[Hammer]

Pokie, my FreeStyle Flash test strips sell for $100 for a box of 100 in the local stores, but I found them on-line for $60 for 100 strips.(not through E-Bay....I've never cared for E-Bay, so I've never used them.) Apparently the drug companies who sell strips package them in different packages. It's all the same stuff, only in a different box and at different prices.

Rona (Hermit104), welcome to the forums. I think you'll find that this is a very friendly place, and you'll find a ton of good information here. As for using insulin and driving, I don't know if that law exists here, but even if it did, it probably wouldn't apply to anyone using Lantus insulin. Lantus is used to maintain your fasting blood glucose level. That means that you take it once a day, and it keeps your blood glucose (BG) at a certain level. If you eat something, it doesn't prevent the spike that will come from the food you ate, so you need to take something else to keep the spikes down.(I take Byetta)

If you test after you've fasted for a while, like in the morning when you first get up, or before bed if it's been 4 or 5 hours since you've eaten, then that reading will tell you how low the Lantus is maintaining your BG levels. The Lantus won't lower that level any more than that, so testing any more than once won't show you anything.

Taking the Byetta will only lower the spikes after a meal, so unless you took the Byetta and didn't eat anything, your BG levels shouldn't go below what your fasting level was. (I take the Byetta before breakfast and before dinner). Since these two drugs affect your BG levels in this manner, the insurance companies feel that 3 tests per day is sufficient. What they don't take into account is that you need to test before and after each meal to see what the food you ate is doing to your BG so that you can arrange your diet to exclude foods that cause a big rise in your BG levels. All the insurance companies care about is what the drugs are doing to your BG levels, and they want you to test before breakfast, before dinner, and before bed.....all of these are fasting BG readings, so you don't know how high your spikes are. If your going to ignore your spikes, you might as well not test at all since the spikes are what seems to cause the most damage to your body.