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alternatives to finger prick

B

baz2107

Active Member
Messages
32
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Was diagnosed type 1 in early August, had a tough start as I was on far too much insulin as I'm honeymooning, now on 4 units of bolus a day (1,1,2) and no basal, I previously went 10,6, 4, 3 before they took me off for the time being which will probably be when I have stopped honeymooning.
I now seem to have a lot better control of it, bar the odd reading, I know if I am having a hypo (they are now 1 every couple of weeks or so as opposed to the 3-4 a week I was having) and I normally know reasons why, eg I had one yesterday but I had been playing football and was only 5.1 before I started playing and I've been told I need to be quite high before playing, the 2 glucose tablets I took obviously weren't enough.

My issue now is with my finger pricks, I struggle with chill blains on my fingers anyway and now I am noticing hard lumps on my fingers (I try to avoid index finger and thumb) and can only manage to take reading from inside of fingers rather than the outside so only have 6 fingers to prick, and am doing it 4 times a day as requested.

I wondered what alternatives there were to the finger, as these hard lumps will only get worse, I was starting to have same issue with my stomach so now inject once per day, 1 per leg and 1 stomach to avoid this. thanks for any advice
 
baz2107 said:
Was diagnosed type 1 in early August, had a tough start as I was on far too much insulin as I'm honeymooning, now on 4 units of bolus a day (1,1,2) and no basal, I previously went 10,6, 4, 3 before they took me off for the time being which will probably be when I have stopped honeymooning.
I now seem to have a lot better control of it, bar the odd reading, I know if I am having a hypo (they are now 1 every couple of weeks or so as opposed to the 3-4 a week I was having) and I normally know reasons why, eg I had one yesterday but I had been playing football and was only 5.1 before I started playing and I've been told I need to be quite high before playing, the 2 glucose tablets I took obviously weren't enough.

My issue now is with my finger pricks, I struggle with chill blains on my fingers anyway and now I am noticing hard lumps on my fingers (I try to avoid index finger and thumb) and can only manage to take reading from inside of fingers rather than the outside so only have 6 fingers to prick, and am doing it 4 times a day as requested.

I wondered what alternatives there were to the finger, as these hard lumps will only get worse, I was starting to have same issue with my stomach so now inject once per day, 1 per leg and 1 stomach to avoid this. thanks for any advice
Click to expand...
The best alternative BG test site is probably your earlobe. They are fleshy enough to give a good sample, but there is virtually no pain at all. It is a place that you rarely knock or put pressure on in a day too. The downside is that it can bleed and drip on to your shirt sometimes.
There are also some finger prickers with a changeable head for use in alternative site testing (AST). I think Abbott do one with their Freestyle meters.
Here's a useful read on the diabetes.co.uk site:http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/alternate-site-testing.html
 
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