If I wanted to buy some strips for our home meter online just to have in case I needed them before the company will send new ones, or say mom has to go on an antibiotic and I need to test more than once / week, what do you recommend for how long they "last"? I am seeing on eBay options for 48 strips or 24. Expiration date is later this year tho I likely wouldn't use them by then. How far out are you ok with buying them?
Buying strips online
- Thread starter watson524
- Start date
Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:
pellicle
Professional Dingbat, Guru and Merkintologist
Hi
Where I live the prices aren't that far from the eBay ones (when shipping and taxes are accounted for), so I buy from large online retailers. So I assume rapid turnover and fresh stocks. My observation had been that I seldom get a useby date more than 8 months in advance.
The strips can not be used out of date without jiggery pokery with your machine because it reads that date and compares it with its own clock.
I bought 48 once and ended up using many of them at the end for a month of (at first every second day, then ) biweekly testing (which gave me valuable data).
So without that there was no value in buying 48 to save a bit.
I haven't bought more than 24 since then.
Hope that helps
Where I live the prices aren't that far from the eBay ones (when shipping and taxes are accounted for), so I buy from large online retailers. So I assume rapid turnover and fresh stocks. My observation had been that I seldom get a useby date more than 8 months in advance.
The strips can not be used out of date without jiggery pokery with your machine because it reads that date and compares it with its own clock.
I bought 48 once and ended up using many of them at the end for a month of (at first every second day, then ) biweekly testing (which gave me valuable data).
So without that there was no value in buying 48 to save a bit.
I haven't bought more than 24 since then.
Hope that helps
I buy strips on ebay. I usually buy the box of 48 and wind up checking my INR more than I need to. Sometimes I even test daily because I want to get a real feel for how this INR thing works but that's just me. I think most people would be fine with a box of 24.
The expiration date is usually about 10 months to a year. I just bought a box a couple of weeks ago and the expiration date was February 2018.
The expiration date is usually about 10 months to a year. I just bought a box a couple of weeks ago and the expiration date was February 2018.
That's helpful, thanks! I'm just going to get 12 or 24 to keep on hand
DachsieMom
Well-known member
Depending on the company, you could just ask them yo send you extra strips. When I first started home testing I couldn't get the hang of it and wasted a ton. I just told them that and they sent extra.
That's actually what I ended up doing. I guess with Roche it takes some time before they'll put you on auto-send (starts the end of June for mom and then every 70 days thereafter) so when I called and told them I needed more now (the last time they sent me a box of 6 was 2/11 but they also thought I should have all of the initial 6 from training and all which I had to junk of few of those). So she said no problem and they're shipping me 2 boxes of 6. I may still get a box of 6 on my own just to have in case I feel like jabbing myself for giggles, just have to remember to make sure I have the right code chip in the machine.
Which interestingly, I saw a few on ebay where it says "no code chip included" and I don't even get how the heck that would work. What would people do with them??
Which interestingly, I saw a few on ebay where it says "no code chip included" and I don't even get how the heck that would work. What would people do with them??
In terms of the 'no code chip included' strips, unless the seller tells you what the code for the strips should be, there aren't many uses that I can think of. You can punch little holes into the strips and connect them with fishing wire, and create an expensive mobile. You can probably use them as toothpicks. Without the code chip (unless you have the same chip number from a previous batch that you've used, these are useless) with the Coaguchek XS.
In my personal case, my meter of choice is the Coag-Sense. It's a bit larger than the XS, isn't as well known, but in my experience is more accurate. Plus, one of the nice things about this meter is that a code is printed on the strip. When the strip is inserted into the meter, the meter reads the code on the strip, and is programmed to give an accurate result. This means that the code chip issue doesn't exist with the Coag-Sense.
I've been a bit lax on my personal view about testing weekly - but I'll make up for this next week when I have a minor sinus surgery and have to watch my INR daily.
Having some extra strips for bckup isn't a bad idea - but, with the XS, you have to deal with the Code Chip issue, especially if you're mixing your spares in with your newer supply so that you don't wind up holding spares that expire before you get to them.
In my personal case, my meter of choice is the Coag-Sense. It's a bit larger than the XS, isn't as well known, but in my experience is more accurate. Plus, one of the nice things about this meter is that a code is printed on the strip. When the strip is inserted into the meter, the meter reads the code on the strip, and is programmed to give an accurate result. This means that the code chip issue doesn't exist with the Coag-Sense.
I've been a bit lax on my personal view about testing weekly - but I'll make up for this next week when I have a minor sinus surgery and have to watch my INR daily.
Having some extra strips for bckup isn't a bad idea - but, with the XS, you have to deal with the Code Chip issue, especially if you're mixing your spares in with your newer supply so that you don't wind up holding spares that expire before you get to them.
