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Tips To Make Testing Pain Free Did you know there
are 9 simple steps that you can take to make testing your blood glucose a lot
less painful?
At the moment the only way to accurately check blood glucose
is to take a blood sample from the finger (by pricking) and then check the resulting
blood for glucose.
Pain is caused by the penetration of the lancet into
the skin when pricking. The deeper the lancet has to penetrate the skin, the more
painful the testing is but on the otherhand the deeper the lancet penetrates the
skin the more blood is produced for testing.
The tips below focus on
ways to reduce the pain of testing but still provide sufficient blood for measurement:
1)
Wash your hands with soap and warm water - this will help keep the testing
area and help dilate the blood vessels in the fingers to increase blood flow.
It's harder to test when your hands are cold and usually more painfule.
2)
Massage your finger downwards to the tip of your finger - this will help
push blood towards the tip of your finger so that when it is pricked there is
plenty of blood ready to come out.
3) Have
your testing hand pointing downwards below your waist - blood will flow more
easily when following gravity downwards.
4) Set
your lancing device - lancing devices have different
settings to pierce the skin at different depths. If you use the tips in this article
you should find that you will be able to use a lower setting but still have enough
blood for testing. Try changing the settings to find the right level.
5)
Select the right meter - different blood glucose meters require different
amounts of blood to carry out a blood glucose test. The less blood needed, the
less painful testing will be. Choose a blood glucose meter that requires only
a small testing sample. For example the Freestyle
Lite meter only needs 0.3 microliter's of blood. That's a very small
amount of blood and can mean you can reduce your lancing depth.
6)
Alternate your fingers - don't use the same finger over and over again. You
have 8 fingers, distribute the testing evenly. You'll find your fingers will recover
much faster and blood flow will be better.
7)
Moisturise your fingers - harden skin through regular testing can reduce
blood flow out when pricked. Help your skin repair and your fingers recover. Regularly
moisturise your fingers.
8) Prick the
tip of your fingers - better blood flow at the tip of your finger so best
place to test but make sure you use the skin on the side of the finger next to
the nail. This area has less nerves and so less painful!
9)
Use a new lancet each time! - a lancet is designed only to be used once.
Once used it becomes blunt and if re-used it can be very painful.
These
tips should help make testing a lot less painful. If you would like to learn more
about the Freestyle Lite meter click on the link: Freestyle
Lite meter Do you know of any other
tips that can help make testing less painful? Use our contact form and let me
know. Contact us
Jignesh
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Glucosemeters4u
blog: in addition to our newsletter we also post articles from time to time
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Blog
Insulin Knowledge: learn
more about the different types of insulin and which pen or needles to use for
each form of insilon. Click on the link to see more: Insulin
Knowlegde
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which we are always adding to. To check out our recipes click on Diabetic
recipes
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