FOUND at the Tenderich household on a typical day (this was last Tuesday):
test strips in the washing machine – 3
on the stairs – 2
on the bathroom counter – 4
in jeans pockets, front and back – 6 (admittedly, those jeans hadn’t been washed for a while)
on floor in kids’ rooms – 1
on floor of MiniVan – 2
in MiniVan cupholders – 3
in microwave oven – 1 (the stench of burnt chemicals still lingers)
in the backyard sandbox – 1 (accompanied by blood-curdling yell of “MOMMY!! This is yours!“)
My oldest daughter says she can now “tell where I’ve been” by the trail of test strips. She chooses to announce this as we are trudging through the cereal aisle in Safeway, with my 4-year-old riding shotgun in the grocery cart, belting out her best high-volume rendition of “I Like Big Butts, and I Cannot Lie.”
Heads turn.
I grin and stare into the distance. Through my teeth, I ask, “What was that you said about test strips, Honey?…”
On the way out of the store, I mumble something about “being too old for all this.”
My 8-year-old pipes up: “Oh Mommy, you look like you’re 28 … and you smell like it, too!”
Knock on wood.
Amy-Those test strips are a problem. My significant other had a little chat with me about leaving them around the house. Now I put them in the middle of the meter pouch when I don’t want to get up and throw them away. Sometimes you are busy or watching a movie and you don’t want to get up or there isn’t a trash can around, so of course little piles of strips may accumulate in weird places but that’s ok!!!!!!!!
I find test strips EVERYWHERE in my house and surroundings (I even found one in the kitty litter box, I suspect the cat was playing with it and got carried away!). I previously let it bother me, but now I wear it as a badge of honor. So what if I find them everywhere? Its when you don’t find them anywhere that you have to worry!!
What – none in the shower? I’m good for at least one there at any given moment.
My six year old says “Just like the dog leaves black hair everywhere, Mommy sheds those little test strips.”
I found a test strip in our mailbox a couple weeks back. Probably one of the more bizarre findings.
Nice exchange between you and the kids…;)
How often do you people check!? I check at *most* 4 times a day, usually 3.
Personally, my diabetic trash buildup is syringes. I don’t have any kids or pets to worry about getting hurt, so I tend to just let them pile up on my desk.
not sure precisely how often I check, but in the past two weeks, it was >150 times. (My 2-week memory is full at 150.) I forget how gross it can be to someone else to find a test strip. Does anyone have a good solution other than stuffing them back in the meter holder somewhere?
Ah – a classic case of AUTS (Another Used Test Strip).
In the microwave? Wow – that’s a good one! I can’t imagine the stench!
We all know what I do with my strips…. maybe it’s time for another contest?
omg, I love it… what does 28 smell like?!
Lol! Sounds like me! There is always a trail of test strips following me! Hehe.
Once, my high school boyfriend’s friend found one in the back seat of his car (don’t ask…I seriously don’t know how it got there…).
He thought it was a pregnancy test..
Another time, my ex-boyfriend’s cat had a test strip hanging from her uh…nether regions. I almost exploded in laughter when she got up off the couch and he exclaimed, “Poor Rascal has a test strip hanging off her butt”. Hehe…all in the day in the life of a Type 1….
To all cat lovers, yes, I made sure to remove it…
Today, my finace’s car is home to at least 5 wayward and lost test strips at any given time….
I usually have a good pile going on the coffee table, endtable, and in my backpack.
I’m what the old school doctors call “brittle”, so I test about 8-10x per day.
I have found strips in the bathtub (was in the bedsheets…stuck to my leg…fell off in the shower), and on a plate in the kitchen sink.
I also like stick them in empty pop cans. ???
Too funny! Thanks Amy for the post!
i keep little decorative metal buckets on three table tops in my apartment that are far away from a garbage can: my dining table, my side table, etc. these are *garbage cans*, but table top garbage cans. also a good place to put spent matches and candlewax spill over, as well as deadheads and tissues.
i usually remove them when guests are coming over, but you can find tabletop garbage cans with lids at places like bed bath and beyond. just sprinkle them throughout the house.
warning: you might want to line them, at least at the bottom, b/c the strips tend to get stuck, ya know. yeah, you know.
As a type 1 not on pump and working on tight control, I test 10-11 times a day. I have a pretty jar where I send all test strips; when it’s full I dump ‘em and start over again. When I’m away from home I dump them in the bottom of my purse, which I clean out every so often. I don’t think it’s very couth to have them laying around on the ground outside the house (sometimes they turn up there) and I do try to round up errant test strips before company comes over.
i just keep an old freestyle strip holder in my testing kit and put the old ones in the old holder. this sounds way too organized i know! i think it’s possible because I use omnipod, so there’s room for two strip containers. otherwise i just put them in the zippered part of the case. Amy your four year old’s song is one of John’s favorites….!
I also have several pretty pieces of pottery around the house that I put used test strips into. My CAR however, is a different story. I throw them on the floor mat on the passenger side. I don’t shake the floor mat out into the trash as often as I should.
I always feel bad for people who buy used cars from me. No matter how well I clean them, I know they’re going to come across a few test strips.
Hey Amy! Just returned from South Dakota, at a hospital camp for kids. Looked for you Saturday at a JDRF outreach. Saturday was beautiful. By the way, Dr. Buckingham (from Stanford University) has enlisted me to participate in the continuous blood glucose monitoring. Understand it’s not as cumbersome as before. Are/Have you used this device…we have to chat later. Will you be at the Giant’s Inner City Kids Outreach at AT&T/PacBell Park on the 25th? also btw, i wish the test strips were reusable, but they’re so much better than before. They’re so small now, I keep finding them after ruining a new white shirt.
Doug Burns
SugarFitness.com
I almost bought a new dish washer before I realized that it was clogged with test strips. I was able to clean it out and viola.
Ever since a friend of mine complained that she’d found my used test strips several times at her house, I’ve been vigilant about keeping them in an old test strip vial. I did this with my Freestyle and OneTouch strips. Another vial doesn’t take up that much more space when I carry my full diabetes kit (pump infusion set, IV prep, bottle of insulin, test strips and meter, etc. — http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirinqueen/414694239/) with me all the time anyway.
O.K., so I know this is an old post, and I laughed hysterically when I first read it last month, but I have to add this comment. This morning, I actually found a test strip stuck right on the bald spot on my sweet husband’s head (while he was sleeping). I gently pulled it off without waking him up, but I had to try really hard not to laugh too loud. I find these things everywhere, but so far, that one was the funniest, for me.
I actually HAD a trail of test strips
Amy blogs about her test strips. Back in the summer I was having a little fun bemoaning the trail of all those used test strips that seems to follow me everywhere I go. Diabetes Mine: Test Strip Art Back when…