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Lancets

ixi1429

ixi1429

Well-Known Member
Messages
173
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Do you resue the lancets when testing your BG? Or do you use once and then dispose of them?

As we all know the cost of testing is yet another burder most of us special people face. Obviously the lancets are designed to be dipsoable but they could be resued over a morning/ day. I am just wondering what others do. I haven't up until now as I ahve only really been testing for the last few months. They are relatively cheap but even so...

(and yes I could be descibed as "careful with my money :) )
 
I change mine about once a month (if I remember) or if they hurt a lot. I mistakenly bought 300 when first diagnosed 2 years ago.. still have a few left (about 250)...
 
bulkbiker said:
I change mine about once a month (if I remember) or if they hurt a lot. I mistakenly bought 300 when first diagnosed 2 years ago.. still have a few left (about 250)...
Click to expand...

I made that mistake too! :joyful: I’ve managed to give some away but still have a huge stock pile, luckily they have no expiry date!
 
I change mine every night ready for the next day, my fingers get sore if I use them longer than this :arghh:
 
When I was first diagnosed and given my first meter, I was told to change my lancets after every other test.
So I continue to have two-use-lancets
 
Good to know. I was reusing mine for a morning but I think I will move to swapping them out every day or every other day.

Now if only we could re-use the test strips.
 
About every six weeks I guess, and whenever someone else wants to test their blood sugar. Asked my DN if she had a problem with me using my lancets so long and her answer: 'As long as it's not my fingers.'
 
ixi1429 said:
Do you resue the lancets when testing your BG? Or do you use once and then dispose of them?
Click to expand...

Official answer: They are single-use devices and are safely disposed of after each use.
Unofficial answer: I re-use my stabbies.

But I had some.. fun initially getting my grubby mits on my first batch. They're worse than razors for compatibility. The GP's recommended ones were lil single-use pink plastic things, and I was given one of those. Plus a prescription for a load more that didn't include an applicator and were discontinued. Fun. Compounded by me happily removing the guard from my 1-shot and hearing a <click>, cos I'd fat-fingered and pressed the trigger. Doh!

So I took it apart and figured out how to reset it. Bent the needle a little, and discovered that results in bruising. Live & learn..

And so.. It depends on the stabbie/lancet. Some won't let you re-use them. Some will. All generally state single use due to potential risk of infection. Which could be bad, and result in having fewer than the normal complement of fingers. So it's down to how much risk you're comfortable with, and some risk reduction. Main risk is infection, so if you have clean fingers, you reduce that. Most of the lancets I've seen are a very fine stainless steel wire that get shot into us and removed quickly, so less risk of contamination than hollow needles. But there is a risk. Then there's potential damage, which in my experiments meant bruising was time to click over to the next needle in my FastClix.

And being me, I took a needle cartridge apart to see how it worked and what state it was in. Visibly, it looked clean, but growing cultures off it may tell a different story. But I like the FastClix because it's easy to clean the end-cap and applicator.

And I guess the TL;DR is if you're confident you can spot an infected finger, do so at your own risk.

(And for T1's and CGMs, it's part of the support case for making those more available, ie cost of consumables and those consumables may be underreported if they're being re-used.)
 
ixi1429 said:
Do you resue the lancets when testing your BG? Or do you use once and then dispose of them?

As we all know the cost of testing is yet another burder most of us special people face. Obviously the lancets are designed to be dipsoable but they could be resued over a morning/ day. I am just wondering what others do. I haven't up until now as I ahve only really been testing for the last few months. They are relatively cheap but even so...

(and yes I could be descibed as "careful with my money :) )
Click to expand...
Yep I am aware of the cost and used to have a new one for each prick. Now it's one a day. I think I've got thick skin. If I use them any more, they go blunt and it hurts. The little pen I have is becoming useless. The spring has lost its umph
 
I think Im on my third (possibly second) box And Ive been stabbing away for over 20 years - I dread to think how infrequently that means I change my lancets - pain or someone else wanting to test their sugars are really the only things that motivate me to change to a new lancet
 
ixi1429 said:
and yes I could be descibed as "careful with my money :) )
Click to expand...
Don't apologise for considering re-using lancets. After all, there is an environmental cost as well as the financial one. Think of all us millions of diabetics chucking away untold quantities of lancets each over the rest of our lives. I make mine last as long as possible. In a way, I find blunter is better, as although it hurts a little bit more, it also is more effective in producing an adequate drop of blood, and saves me from wasting time and temper squeezing and squeezing, sometimes to no avail.

Like others who have replied to this thread, I made the mistake of ordering 50 lancets at the beginning, only to find that my meter came with 10 free ones, which I am probably still using up, and later I bought another meter, also with 10 free lancets, so I fear that when I finally die, even if I make it to 100, as I fully intend, my daughter will have lots of the things to dispose of. Unless, being related to me, she is destined to develop diabetes herself, in which case she will be well set up. But by that time Libres will probably be standard issue.
 
I change the lancet on my Multiclix every time I open a new pot of strips, so the six lancet drum of the Multiclix lasts me for 300 lancings approx.
 
Wow! It had never occured to me to reset the old lancet! I’m going through them at a rate of knots!

I will reuse from now on, very happy to do that as like @Alexandra100 says there is also an environmental cost and I’m trying to reduce my single use plastic waste.

How do you all clean the needle between stabbings?
 
DJC3 said:
How do you all clean the needle between stabbings?
Click to expand...
With a Multiclix and Fastclix you do not as it goes back into the drum.

I suppose you could fire it through a MediSwab so it gets cleaned by the alcohol on it, but I have never got a infection so I do not bother.
 
Thanks. Even just changing at the end of every day as a few people here are doing will save 7 or 8 a day so I’m definitely going down that route.
 
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