I popped into a CVS store on my way home from picking up groceries to pick up something very important…Starburst jellybeans, because naturally, I “needed” them.

When I was in the store, I wandered over to the diabetes aisle, curious to see if browsing the shelves would remind me of any supplies I should pick up.

My eyes fell on a box of ketones testing strips and I paused, pondering whether or not it was worth it to buy them.

I admit that I scarcely ever check my ketones when my blood sugar is above 250. I know that I should, but a combination of laziness, anxiety, and lack of unexpired strips usually stops me from checking. And when I do have strips on hand that aren’t expired, it seems that I’m only able to use a couple out of the 25+ strip bottle before the whole dang thing expires, which is frustrating. In fact, prior to this CVS trip, I had a vial of ketones strips sitting in my bathroom that expired more than 4 months ago. I hadn’t trashed them yet because I stubbornly hang onto things far longer than I should.

So I stood in that CVS aisle, my hand hovering out in front of me over that box containing the ketones strips. To buy or not to buy? Do I spend the money knowing that I’ll probably only use a few strips? Or do I save the approximately $12 and walk out the store knowing that I don’t have useable strips at home?

Ultimately, I bit the bullet and bought the strips. I know myself well enough to know that I’ll take comfort in knowing that they’re available to me if and when I decide to use them. Besides, $12 is a fairly small ask when it comes to monitoring something as important as this and granting myself peace of mind.

If only we could have a price like that for life-saving insulin…