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Where To Prick?

SueJB

SueJB

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,336
Location
Heaven
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
cold weather
My fingers are beginning to look a bit tired of being pricked so frequently. I only use 4 of them, not my thumbs or the finger next to them on the sides not the top. I was just wondering if any of you take blood from anywhere else to check you BG or have any tips please? Thanks
 
SueJB said:
My fingers are beginning to look a bit tired of being pricked so frequently. I only use 4 of them, not my thumbs or the finger next to them on the sides not the top. I was just wondering if any of you take blood from anywhere else to check you BG or have any tips please? Thanks
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May I ask why you are only using 4 fingers? The more you use (including thumbs) the less sore they will all be.
 
SueJB said:
@Bluetit1802 I was told not to use thumb and the digit next to it when I was first diagnosed so never questioned it
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I find my thumb is my best blood giver, and my second best is the finger next to it! I use all 8 fingers and 2 thumbs. I rotate them, but if I'm in a rush or struggling to draw blood, I go straight to my thumbs.
 
I was told not to use thumb also but all of the other fingers. Struggle to get blood though out of all but little and ring fingers.
 
I use four fingers of my left hand, not the thumb or digit, and have done since the 80s. They’ve lost a bit of feeling, and we’re always a bit spotted from testing, but I decided I wanted the other six to be fully sensitive.
The best thing that’s happened, for the unfortunate four, is cgm. They look almost new again. The downside is that when I do check with the accuchek it’s begun to hurt again. Really not sure to whether to be pleased that more feeling’s returned, or sad. Maybe the erstwhile attitude ‘well it needs to be done, tough - do it’ has upped and gone now that cgm‘ here.
 
SueJB said:
I was just wondering if any of you take blood from anywhere else to check you BG or have any tips please?
Click to expand...
I use all ten digits, so they get rotated.

I have noticed that since I have got a new mobile phone with a finger print reader, that the thumb / finger I was using as my print changed (more pits) after a couple of days and could no longer use it. I have now changed the print and do not lance that thumb / finger any more.
 
@SueJB - If you type "diabetes blood test alternative sites" into YouTube, plenty of videos come up, including one from diabetes.co.uk
 
SueJB said:
My fingers are beginning to look a bit tired of being pricked so frequently. I only use 4 of them, not my thumbs or the finger next to them on the sides not the top. I was just wondering if any of you take blood from anywhere else to check you BG or have any tips please? Thanks
Click to expand...

How many times are you testing a day?
 
Fairygodmother said:
I use four fingers of my left hand, not the thumb or digit, and have done since the 80s. They’ve lost a bit of feeling, and we’re always a bit spotted from testing, but I decided I wanted the other six to be fully sensitive.
The best thing that’s happened, for the unfortunate four, is cgm. They look almost new again. The downside is that when I do check with the accuchek it’s begun to hurt again. Really not sure to whether to be pleased that more feeling’s returned, or sad. Maybe the erstwhile attitude ‘well it needs to be done, tough - do it’ has upped and gone now that cgm‘ here.
Click to expand...
@Fairygodmother do you pay for your own cgm? have I asked this before??
 
mountaintom said:
How many times are you testing a day?
Click to expand...
@mountaintom When I was told to on diagnosis, before meals but then I noticed others talking about other times. Now when I get up, no brekkie. Then at lunchtime whether or not I eating. Before supper and before bed. So 4 times a day unless I feel weird. and you?
 
SueJB said:
@Fairygodmother do you pay for your own cgm? have I asked this before??
Click to expand...

Hi @SueJB, yes, I do. I feel very very lucky to be able to do this; I did wonder about the affordability of the outlay on my retirement income and I sat down with a piece of paper and worked out the cost a few times before I took the plunge. I was having real difficulties with Lantus and felt I had to find out some finer details before I could try to counteract any of them.
As it turned out, it hasn’t been as expensive as I first feared. The big cost of the reader’s a one off. I get the sensors from Superdrug for £35 each which is lots less than Abbott was charging, a comparative saving of £50 per lunar month.
I had originally intended to use the libre for just a couple of months so I had an idea of what was going wrong. As it turned out the Consultant was much more interested in what the libre showed than the old-style meter reading chart and used it to make a change to Levemir.
As a footnote, I just wish the GP surgery and DSN were more up to date and more proactive in understanding and responding to the new tech. But that’s a personal moan.
Even though the Libre’s not as accurate as a meter, and I have to watch the reading gap (1.5 on the current sensor) I find it invaluable for the quick check and a view of the larger picture in the graphs and bar charts. And I’ve gone on using it after the first two months.
 
Another point about using cgm, it allows you to ‘sugar surf’ - see Stephen Ponder’s “Sugar Surfing”. The libre reading are accompanied by a direction arrow showing whether blood sugar’s steady, rising slowly, rising steeply, or falling slowly, falling steeply. This helps in preventing highs and lows and can also indicate the optimum time between taking a bolus and eating, and, if needs, whether or not to correct with food or insulin.
 
I know this is rather pedantic but the Libre is not a cgm; it is a flash meter.
The difference is that a cgm will alert when BG is high, low or changing quickly. I know some have "pimped" their Libre to achieve this but out of the box(for £35 from Superdrug), the Libre does not do this.
That is not to say the Libre is not a valuable piece of kit, as you describe @Fairygodmother .
 
Fairygodmother said:
Hi @SueJB, yes, I do. I feel very very lucky to be able to do this; I did wonder about the affordability of the outlay on my retirement income and I sat down with a piece of paper and worked out the cost a few times before I took the plunge. I was having real difficulties with Lantus and felt I had to find out some finer details before I could try to counteract any of them.
As it turned out, it hasn’t been as expensive as I first feared. The big cost of the reader’s a one off. I get the sensors from Superdrug for £35 each which is lots less than Abbott was charging, a comparative saving of £50 per lunar month.
I had originally intended to use the libre for just a couple of months so I had an idea of what was going wrong. As it turned out the Consultant was much more interested in what the libre showed than the old-style meter reading chart and used it to make a change to Levemir.
As a footnote, I just wish the GP surgery and DSN were more up to date and more proactive in understanding and responding to the new tech. But that’s a personal moan.
Even though the Libre’s not as accurate as a meter, and I have to watch the reading gap (1.5 on the current sensor) I find it invaluable for the quick check and a view of the larger picture in the graphs and bar charts. And I’ve gone on using it after the first two months.
Click to expand...
Thanks @Fairygodmother and @helensaramay Which would be the easiest to use and do you need a mobile phone to get the readings?
 
helensaramay said:
I know this is rather pedantic but the Libre is not a cgm; it is a flash meter.
The difference is that a cgm will alert when BG is high, low or changing quickly. I know some have "pimped" their Libre to achieve this but out of the box(for £35 from Superdrug), the Libre does not do this.
That is not to say the Libre is not a valuable piece of kit, as you describe @Fairygodmother .
Click to expand...

I understood the acronym cgm stood for continuous glucose monitor, and the libre monitors glucose levels continuously - or as continuously as most do.
 
SueJB said:
@mountaintom When I was told to on diagnosis, before meals but then I noticed others talking about other times. Now when I get up, no brekkie. Then at lunchtime whether or not I eating. Before supper and before bed. So 4 times a day unless I feel weird. and you?
Click to expand...

Maybe you should turn the pricker down a notch. I was getting sore fingers after testing 20 times a day. I test about 4 times now.
 
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