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Finger pricking Be honest

Do you wash your hands before you do a finger prick test

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 31.4%

  • Usually

    Votes: 5 14.3%

  • Sometimes

    Votes: 13 37.1%

  • No

    Votes: 6 17.1%
  • Total voters
    35
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
During the day I always wash my hands before I test. I don’t for my waking reading though.
 
sometimes...aka only if my hands are filty or i've got sticky stuff like jam on them after prepping the kids toast. occasionally if the reading seems a bit odd. I'd have no hands left after nearly 30 years if i washed every time 😱😱
 
I’m obviously a mucky bugger because I never do. My hands get washed after using the bathroom, gardening, before doing food and if Ive taken the dog out, that’s about it. I have survived so far....
 
I will buck the trend and set a good example to newbies
Angel.gif


I always wash my hands before testing - I absolutely couldn't imagine doing it without. I'm a bit germophobic anyway, though - partly to do with having so many immune-related conditions which could be made so much worse by my becoming ill - so the thought of sticking something into my finger when my finger is potentially germy is really horrifying to me (it doesn't stop me going in the garden and getting my hands covered with compost, mind, but I don't have a problem with good clean dirt, only with germs! - and I do always give them a thorough scrub when I get in). If I'm out and have no access to soap and water I always clean my hands with a handwipe before testing.
 
So why do we all get told at that start that we should wash our hands every time!!
Squeeze, wipe , squeeze, test makes far more sense.,but it is good to see yet again that we are all different.
 
No, never do. I wash my hands during the day of course (I'm not that much of a scruffy get) but not specifically for a blood test. A lot of my tests are when out and about - what are you supposed to do for that?
 
I just rinse and dry the finger I am about to stab under the cold tap, no soap or antibac gel though.
 
The fact of the matter is that our skin is awash with bacteria and fungi, which are all doing a good symbiotic job. Even if a few got pushed under the skin, they wouldn’t do any harm. I figured that out very early in my Diabetic career. You don’t wash your abdomen or thigh to inject insulin, do you? Those are both regions where you’ll always find the odd faecal coliform, and you’ve not all got pustules over your body from when you inject, have you?

What you will notice is that when you go for a blood test, the nurse doesn’t wipe the skin clean.
 
Most don’t, though. Specially the most recently trained.
 
Oh, I'm not worried about my own germs, Mike, I'm worried about other people's! :D

I always wash my hands thoroughly before going for a blood test, and then put on gloves (I have blood tests in the back of my hands). When I was in hospital they were horrified about the idea of doing blood tests in back of hands without cleaning them first.
 
The nurses who take blood always wear gloves to stop getting blood borne diseases from all the patients with nasty habits. And vice versa, I suppose.
 
I don't remember all of them wearing gloves with me (despite the fact that people with ME are banned from giving blood, for life, just in case it turns out to be a virus) - I know my surgery nurse doesn't, but she does always wash her hands before she does my blood tests - and presumably afterwards!
 
I said yes, but to be fair, I don't test that often. Even when I did test, that was usually only once per day.

Andy 🙂
 
I read yesterday in the New Scientist that there are around 10 million bacteria on every square centimetre of skin on humans. They don’t mind us washing ourselves, they hang on to carry on doing whatever it is they do.

Altogether, we have far more bacteria than human cells in our bodies. A triumph of symbiosis. They are our friends, and we are theirs, all happy together.
 
mikeyB said:
I read yesterday in the New Scientist that there are around 10 million bacteria on every square centimetre of skin on humans. They don’t mind us washing ourselves, they hang on to carry on doing whatever it is they do.

Altogether, we have far more bacteria than human cells in our bodies. A triumph of symbiosis. They are our friends, and we are theirs, all happy together.
Click to expand...
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/new...-project-defines-normal-bacterial-makeup-body

🙂
 
I didn’t know of the Human Biome Project. Sounds like fascinating work. It’s amazing that this has never been noted until relatively recently, because in the good old days, bacteria were “the enemy”. I reckon that the direction of travel would be relating particular biome characteristics to particular disorders, with maybe a predictive possibility. And maybe broad spectrum antibiotics can cause disease.

As I said, fascinating.
 
Nope. But I do wash my hands a lot due to nappy changes etc.

I rarely test near a bathroom either though - more often in a car, at dinner table, out in a park etc. I carry enough junk with me without adding damp and dry cotton wool... although I suppose I could use a babywipe... but then again if I started doing this then I should probably change the lancet more often too!
 
grainger said:
Nope. But I do wash my hands a lot due to nappy changes etc.

I rarely test near a bathroom either though - more often in a car, at dinner table, out in a park etc. I carry enough junk with me without adding damp and dry cotton wool... although I suppose I could use a babywipe... but then again if I started doing this then I should probably change the lancet more often too!
Click to expand...

The theory is so different to practice, since we need to live with it. It would be interesting to know whether newbies are still told to wash hands before each test

I found a dried out cotton ball looking very suspect in a bag in the bottom of a rucksack I have not used for many years (too small now!!)
 
Northerner said:
She did when I went last week! 😱 🙂
Click to expand...
So did mine this morning - and she was wearing blue rubber gloves!

I wash my hands before testing, or at least just a rinse. I'm often stroking the cat so I feel it is a good idea :D
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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