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

Testing related - not major

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,388
Location
Suffolk, UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
As I am on one of my infrequent testing campaigns at the moment (there are limits to the self harm I can endure) I was pondering on a couple of things.

(1) What does everyone else use to mop up any spare blood?

I have cut a piece of kitchen roll into very small squares and keep those in my testing kit to mop up after testing.

(2) What does everyone else put in the sharps container after testing?

I put the lancet in (obviously) but I also put the test strip and the piece of blood stained kitchen roll in the container because I see these as contaminated waste (although not dangerous like a lancet) and it neatly keeps everything in one place.

As I said - nothing major.

Cheers

LGC
 
I do much the same as you are doing now.

Nigel
 
I use a tissue or bits of kitchen roll to. I never had a sharps bin before going on insulin and was told i could put lancets in household waste. I do put them in my sharps bin now though. Strips and tissue/kitchen roll still goes in household waste though.
 
I used the one touch ultra strips that come in little pots of 25... I put two pots into one so I have 50 in a pot that tends to last me about a week.. I then can use the other pot to put in the used strips... Reference spare blood I tend to just suck my finger if there is any spare.. or use pocket tissues that I carry around.. Reference sharps maybe I am lazy but I don;t change the lancet as often as I probably should so it tends to get done when I am at home and near my sharps bin.
 
I usually have bits of kitchen roll with me and a test strip pot to put the used strips in,
i have a couple of times put my finger in my mouth after testing when ive not had the kitchen roll with me disgusting i know :shock: :shock: :shock:

Sue
 
Sue o2 said:
I usually have bits of kitchen roll with me and a test strip pot to put the used strips in,
i have a couple of times put my finger in my mouth after testing when ive not had the kitchen roll with me disgusting i know :shock: :shock: :shock:

Sue

You do realise that if your blood glucose is up you have started a feedback loop? :shock:
 
Pneu said:
<snip>
Reference sharps maybe I am lazy but I don;t change the lancet as often as I probably should so it tends to get done when I am at home and near my sharps bin.

I know there have been other discussions about this.

I feel that the most likely place for harmful blood pathogens to develop is on blood.
I wash my plates and cutlery after eating and throw the lancet away instead of putting it in the dishwasher :lol:

Given that, as a gardener and occasional mechanic my hands suffer far worse than a bit of used blood when I cut myself.

Cheers

LGC
 
Yes i have thought of that one, but was nothing else i could have done lucky for me its only happened a couple of times that ive been caught with no kitchen roll, :D
 
Nothing!

Don't get the bleeder with new lancets like the old fashioned razor blade one :shock:
 
Like Jopar I use nothing to 'mop up' In hospital they use tiny gauze wipes and I started cutting up gauze squares but now just a bit of pressure from another finger.: I try hard not to put it in my mouth. Must admit I sometimes find blood in odd places like light switches . Now when I'm running sometimes it just won't stop so I end up with blood running down my arms and looking as if I've had an accident! It stops eventually.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
As I am on one of my infrequent testing campaigns at the moment (there are limits to the self harm I can endure) I was pondering on a couple of things.

(1) What does everyone else use to mop up any spare blood?

There is an amusing thread on this subject:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=16119

It solved my problem anyway :lol:
 
I don't get much spare blood, but I lick it off (no point wasting it!) and press with a clean tissue on the odd occasions that it doesn't stop immediately.

The strips go in my sharps box with the used lancets. If I'm away from home I put them in the netting bit of my kit until I get home. If I'm away from homefor a few days I take an empty pot.

Viv 8)
 
That's interesting about licking the blood aiding coagulation. I bleed quite a lot after having used the strip but I just can't bring myself to lick my finger. I wipe it with a tissue and have to hold it there for a bit.
 
I too lick it off and then press on the finger or press the finger against something - usually my left knee which is flat due to not having a kneecap (but that's another story lol)

Ailz
 
daisy1 said:
That's interesting about licking the blood aiding coagulation. I bleed quite a lot after having used the strip but I just can't bring myself to lick my finger. I wipe it with a tissue and have to hold it there for a bit.

How about spitting on the tissue?
Or moistening it with slaiva some other way?
That way you get the saliva to the wound without having to suck your finger.

Cheers

LGC
 
Finger goes in my mouth -- it's my blood and I was brought up (a few years after rationing ended) to "waste not, want not" :wink:

Lancet gets changed about every 6 months or when I change the battery in the smoke detector.

Test strips go in the bin.

:)
 
I'm not too keen on spitting either :lol: I think I'm happier carrying on doing it the same way as I do now. It's better than putting sticking plaster on it each time :lol: (see link I posted at the beginning of this thread). Every time I had a test at the diabetologist's they put a sticking plaster on my finger so I thought that was what you had to do. Now I know better thanks to this forum.
 
Back
Top