[Diabetes-talk] testing difficulty

Thu Nov 15 02:17:03 UTC 2012

Thanks Jean, I'll try these tips.  I have emory board I know where it's 
at so can take care of one of these tonight.  I'm also going to sleep 
with my winter gloves on tonight and see if keeping the hands warm 
overnight will help my results later this week.  I collect donations as 
much as possible from the sides of my fingers not the tips or the pads 
and try to stay under where the bones are.  The largest numbers I've 
been getting this week are number of lancets without a reading tossed, 
number of test strips tossed without a reading, and the number of 
minutes without readings.  I've decided to cut the minutes back to one 
half hour so as to limit lancet/fang damage to my fingers.

An officemate I work with has been dealing with diabetes since age 12 and 
that was back in 1969.  Today he started acting abnormally throwing empty 
plastic jars around the office and banging into several things and falling 
over several times.  I went and talked to the security guard in the 
building where I work.  She went into my office and found him on his back 
on the floor.  He pushed off the wall with his feet and came upright some 
and the security guard started asking him questions.  The same question 
got answered in different ways and he was incoherent.  Before any of the 
really serious stuff started happening he was doing raspberries with his 
mouth and I asked him did he have low blood sugar and he told me no.  
When the security guard discovered him incoherent she called the ambulance 
and the crew came over to the office where I work and collected one of 
their frequent flyers and took him to the hospital.  I've been told he'll 
have no memory of the incident afterwards.  I put the jars back on his 
desk and suppose he'll move them to where they normally are, but for me 
this was quite an event filled day.  The ambulance crew tested his blood 
sugar and Dave rolled a 38.  When Dave isn't having this kind of problem, 
he's a first rate computer programmer; a mathematician as a result of a 
college degree, and better at playing nethack than I now am.  I think the 
hospital kept him in overnight.  On Wed, 14 Nov 2012, Jean Brown wrote:

> Hi Jude and Sandy,
> I would like to also suggest that you:
> 1 Drinking more water will give you a better blood flo but remember to do it
> everyday for best results.
> 2. I have been a diabetic for 20 plus years and periodically I have a
> difficult time as well, usually wrapping a rubber band around my finger at
> the first joint gives me plenty of blood for my test.
> 3. Anurse told me this wonderful technique and it works more often then not;
> at least once a week I use a soft file to remove the dead skin from my
> finger tips. It's painless unlike sticking myself several times (smile).
> 
> 
> Diabetic Division of IN
> Jean B.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> Sandi Ryan
> Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 10:15
> To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind
> Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] testing difficulty
> 
> Hi Jude,
> 
> Have you tried all of the following?  I have a terrible time getting enough 
> blood, and I've been doing better lately, doing all these things:
> 
> First, adjust your lancet.  Check what it's on and put it at a higher click 
> so the lancet goes deeper.
> 
> Just before testing, wash your hands in fairly hot water and dry with a 
> clean paper towel.
> 
> Set up the meter with a strip, and cock the lancet.  Then massage your 
> fingers on the hand you're going to use, starting at the base of your 
> fingers and working down to the tips, several times, to work blood down into
> 
> your fingers.
> 
> Poke immediately!  Use your technique to get the blood to the strip or the 
> strip to the blood, right at the tip of the strip.  If the device doesn't 
> say "Testing" immediately, move your finger across the tip of the strip a 
> bit to be sure you have made contact with the tiny spot you've poked.
> 
> I don't know if this will help, but I've been doing better lately following 
> ALL of these steps.
> 
> Sandi
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jude DaShiell" <jdashiel at shellworld.net>
> To: <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 5:21 AM
> Subject: [Diabetes-talk] testing difficulty
> 
> 
> >I can't get enough blood for testing.  I've had help from a sighted friend
> > who has diabetics in her family and we're not having any luck getting
> > enough blood on the test strip or anywhere else after I use the lancet.  I
> > have gone into testing several other different areas on my fingers
> > excluding the index fingers since I still read and use braille and for
> > that reason those index fingers are off limits.  In the last five days I
> > managed only one fasting reading and that was 90 on Monday.  Today I took
> > my first dose of generic glucophage too.  If I'm lucky, maybe the extra
> > medication in addition to generic hctz and generic licinipril and generic
> > provocol may help me solve this problem.  Finally, so far as I can tell
> > aerobic exercise doesn't help either.
> >
> >
> >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > jude <jdashiel at shellworld.net> Adobe fiend for failing to Flash
> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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jude <jdashiel at shellworld.net>
Adobe fiend for failing to Flash