The companies that make them say we should change them every time we test. Of course they do; they make more money if we use more. I test my blood sugar an average of 8 times a day (I often do it more than that). That's approximately 2,920 lancets a year. They usually come in boxes of 100 so that's a bit over 29 boxes a year. The average cost (from a Google search) ranges from $7 to $15 a box. While not the most expensive part of diabetes - YIKES!
Lots of us don't bother changing them regularly. There are many memes (funny as hell!) floating around like these:
There are articles and blogs about this as well. Some of the experts (CDEs and doctors) seem to think it's OK to keep using the same lancet. Read their thoughts here, here, and here if you are interested.
I DO change mine but not for every test. Except, if I use that son of a bitch for too long it starts to hurt. And I'm a wimp. A. Total. Wimp. That means
I read Kerri's blog about this and still was not moved to the once a day change. I just re-read it while doing research for this post and now I feel like she's hit the nail on the head. I guess I'm older and wiser? Well, older for sure. Once a day doesn't seem so bad. That's only 365 lancets a year. I think I'll try to follow in her footsteps.
Change is good, right?
