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Accu chek lancet device

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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Easedale

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I was diagnosed Type 2 five months ago after a finger prick blood test at local pharmacy. HbA1c Score was 100. Only symptom was falling asleep watching TV. Last HbA1c was a couple of weeks ago and was 53. I would like to buy a glucose monitor. I find the finger prick tests painful and saw on this site that an Accu Chek pen is less painful. I presume that I can buy a different brand of monitor and strips and just use the pen to collect blood.
I am female aged 66 and worried that I have no idea how long I have had Diabetes .
 
Easedale said:
I presume that I can buy a different brand of monitor and strips and just use the pen to collect blood.
Click to expand...
Certainly, yes. It's just to get a drop of blood, after all, so use whatever you find works best. As you say, many of us like Accu-Chek FastClix.
 
Easedale said:
Thank you Bruce for your prompt reply. I will have a look online.
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It's worth reading the first thread on this forum, https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/board...for-people-new-to-diabetes.10406/#post-938458

Presuming you have to pay for the test strips (your GP won't prescribe them) they're the biggest cost, and the link above gives two meters that have pretty cheap test strips.

You might also be reassured that although 53 is over the threshold that indicates diabetes, it probably doesn't increase the risk of complications all that much. (The curve is very much not a straight line: reducing from 70 to 60 makes a big difference, but 53 to 43 (say) doesn't make nearly such a difference.) So if you've had an HbA1c of 53 for the last 10 years, that's not so terrible.
 
Thanks Bruce. I will have a look at that thread.
My first HbA1c test and finger prick blood test both measured 100 five months ago. I can't remember when I last had my blood glucose measured before this but it was many years ago, hence not knowing how long I have been diabetic. The reduction from 100 to 53 has been in the last four and a half months since diagnosis because of a low carb diet and metformin.
 
That's a great improvement then, well done!
 
That is a fantastic improvement and keeping going with your dietary changes should see a further reduction in a few more months.
If you finger pricking is painful then it could be your technique that is the problem as it should hurt at all.
Making sure your hands are warm and pricking just to the side of the pad not on the middle or the tip of the finger should give you the small drop of blood needed to apply to the strip. You may be pricking too deep.
 
Thank you Leadinglights.
I haven't done any finger prick tests myself but had 3 one after another in the pharmacy because of my high score. It was a horrible burning pain.
 
Easedale said:
Thank you Leadinglights.
I haven't done any finger prick tests myself but had 3 one after another in the pharmacy because of my high score. It was a horrible burning pain.
Click to expand...
Yes when they were monitoring me in hospital when I was there for knee surgery it hurt far more than doing it myself, partly they did it right on the tip of my finger.
There are some Ytube videos on finger prick technique.
 
After 50 years I can assure you that no person other than myself is usually allowed to prick my fingers, even with my personal Accu-Chek Fastclix. Nobody EVER did or can do it as easily and painlessly as ME !!

The one person I was ever very happy indeed to let do it was the paramedic who arrived responding to a 999 call when I had a terrible hypo - so I then could relax cos I knew I was in good hands, whereas I wasn't before he arrived.
 
Easedale said:
I find the finger prick tests painful and saw on this site that an Accu Chek pen is less painful.
Click to expand...
It’s the best of the best, can’t go wrong with an accuchek fastclix. How often you change the lancet is personal preference but no one really changes them every time, just occasionally if it starts to become a bit painful then you might want to click the lancet on one.
 
I did have a period when mine was turned up to 1.5 but since then I have changed the cassette more often (not every time by any means) and I'm back down to 0.5! There are, by the way, 11 depth settings from 0.5 to 5.5.
 
Thanks, whoever did that. You'll know who you are and why!
 
I’ve had various different BG meters over the years, which often come with their own fingerpricking device, but I’ve never found a fingerpricker that works so well, or so painlessly as the Accucheck Fastclix / Multiclix / Softclix ones (I’ve had a few over the years!). So whichever meter I use, I just swap to keep using my trusty Roche jabber 🙂

Alan S has some recommendations for reducing pain when fingerpricking here

Painless Pricks

Managing blood glucose levels for type 2 diabetes. Learning how to achieve long term control by testing and diet.
loraldiabetes.blogspot.co.uk loraldiabetes.blogspot.co.uk
 
trophywench said:
I did have a period when mine was turned up to 1.5 but since then I have changed the cassette more often (not every time by any means) and I'm back down to 0.5! There are, by the way, 11 depth settings from 0.5 to 5.5.
Click to expand...
Hi Jenny
I had one of these gifted to me by a rep , It came with one cassette which I disposed of as I didn't know that you could reuse them .
Then went back to my old single lancet pricker.
Martin
 
Easedale said:
I was diagnosed Type 2 five months ago after a finger prick blood test at local pharmacy. HbA1c Score was 100. Only symptom was falling asleep watching TV. Last HbA1c was a couple of weeks ago and was 53. I would like to buy a glucose monitor. I find the finger prick tests painful and saw on this site that an Accu Chek pen is less painful. I presume that I can buy a different brand of monitor and strips and just use the pen to collect blood.
I am female aged 66 and worried that I have no idea how long I have had Diabetes .
Click to expand...
Hello, I would suggest you ask your GP about diabetes as he/she will send you for a fasting blood test. Your blood sugars vary in a 24 hour cycle so a finger prick test at a pharmacy is not really a diagnosis. Falling asleep happens to everyone as we get older.
 
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