Finger pricking

Status
Not open for further replies.
I wasn't advised at all except to say 'use a finger'. I have found that trying to get blood from my index fingers nigh on impossible!

So again this site has proved invaluable. Just the 8 fingers in future.

I alternate my hands week on week. Its a leftie this week.

And I use lubricated G33 lancets, so much better than the NHS supplied G28. No pain.
 
jill-mc said:
I also use this one but when not on offer they are really expensive. So I order mine at the pharmacy counter rather than picking them off the shelf and then you only pay wholesale price. (same price as when on offer). Boots chemist.
Click to expand...
I buy a stock when on offer so I have quite a stock.
 
I use the ring finger or little finger of my left hand because the skin on my other fingers on the left hand is hard and dry and I usually have cracks on them, so any pressure to get blood is really painful where the skin is split. It is just convenience, since I am right handed, to use the left hand. I can and have, prior to getting Libre, used the same finger (usually left ring finger) 10x a day on full depth setting and it not get sore and it is still my go to finger after 2 years of intensive testing.

I agree that not holding the lancing device too firmly against the finger helps as it allows the lancet to bounce a bit more rather than jab. I also think that squeezing the finger to get blood does more to make the fingers sore than lancing them, so sometimes having a deeper setting is better, but definitely make sure to have warm hands. I find when I am manually working.... mucking out at my stables etc. blood flows so much easier than if I have just woken up with cold hands or I have been sitting still for a while. Even something like sitting drumming your fingers for a while or knitting or playing the piano or typing an email will help with blood flow, but holding a cup of coffee/tea is helpful too.
 
Gwynn said:
And I use lubricated G33 lancets, so much better than the NHS supplied G28. No pain.
Click to expand...

Ask your surgery to change the prescription. I am given True Plus lancets, as they match the brand of my supplied glucometer, but my prescription is explicitly for 33 gauge ones despite them also coming in larger sizes.
 
Sorry about your sore fingers @Newbie777

Have you had a look at AlanS’s ‘painless pricks’ blog post? That has some helpful suggestions

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
 
I have a Codefree monitor and it needs only the smallest drop of blood, I don't know about others. I was prescribed a box of mylife lancets which are very small and I just use them hand held as the device that came with the monitor was a phaff. It seems to only need the lightest of stab to draw enough blood to apply to the strip. Maybe I am used to getting blood out of a stone as I was always the person who managed to get a whole millilitre from 1 finger prick for lab experiments when I was at work. The best place always seemed to be just to the side if the pad although I did have one student who decided the back of the hand was the best place.
 
I tend to use just the middle finger and ring finger on my left hand. Very very occasionally I’ll jab a finger on my right hand but it’s once in a blue moon.
 
Newbie777 said:
Hello,

Do you have any tips on finger pricking when taking blood for the BG monitor?

i am now testing my BG around 6 times a day and find them very sore.

I am using the no.2 setting on my pen and swoping fingers/using the side of my fingers.

Thanks
Click to expand...
I do not use the pen just prick finger myself with lancet, fingers nowhere near as sore
 
Edith22 said:
I do not use the pen just prick finger myself with lancet, fingers nowhere near as sore
Click to expand...
Oh ok, I am not too sure about doing that but am sure it works for you.
 
Leadinglights said:
I have a Codefree monitor and it needs only the smallest drop of blood, I don't know about others...
Click to expand...
Good job too as I can never ever get any blood out, just the teensiest blob from the side of my right hand pinkie and occasionally the side of my left hand pinkie. Nightmare. Sometimes you can hardly see the blob but if I'm careful positioning the strip 'under' the blob and 'lifting' the Codefree reads it with any luck. 🙂
 
Ditto said:
Good job too as I can never ever get any blood out, just the teensiest blob from the side of my right hand pinkie and occasionally the side of my left hand pinkie. Nightmare. Sometimes you can hardly see the blob but if I'm careful positioning the strip 'under' the blob and 'lifting' the Codefree reads it with any luck. 🙂
Click to expand...
That' is very unfortunate struggling getting blood out.

I am testing 5 or 6 times a day, and with my poor eyesight in my right eye, it is slightly awkward.

But I am hoping to go back to testing 2 (or max 3 times a day) soon.
 
Newbie777 said:
Oh ok, I am not too sure about doing that but am sure it works for you.
Click to expand...
I definitely wouldn't recommend this (in my personal opinion). It's not how the lancets were designed to be used.
 
Thank you, I won't am a bit scared of doing it that way
 
The way I was shown, both at university and diagnosis, is to think of the area you can use as a 'horseshoe' shape - so the sides and toward the top of the finger, avoiding the soft pad in the middle. This horseshoe area is firmer but should mean that you don't need to have the lancet go too deep, and it is easier to gently push the blood flow toward these areas.
 
That's really good advice and easily remembered, thank you, will bear that in mind.
 
Direct lancet-to-finger was how I had to start 30 years ago. It was always much much more painful for me - I just went in too deep or not at all. Couldn’t find the middle ground!

I much prefer variable-depth finger prickers, and have very little pain with them. Mostly use accu-chek fastclix / multiclix, but others that come with meters eg the Contour Next USB are OK too.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Direct lancet-to-finger was how I had to start 30 years ago. It was always much much more painful for me - I just went in too deep or not at all. Couldn’t find the middle ground!

I much prefer variable-depth finger prickers, and have very little pain with them. Mostly use accu-chek fastclix / multiclix, but others that come with meters eg the Contour Next USB are OK too.
Click to expand...
Where those just the all metallic ones or the ones with plastic attached?
 
grovesy said:
Where those just the all metallic ones or the ones with plastic attached?
Click to expand...
Plastic holder with a bit of metal poking out of the end

I still have boxes of them!
 
Newbie777 said:
Thank you.

Yes I do struggle with the bigger fingers.

I just need to remember which finger I did and when!
Click to expand...
That is often my problem - my memory is terrible at the moment and I often forget which finger I previously used!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top