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I've Type 1 for 36 years now and have been diagnosed as brittle since the beginning, I test 12 times a day and if I don't I'm in danger of passing out, after 36 years all the warning signs of hypoglycemia are gone, my wife notice's if my speech pattern is off, by then I'm usually in the 30's.  People with long term DM Type 1 usually start to develop hypoglycemic unawareness after 10-15 years with the disease, the only long term problem of testing too much is sore fingertips, since my wife lost her job I've been using Tricare and they only pay for 6.5 strips  a day.  The rest is outta pocket.  When the VA was initiating using test strips in the 80's they only allowed 1 bottle of 25 strips a month, my VA Dr. who was head of Endocrinology told me to cut them in half (no meter in the early days, everything was visual.  After being rated 100% and telling my VA Dr. (a new endo resident, my old Dr retired after 22 years with VA) that I was having a lot of hypoglycemic episodes (4-5 a day) they let know that I could have a 100 strips a month, my wife had good insurance so I went to a private DR. he wrote a script for 200 a month and insurance paid with no problem, I stopped using the VA for healthcare in 1997.  The problem in the US is the price of test strips is far to expensive, in Europe the strips are a lot cheaper, my wife picked up a box of One Touch strips 100 to a box for $38.00, here the same box is $100.  The only real control is knowing your blood sugar and preventing things before they happen.  It seems that the VA is penny wise at the Veterans expense.
                                                                                                  Gregory