[Diabetes-talk] Hello and question about finger pricking

[Joy Stigile]

Dear Ronit,

Congratulations on your pregnancy!  Glad to hear from you.

My hints are when washing your hands before you prick your finger, use very 
warm water.  Sometimes I run even warmer water over that finger for 40 or 60 
seconds after I wash my hands.  Another hint is after warming your finger is 
to "milk" your finger.  you gently squeeze your arm (start about halfway 
between your elbow and wrist) and end up at the tip of the finger you have 
decided to prick. I do this 3 times just after putting the strip in the 
meter.    Another suggestion is to let the blood be pulled on to the strip 
instead of smearing it on the strip.  I do this by putting my finger right 
next to the edge of the strip and turn the finger so that the blood will run 
on to the strip

If you have any other questions please feel free to call me at the NFBC 
office number.  The phone number is
(877) 558-6524. I'll be one of the people answering it tomorrow.

Warmly, Joy Stigile
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ronit Ovadia Mazzoni" <rovadia82 at gmail.com>
To: <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 8:06 PM
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] Hello and question about finger pricking


> Hello all,
> My name is Ronit and I have just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. 
> I
> am required to test my blood glucose four times a day. I have purchased 
> the
> prodigy voice glucose meter and am having trouble with afew aspects of the
> pricking part. I Hope some of you can help me.
>
> When I prick myself with the lancing device, I usually have to squeeze my
> finger to get blood. I usually don't know how much blood is on the tip of 
> my
> finger so when I Try to touch my finger to the test strip, it doesn't 
> always
> work. How can I be sure that when I prick myself, I am getting enough 
> blood,
> but not too much blood? How do I Not smear the blood around on the strip?
> When this happens, I am finding I have to reprick myself in order to get
> enough blood again to try again. I have had sighted help for this first 
> day
> of testing but in afew days I will no longer have sighted help. I am 
> already
> very frustrated and woulod love some tips. I have the lancing device set 
> on
> 4, which is almost the highest level for pricking.
>
> Thank you so much.
> Ronit
>
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