Newly diagnosed type 1 help please!

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James2910

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Type 1
Hi all
I recently came out of hospital last week after finding out I am a type 1 diabetic. I have to check my blood sugar levels 4x a day. I’ve found that a week in it’s becoming harder to get enough blood out of my fingers. Any tips on keeping your fingers in soft and how to rotate pricking points better?
thanks
 
Do you have a manual job? If not, wash hands in warm water before you even think about it, if the skin's hard, scrub your fingertips with a nailbrush, then dab dry rather than scrubbing away at them with a rough towel. Follow the link below to find out where to make the required puncdture.

Before bed, every night!- wash hands well again and apply hand cream - Neutrogena Swedish Formula is suitably fragrance free so you aren't going to smell like a 'tart's boudoir' ! (you can if you want of course)

Painless Pricks

Managing blood glucose levels for type 2 diabetes. Learning how to achieve long term control by testing and diet.
loraldiabetes.blogspot.com loraldiabetes.blogspot.com
 
Make sure you poke your fingers at the side and not the tip. Welcome to the forum as well 🙂
 
Oh PS - my bro in law was a brickie and if he hadn't laid any bricks for a while, his hands lost their resilience - and he swore by Elizabeth Arden 'Blue Grass' handcream, which my sister liked so he always knew there would be enough for him too - cos it was him that bought it for her for presents! - for its restorative properties.
 
I’m are car salesman so not too much manual handling involved luckily!
thanks for the advise!
it’s been a very strange couple of weeks trying to get my head round everything!
 
James2910 said:
I’m are car salesman so not too much manual handling involved luckily!
thanks for the advise!
Click to expand...

As with many of these things a lot of it's just practice. Once you're used to (and have the finger-pricker set to the appropriate depth and so on) it it'll be easy and something you can do without really paying attention.
 
Welcome to the forum, glad you found us. How did you come to be diagnosed? A lot to take on board but you've come to the right place. What insulins are you on?
 
Welcome to the forum @James2910

Glad you have found the forum so soon after diagnosis. It took me nearly 20 years to start comparing notes with other PWD!

I completely agree with @Pumper_Sue about using the sides of the fingertips rather than the tips themselves. One benefit being that you can use the ‘fronts’ and the ‘backs’ (or inside/outside???) for double the bodgeable area.

What lancing device are you using? I’ve always liked Accuchek multiclix types.
 
Welcome to the forum @James2910

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis but pleased that you have found the forum.
I have definitely learnt most of what I know about managing my diabetes from others on here.

In addition to using my fingers for testing I use the base of my thumb if I want to give my fingers a rest. Like others I use the sides of the pads, rather than the centre. A bit of wiggle of the fingers before pricking seems to encourage the flow.

Keep in touch and keep the questions coming.
 
My top tip is set the depth suitable for you and just rest the pricker on your finger, dont push hard as i find that hurts..mine is set at number 2.
 
Whereas being such a young girl that even after 40+* years finger bodging, mine is only set at 1.

Would be longer, except when some of us were diagnosed, they hadn't invented glucometers for home use …..
 
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