• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Finger pricking rant

When I had DKA on diagnosis last Sept 2017, the nurses had to take blood test on my fingers every hour and from my arms to test for ketones every two hours.

The needles for the veins were quite long and thick and the pain was deliciously excruciating, sadistic and quite fun !

Lol !!!

I really miss the injections...and the beautiful nurses holding my arms so tenderly!
 
Last edited:
Thank you @Diakat and @Fairygodmother - I was discharged yesterday evening.

Staff are obviously extremely overstretched, but it has really highlighted to me how much training they just don't have - the finger pricking is one thing, but there was also the nurse who had no idea that you had to take fast acting insulin with food, and was extremely cross when she turned up 2 hours later to supervise me doing it and I'd already had it! I think the bottom line is that perhaps training should be along the lines of, allow patients with long term conditions who are used to self managing to continue doing so!
 
I usually manage to keep my own insulin but it isn't always possible. My basal was withheld and the next day,after a result over 20, the Diabetic Specialist had a word with my surgeon to let me go home early "to sort myself out".
 
I’m a nurse and if the patient is awake and alert and not confused I hand them a one off disposable pricker and let them do it themselves

If the patient is confused disorientated and If I want a blood sample I prick the side of the finger

I have seen some of my colleagues who are slapdash and one of them not wash finger prior to pricking

On a personal level I rotate the fingers for testing and wash or wipe my hands/fingers beforehand
 
Dodo said:
I usually manage to keep my own insulin but it isn't always possible. My basal was withheld and the next day,after a result over 20, the Diabetic Specialist had a word with my surgeon to let me go home early "to sort myself out".
Click to expand...
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but 'isn't always possible'?!!! The only way it wouldn't be possible for me is if I was unconscious and the hospital hadn't informed my next of kin. I have been known to sit on the floor in front of the nurses' desk until they agreed to give me syringes (a nurse having gone through my bedside table and thrown out all the syringes because she didn't know which had been used.)

(Possibly showing some of the extreme focus that comes with Asperger's there. I was contemplating sleeping on the floor in front of the desk, at least until my husband turned up to mediate.)
 
Crikey what's going on?

Not ALLOWED any?

They would have to physically fight me, if I found myself at 15 because of someone else's decision I would be very very close to doing physical violence to them, do they not get what is going on?

Oh no wait of course they don't they're doctors and they barely know how to spell "diabetes."
 
I hope you've made a complaint about being deprived of basal insulin. The more complaints they get, the more likely they are to change their training (or rather lack of training). There should be a PALS service at the hospital who you can ring /email to deal with this. I had to refuse to eat my breakfast to make the nurses get the ward sister back in the 1970s. For some reason the nurses knew that a diabetic on insulin had to eat regular meals, but had no idea that the insulin injection had to come first. I had asked for my insulin eight times in half an hour without success. Later on, one of the nurses apologised to me and explained that the sister had now explained the importance of insulin. If you make a fuss, it can only help the rest of us.
 
Spending three days in CCU meant they were in charge of my medication. On previous occasions I would've kept my medication with me but at that particular time needed their assistance. When taken back to the ward it was handed to their staff who obviously had no training in Type 1 care.
 
EllsKBells said:
Why is it that, in hospitals, where they should know better, they insist on pricking your finger right on the pad, where it is most painful, rather than on the sides?

Every. Single. Hour.
Click to expand...

I do so many tests that I use the whole finger out of necessity, but I think it is strange that they won't let you do it yourself! Were you somehow incapacitated and so they had to do it? Or they just wanted to do it themselves? I would ask to do my own, or at least present them with my preferred finger.

And totally agree about the index finger thing! When I was newly diagnosed and being taught to use a new meter, they went straight for it!

Hope you are doing ok despite the painful stabbing.
 

Maybe they (medical staff) went to the same school as mine, as if you didn't know I was giving blood, you would swear, I was either in a car crash, or a victim of GBH, with the bruises I had. I got to the stage if they said " Just a small scratch", I told them I'd slap 'em.
 
