PieRat

Just to add 2 cents to this topic.

I was just recently given a new meter, and strips by my primary care doc. It is a Breeze 2 monitor. Anyway I also have the Bayer contour as it was my previous monitor. I still had a container or two of strips for the contour that had expired (according to the date) last year. I decided to test using both my breeze and contour a few times, and the out of date contour strips basically were giving me the same results as the new strips were.

So I think it just depends as others are saying here about how the strips are stored and such, much more than just the date printed on the side of the packaging. With saying that though make sure you have testing solution, or another way of verifying that they are correctly giving good readings if you plan on using out of date strips.

fiesta

That is a good idea. I never thought of verifying my test strips. Thank you!!

jsntay

I have also had some out of date strips and didn't want to just toss them so I checked them with control solution. Of course I have also been known to keep milk a few days after it's expiration date, I just smell before drinking, LOL. Just my opinion..

__________________
Jason

Diagnosed Type 2 04.08.08
Meds:
Metformin 1000mg
Latest A1C:
6.2 May 2010

fiesta

Test strips are too expensive to throw away. I would use them even after the expiration date. I get mine every month. I do not always use all of them in the month I got them.

Richard157

I agree, I have used strips as much as two weeks after they expired. Everything seemed to be OK.

__________________
I have been Type 1 for 67 years. My A1c is 5.8. I pump with the MM 523 (Revel).

Here is the link to my book:

http://www.amazon.com/Beating-Odds-Y...8873383&sr=1-1

PieRat

Hahahaha! Yeah it would be much easier if we could just take a sniff of our strips to know if they were good or not like milk!

breezeonby

It is really not a good idea to use expired strips. Keep your eye on the expiration date. Since I am going to base my insulin use on the reading of my meter and I want that reading to be as accurate as possible.

__________________
Breezeonby {Female}
Medications: Metformin ER, Lantus, Novolog
Zofran for Gastroparesis
Gabapentin-Neuropathy
Zocor 40MG, Fish Oil 4000MG
A1C/5.2% April 14, 2010
A1C/5.5% June 1, 2010
A1C/5.2% October 6, 2010
A1C/5.0% February 7, 2011

psdaengr

There's price and there's cost.

The cost of NOT using control solutions is uncertainty in the accuracy of the strips you use, and the subsequent hypo episodes or long term complications. With control solution you can see if a new batch is reading significantly higher or lower withing the "control" range than your last batch, and make adjustments based on your A1Cs.

The price of a bottle of control solution is spread over many strip batches. A bottle of refrigerated control solution should keep for a year or more after opening, and has enough solution to test many batches. If you buy strips in 90 day quantities,most of the strip you get at one time will be from one production bach. If you test several times a day, the cost for quality control of your monitoring process, should be a very small percentage of your BG testing cost.

IMHO, testing less than 3x daily may be OK for someone with type 2 and able to use oral meds alone, but it's like using a broken clock. I think that to do a decent job of BG management using insulin injections 4x is the minimum needed to manage your profile over a 24 hour period.

To do this economically means shunning the overpriced big 3 meter manufacturers in favor of this whose strips are more reasonably price. I did this when I lost my MM insurance, and as a result now spend less on BG monitoring than I did with copays and meter more frequently.

Similarly, using home A1C test kits sent to a certified lab is so inexpensive compared to using an un-certified hospital lab that I now test my A1Cs every 6 weeks, and have seen a marked improvement in my ability to manage my BG.

fiesta

I never was told how to use the control solution. Would you please help me out here?

psdaengr

Directions specific to your meter are in the manual that came with it. If you've lost the manual, you can download a copy from the manufacturer's website.

Generally you clean the outside of the cap of the control solution bottle, put a drop of solution onto the dimple on the cap, pretend that its a drop of blood, and use your meter.

You compare the test reading to the control range printed on the label of every strip bottle. If the test number is in the control range, the strips are good.

Some meters have a setting to tell them that it's a control test, so it isn't included in the memory averages.

If the reading is at the high end or low end of the range, the measurements that you take with those strips will similarly be biased toward the high or low end of the accuracy range permitted for home glucose monitoring systems.

Testing a sample from every batch can eliminate surprises in what your readings say your BG is when you start using a new batch of strips, or get an A1C test done. It's also a simple way to verify that the meter is working properly.

I've seen a 10 mg/dl difference between two batches of strips that had identical expiration dates a year in the future. A 10 mg/dl difference in average BG is approximately a 0.3 difference in A1C, and can be a big deal if you are in the under 6 club and/or experience hypo episodes.