We can wait.

As I'm a diabetic who tries to keep my blood glucose in good control and my blood test are showing that I'm not eligible to get glucose strips on prescription. So I buy my own. I went into boots to buy a pack of 51 strips and was quoted a price of £27 to get 3 packs of 17 was £21 so guess what I bought.

How can you not be eligible for monitoring equipement for your condition.
that's beyond me :S

You get that in the supermarkets with all kinds of things. Coffee was the last one I noticed.

They're from £10 for 50 on ebay; eg item number 80042849

It's because I'm too good at keeping it under control. If I was a useless twat who carried on eating high sugar food and didn't care then I'd qualify.

That is so wrong. It should be free. it is a potentially life threatening condition and with many people facing stagnant wages this could be something that they might cut if pushed.

You only need to measure frequently if you're on insulin. If you're diet or medication controlled diabetes, then there's little point in measuring your glucose. The risk factors for diabetes are based on long term measurements (HbA1c) which don't correlate as well with random glucose measurements. I have plenty of patients who are adamant their blood sugars are 5-6 and then surprised when they have an HbA1c of 12.

I use the strips mainly as a guide and it helps to show to me what is happening to me over the day as i eat etc. Because I care and I'm interested in what's happening to me.

I know the strips only give a quick shot response and don't give the background reading. So far my HbA1c results have been good.
I'm not fussed that if I want to measure myself I have to pay its the disparity in pricing that wound me up.

Then measure it pre and post meal as that'll give a more accurate guide as to how the food is affecting you. Have you been on a diabetes education programme?

I have been doing, especially when I was first diagnosed as I was changing what I was eating, when I was eating etc and of course the drugs, my doctor suggested getting the strips if I wanted to but they wouldn't be available on prescription.

My particular rant was about the difference in cost when its more expensive to get a multipack by a significant amount, Not about whether I should get them free or not.

I choose to get the strips because they have helped me change my lifestyle for the better (a managed 17 kilo weight loss ) and they have contributed to better management of my condition.

Excellent news on weight loss front. One of my patients shed around 30kg and stopped being diabetic.

First of all, my new sweet dispenser's battery option doesn't work. Then I can't get a decent adaptor for it locally for less than £13 - with no guarantee that will even work. A walk in the rain today found I can't even get sweets locally other than Skittles that'll fit

ION, since I'd had a rental game for ages, I sent it back and bought it instead after checking everywhere but not being able to get it cheap. It then crops up in a 'four for £20' deal that I'd been waiting for a fourth title to appear in for two months

Supposed to meet up with a couple of mates for lunch. They're in london and I'm in Brum. Typically, I've arrived with 30 mins to spare and they're gonna be late by up to 30 mins so gonna have to wait an hour. Ordinarily would just leave it alone but both of them live in London and know what traffic is like, and should know that it's the weekend before Xmas so lots of people out shopping, visiting relatives etc as well poor visibility from downpour. The journey should have taken me 2 hes but took me 3. I deliberately set off early to anticipate this. They should have been able to as well!

I swear to fcuk, every electronic device I've ordered recently has had something wrong with it.

Mains charger for a PS3 controller? Charges everything BUT the controller, including Sony's own wireless headphones!

Sensor-operated sweet dispenser? Doesn't work with batteries, so trying a universal charger when it arrives.

And now it's a 'pigtail' HDMI adaptor that in theory switches between devices when you power them on - neither the automatic function or physical switch works, and it doesn't like the signal from my PS3...

What the fcuk is wrong with my luck recently?

stop sitting on things