Why does everyone not invest in Genteel you can test finger, palm, arm, top of knee with different grades, and wherever you test, it does not hurt you don't feel, as Genteel is suction process so no more pressing out blood or sore fingers. Its a wonderful device.
 

I think the nurses u talked about are not specialised in diabetes. Maybe they should has one specialised one in each shift.
 
I sympathise with those who hate their finger pads being pricked by nurses! During a recent 10-days internment I was tortured with finger pricks that left my right hand fingers unusable for further pricking during 3 months. I got them healed when someone suggested I apply bee propolis extract. With 2 weeks the fingers recovered their healthy look. I must also mention the aggressive hits of the lancets used in the hospitals. I prefer my One Touch Smart Plus pressure controlled lancet at home.
 
I have found that simple things like if a nurse asks where best to prick your finger, usually indicates a hospital that have a decent proactive team who care about their work. The thing you wrote that really shocks me is that you were not provided your basal insulin - to me this represents a serious flaw in the hospital process & a huge risk to you & DKA. I think I noticed on one of your posts that your basal insulin is Tresiba, which I took for a little while a year or two back, prior to my pump & from memory, I am sure that the absorption profile of this insulin was around 38hrs, so it is likely that you may see the effect on your blood sugar of this lack of basal for this extended period of time. I have noticed in good hospitals when situations like this occur that a senior person in the diabetic team usually takes responsibility for debriefing the ward team on process to ensure that an error like this doesn't happen again.
For example when I was induced to have my first child I was put on a sliding scale pump & a drip and overnight I kept having hypos. In the morning I asked to speak with one of the diabetic consultants and when everything was checked, it was established that an error had been made & I had been given a saline drip rather than a glucose drip. To avoid this happening in future the midwifery ward teams were debriefed on correct process throughout the next day or two as they came on/off shifts. I found it reassuring to see the diabetic team showing leadership in their field & rebriefing their obstetric colleagues accordingly.
 
Quite agree about arterial blood samples - I had them taken from the femoral artery after a heart operation and the pain was off the scale .....every doctor and nurse should have to experience this procedure so that their skills will then be refined to a fine art when dealing with patients!!
 
A bit off the course, I have had some medical staff wipe my finger with an alcohol swab before doing my blood test. I have often asked whether the spirit would not affect my result and invariably they would say “of course not”! Wonder if anyone else has any thoughts on this!
 
In 1979 when I was diagnosed age 10, my poor finger pads were so bruised and I was in terrible pain. A wonderful specialist nurse took me under her wing one day and told me about testing near the nail (not the side, further around!) sounds awful but is painless due to lack of nerve ridings. I've never looked back, to this day I test near my nail area alternating fingers.
My experience of hospitals has been more positive, I pick my own nail side of finger and apply blood to their strip in meters. No way will I allow anyone to prick my finger, they're always happy to let me do that.
Ive never got over the pain in my pads, the thought of it now brings tears to my eyes, that's why I have to be in control, I self stab too! I never use finger prickers.
 
EllsKBells said:
Why is it that, in hospitals, where they should know better, they insist on pricking your finger right on the pad, where it is most painful, rather than on the sides?

Every. Single. Hour.
Click to expand...
This clearly indicates the system is totally out of date of what they should be doing and should have training and knowledge in particular to know where to prick a finger, not only hospitals chemists also. People in the medical industry should be 100% trained to know exactly what to do this is a prime example, before they action and action wrongly not in the best interests of patients and those whom they are testing.

Its like when you go for a blood test, if you don't ask you don't get. Here in spain they use the normal needle which can bruise, but if you clearly state you do not want the large needle, and ask they use what is referred to as the butterfly here, i.e. the needle for babies, you don't feel a thing, its painless, no difficulties getting into the vein, and no bruising, so as the saying goes, you don't know or get until YOU ask, wouldn't one think that it would be normal standard procedure that the most painless format takes place when extracting blood, had I not been told this by a friend, I would not have known or asked, and would still be experiencing pain and normal needles, why, the system the nurses, docs taking the blood don't even inform the butterfly needle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…