
From the Ask D'Mine Mailbag: Expiration Dates, Insulin Freezing, Diabetes Donations
If it isn't one thing with diabetes, it's another — from trying to figure out our dosing needs to cross-over with other ailments to how we feel about sharing our D-issues with others in our lives.
We at the 'Mine have got your back, especially each Saturday with our weekly in-depth advice column, Ask D'Mine, hosted by veteran type 1 and diabetes author Wil Dubois from New Mexico.
This week, Wil's addressing a smattering of questions about expiration dates, insulin freezing, and diabetes supply donations. We thank you all for keeping our mailbag full of great queries!
{Got your questions about navigating life with diabetes? Email us at [email protected]}
Shannon, 'diabetes curious' from New York, writes: Hi. I have a question regarding the expiration of diabetes checking equipment. The one I have is OneTouch Ultra 2. The expiration date on it is on 11/2016. My question is, is it safe to use this equipment after the expiration date? I tried to research, but I couldn’t get a proper answer. Kindly help me with this. And I’m not diabetic, I just thought I’d check my diabetes level.
Wil@Ask D’Mine answers: Safe? You betcha. Accurate? Hell, no. Test strips can be stretched a bit and still work OK, but almost a year is too much of a stretch. The results you’d get from test strips that far out of date will be wrong. They might be artificially high or artificially low. Either way, you won’t get the information you need.
The best way to “check your diabetes level” is to get screened for diabetes at your doctor’s office or county health office. And that’s
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