Hi Skee: If you are up to 40 carbs a day at a month, you really aren't doing Atkins. I like the Atkins way and have had great success with it, so I would love to see you stay with it. But to do so, I would immediately go back to induction and stick to all the rules in the book strictly. There is no harm in staying on Induction for several months and Atkins suggests staying on it if you can for longer than two weeks if you have a lot of weight to lose, like you and I do.
As far as the sticks, one thing to make sure is that they are fresh. I would say if you bought them more than a couple of months ago, toss them. I do hear people say that they lose weight without it showing on the strips, but my guess is that they are losing weight because their calorie intake has been reduced, not because they are in ketosis. Ketosis is necessary to lose weight... and if you aren't in it, you probably won't lose weight.