Lancet

[MickW]

Good morning all. Just a quick question. How often should I change the lancet in my BG meter?

 

[Ljc]

Hi. Officially they are meant for single use only, however many of us on here use re use them for a while. TBH when mine get too ouchy I change mine.
Their is a standing joke on here about St Swithuns day being lancet changing day

 

[trophywench]

LOL - it goes back a lot further than this forum!

But to be serious for once, personally I used to be firmly in the St Swithin's day brigade (though even then it wasn't true) but by heck, after 48 years some sense emerges - at the very least - once a day.

End of lecture from Great Grandma.

 

[ianf0ster]

When I was testing before and after every meal I changed my lancet every day. Now I don't need to test so frequently I only change it once or twice per week.

 

[ColinUK]

My lancet is set on a 3 and when it needs dialling up to a 4 I change the needle. Sometimes it’s almost two months but more often it’s about 5 weeks I guess.

 

[trophywench]

And the longer you need to keep puncturing your digits Colin, the more scar tissue will build up under the immediately outer skin on the fingers, thus making the peripheral veins in the ends of them progressively more and more difficult to puncture.

Entirely false economy mate. Please desist!

PS it flipping, but that's not the truthful word, well hurts when it gets to that stage. Entirely my own fault of course, but yes - I jolly well do regret doing it!

 

[silentsquirrel]

Hi. Officially they are meant for single use only, however many of us on here use re use them for a while. TBH when mine get too ouchy I change mine.
Their is a standing joke on here about St Swithuns day being lancet changing day

Nobody told me it was a JOKE!!!😱🙂
I once went 2 - 3 years without changing - we moved, and I could not find the box of lancets after the move.

My fingers are not sore, and I only use 3 fingers on the left hand. There was a discussion about the variability between hands some months ago, so I decided to stick to one hand, and swap hands when the left started feeling sore, not swapped yet!

 

[Barbie1]

I still only change mine St swithins day
Despite what everyone else says, though I would not ever recommend that stance!

not sure I would ever go to each time though......

 

[grovesy]

Mine is only on 0.5. , I use the Fast Clix.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I’m a terrible re-user, but better now than I was...

I’ve been at this diabetes lark for 30 years next Feb, and last year was the first time I have got round to organising a prescription for my Multiclix / Fastclix style bodgers. I’ve always simply used and reused the ones provided in the boxes with a new lancing device which more or less lasted until the next lancing device came along!

Incidentally, I know from hard-earned callouses on my fretting hand, that it doesn’t take many weeks of not playing for my fingertips to soften up again 🙂

 

[trophywench]

So assuming you don't worry for a hobby, is it a saw, a bit of sports equipment or a musical instrument that the fret belongs to, which you require the hand to operate?

 

[KARNAK]

I use Unistik 3 Comfort single lancets.

You cannot reuse them because they are sprung loaded and once the lancet is deployed into the finger
they are obsolete, in the sharps bin it goes.

 

[Goldiebrowse]

I’m a bugger for not changing my lancets, I know officially they should be one use only but I think the longest I’ve gone is 6 weeks

 

[mikeyB]

Well, 2 years ago I was given a Tee2 BG kit with ten lancets. I know I'm a Libre user, but I've still got four of those lancets left.