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New to testing

M

meab2

Member
Messages
22
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I finally bit the bullet and purchases a monitoring kit .I have been type 2 for nearly 2 years but usually get tested at the hospital ,although I have not been for a while .My doctor never found it necessary to test after I had eaten only after a 12 hour fast . So I felt now was a time to see what foods actually agree with me or not .All this to say is that I'm really apprehensive about using it and not sure about when to change the lancet .The chemist recommended every 5 to 6 uses but I looked online and it said change it every time ? So any advice would be really good .Also where is the best place to test from for a first timer ? Would you recommended the side of my finger or my hand .
 
Sides of your fingers either side of the pad remember to rotate hands as in use alternate hands not twist them round!
I change lancets every so often.. probably every 5 or 6 months or when they start to not produce enough blood.
Others change every time.. depends on how you feel about it.
 
Hi @meab2

Welcome.
Great idea getting meter.
Should be compulsory, how else will we know what to avoid.

Fur me.. It's fingertips.
Sides not the pad.
others have suggested, waving arms about helps the blood flow more easily, others report running under a warm tap first helps.. makes sure hand freshly washed and dried.

Your looking for a small bubble of blood.
I squeeze from root of finger upwards.

As for changing lancets I did every time until others advised to only change when blunt.
Which I now do.

Testing is a minor thing when compared to what the alternatives may be.

Sometimes there won't be enough blood.. Various reasons, I just move on to another finger.
Do swap fingers, and try not to use the same site each time.

The idea is to test each morning on rising. FASTING BLOOD GLUCOSE (FBG)

And before every meal.
Then 2 hours after every meal.

Sounds a lot but by a month or so you'll KNOW the food that are ok for YOU to eat safely.

Then you only need to check foods you do not usually eat and checks each week that the food that were ok, still are.

Good luck.
The journeys starts HERE..
 
I find side of finger that it stings but on my finger pad it doesn't. It changes over time and you find where your more comfortable or prefer it taken from. I've never taken from my palm in 17yrs of pricking. Too many fingers for that.
I don't use a new lancet everytime to save the nhs money. However when I was new to it I was only advised "use a fresh lancet". So I was so scared I did everything they told me. Diabetes was just a name given to me feeling knackered and needing loads of sleep after chatterboxing my way through the high sugar at work. Luckily it was referred to as a friendly northerner.
 
I change the lancet every time - like it says in the instructions.
I am a musician, I need my fingers to be in perfect condition and as lancets are so cheap I do not understand why they are not changed all the time.
 
I change my lancets everytime and buy them from amazon just over £13 for 200
 
My results are in .The first one was 106mg/dL . 2 hours after eating breakfast which was 2 pieces of wholemeal toast with butter it was 122mg/dL .I take my 500mg of metformin with breakfast too.
Does that sound acceptable? I feel its OK as its still in the normal range .
Thanks for all your advice so far .
 
I dial in a new lancet into my Fastclix every time I open a new tub of fifty strips, I use all of my fingers / thumbs on a rotational basis when testing.
 

over here that's
106 = 5.6
122 = 6.8

i'd be happy with that, @meab2
though that would leave me hungry.
 
My first meal today was a large bowl of various leaf salad, tomato, sweet pepper, celery, mozzarella cheese, coleslaw, radishes, cucumber, and a mug of coffee with cream.
I suspect that I got fewer carbs but far more nutrition from it than from a couple of slices of toast, and I don't need tablets.
 
I can just about live without pasta ,rice ,potato etc.. but I can't live without crunchy toast and I only eat it in the morning. Your breakfast sounds delicious but for me that's what I would eat for dinner .
I feel satisfied after toast in the morning and it doesn't make me hungry afterwards
 
Do you then eat lunch as well?
 
I love bread and its so difficult to reduce the amount that I would normally eat ..but needs must !
 
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