Rain or Not, Here I Go

[kevin_standlee]

Yesterday I bailed out of exercising and the threatened rain didn't come. Today I said, "Rain or no rain, I'd better get a walk in," and of course the rain did come. Not really that heavy, and I brought my umbrella. It's actually fairly warm, as first-day-of-winter rains go.

I only did about two-thirds of my usual loop, heading up to the shopping center at the top of the hill and buying a bag of cashews and other things I plan to take with me on my train trip tomorrow.

I've been testing my blood sugar a bit more often than the twice-a-day prescribed, particularly during periods of fluctuation like today. Unfortunately, that means that I'll run out of test strips on January 3 (assuming I stick to twice-a-day testing) but cannot re-order strips until January 9 due to my insurance coverage. So I considered today buying a vial of strips out of my own pocket. (You don't need a prescription to buy meter strips; you just need one if you want your insurance to pay for it.)

Yikes! $53 for fifty strips! No wonder the meters are (usually, sometimes after mail-in rebate) free!

If I'm going to buy more strips, I'm going to have to wait until after January 1 when my healthcare spending account recharges.

-=-=-

Meanwhile, as I'll be working from home (including Oregon) from tomorrow through next week, I'm now in the process of doing a "flag transfer" from the desktop machine to my personal laptop. That ought to use up the rest of the afternoon.

Comments

[khaybee.livejournal.com]

We have something in common. Tomorrow I will be taking the Siam National Railway from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. I booked a morning train so I can admire the as-yet-unseen-by-me scenery, rather than the night train, although I will probably take the night train at some point, as it is quite famous for its discotheque. After dinner, the dining car is converted to a bar and dance floor, and the party rages until 1AM or so. The train here is VERY affordable. 1$US is approx 40 Baht. A plane ticket costs 2000-2500 baht a train ticket costs 200-300 baht. Quite a deal. I'll let you know how it goes.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I tell people when looking at the machines to look at the price of the strips instead.

There are generic strips for some machines; check with your pharmacy.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Can you buy a package with fewer than 50 strips, since you only need about a week's worth until the insurance kicks in?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

The pharmacy didn't have a size smaller than 50 strips. Such a size may exist, but I'll have to look elsewhere.

Test Strips

[(Anonymous)]

Kevin,

I've got several 'film-tubes' of test strips. They're One Touch that apparently fit Ultra, UltraSmart or InDuo models. If these will work for you, I'm perfectly willing to advance you a can that you can replace at your convenience. Give me a call around 4pm if this works in your model.

Eric Larson

Re: Test Strips

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Eric:

Thanks, but my meter is a FreeStyle Flash; besides, I'm heading out of town this afternoon and won't be back until after New Year's Day.