Today hit hard! I had a woman with diabetes in my office that was frustrated as can be. She was hurt physically because her fingers were sore, her injection sites were painful, and she was worn out. She was emotionally drained from all of the negative symptoms she would get when she had a high reading, and even worse when having a “low” reading, where she would end up passing out on the ground. She was upset she had diabetes and even more distraught that she couldn’t get it under control.
I see many people with diabetes quite often who are in the same boat. And I hate it for them! No one wants to be tied to a meter. No one wants to have to inject insulin 4 times a day. No one wants the side effects of medications. I get it, and I feel it’s my job to help people figure out how to make having diabetes not suck so much.
At the very least, I start teaching them how to make checking their blood meaningful, as accurate as possible and relatively painless. Some tips I share with people trying to check their blood sugar are:
- All meters have to meet the same general threshold of accuracy. Don’t sweat what brand meter you have. Focus on the lancing device (the pen-looking thing that holds the needle when you poke your finger). My favorite on the market currently is the Microlet lancing device.
- Make sure your hands are clean! Wash them with soapy water and dry them. If your hands are not clean, your readings can be up to a 100 points off!!!! Using a alcohol wipe can still give readings up to 25 points off! Keep it simple, wash your hands!
- Have everything set up before you poke yourself. Get your meter turned on, have your lancing device ready to go, and have your strip (resembles a computer-chip) in the meter.
- Set your lancing device LOW (women should generally be at a 1-2 and men between a 1-3). Those higher settings are for the few individuals with super calloused hands from working (construction workers, farmers, laborers, etc). No need to crank it up and make it hurt if you don’t have to. Go as low as you can to still get blood.
- If you don’t get a good drop on the first stick, don’t waste your strip! If there isn’t enough blood, your meter won’t read and you will have wasted a strip ($). Just try again or try to squeeze a decent drop out of your first site.
I hope some of these tips will help anyone with diabetes from having the bruised, sore fingers that many people with diabetes experience. It doesn’t have to be painful! Life is hard enough, and yes diabetes complicates it more, but try the above to make managing your diabetes a little less painful.
P.s., if you need help managing your diabetes and you’d like more support, we have an online program just for you! Check out the Diabetes 4 Me program where you can learn from the comfort of your home all about diabetes and how to better manage your blood sugars.
