Best monitoring kit?

All testers need a finger prick, I'm sorry. Except FreeStyle Libre or another CGM. You have to shoot it in your arm but only once every 14 days. Expensive.

To be honest, finger pricking should not be painful and really is the best way of finding out what food is doing to you.

However, if you find this impossible you could try being REALLY strict and don't touch carbs. No bread, rice,potatoes etc and see how you are doing at your next hba1c.

Most of the time I don’t feel the prick from the lancet it’s not until I squeeze my finger that I know whether it got me or not

I use the accuchek fast clix lancet it does have a very fine needle

searley said:

I use the accuchek fast clix lancet it does have a very fine needle

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I use a FastClix lancing device, and it is virtually painless when lancing.

Back to basics? First thoroughly wash your hands with HOT water and soap and dry. Alcohol wipes do not necessarily remove any sugar residue on your hands. Years of finger pricking in the tropics - painless, easy blood flow, no scarring - back to temperate Britain - learnt the hard way that cold fingers don't work and hurt like hell.

Welcome to my world. Some people don’t understand low pain threshold, I do so there are a few options for you. Firstly don’t use hot water to wash your hands that just ruins your skin and gets your nerves on edge and your capillaries too open. You can either wipe the area with a warm tissue or wash it with warm to slightly cold water. You may need to find an alternative testing site, I don’t use my finger tips as the pain can last for days but I do use my palms (if you are under the care of a diabetic nurse, they can give you a alternative testing site lancet kit), you could try the genteel device (please google it), or you could contact One touch (My lancet of choice) for a Delica lancer (it uses one of the finest lancets needles on the market). Good luck with everything and it does get better.

Another Fastclix fan!
ETA You can use the Fastclix independently of any monitor you use to do the tests themselves.

I had a "thing" perhaps rather than a phobia, about needles, and research suggested that the Fastclix was a suitable solution. You can dial a needle depth to suit, setting it to the smallest level you personally need to get that drop of blood without it hurting. and you never actually SEE a scary needle, so in spite of some initial shutting my eyes tight, clenching my teeth, "Thinking of England", and steeling myself to actually DO it efforts, I'm now quite comfortable with pricking my fingers. For me the idea of pricking was actually far worse than the action itsellf!

But as @Antje77 has already suggested, using a Libre sensor is a possible alternative and although it also requires an insertion of a needle, again you never have to SEE it, and it's only once a fortnight when you attach the sensor.