

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  2. Yeppp... I have a new medical insurance as of 11/1 due to a new job and the new insurance doesn't cover the test strips that my Omnipod pump uses (Freestyle). So I have to go buy a Bayer brand glucometer and Bayer test strips (the only brand they cover). So I get to test on the Bayer glucometer, then turn around and enter each blood sugar reading into my Omnipod pump. Another device to carry around. I am not excited about this.

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