Well, I had just checked my blood sugar and it was 114 mg/dl - 6.4 mmo/l. I treated a low without going hyper (yay for me, I don't nail those very often!). So, I tweeted my blood sugar reading and patiently waited to see if someone was closer. Someone could have possibly been 6.2 mmo/l - 112 mg/dl, 6.1 mmo/l - 111 mg/dl, or 6.3 mmo/l - 113 mg/dl. Coincidentally, my student at the time is an 8 year old boy who is very dear to me because I've known him since he was about 1 year old and his mom is one of my closest friends, and he was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes December 2011.
Then I checked Twitter again, and guess what? I WON!! I won a Verio IQ by OneTouch. Brand New!! I was so excited, and still am. Earlier today I was looking into the Verio IQ on YouTube and it looks so nice and smart! I wanted it. And, well, I won it. That really made my day!! That and my mom educating her friend on diabetes :) . My student and his mom were very excited for me.
The GBdoc Verio IQ is set to mmo/l blood sugar readings, and since I am in the US, I use mg/dl. I really hope they can find one set to mg/dl to send to me. This was the highlight of my day :) .
Now, as for the title of my post. We all have those darned days when our fingertips refuse to bleed. You prick your finger with that little needle and nothing comes out. You've become a vampire, totally bloodless. Yep, I hate those days.
I was talking with my adopted Twitter brother about AST, Alternate Site Testing. I like using my palm. I alternate fingers and palm every day. One finger a day, or palm, to give the rest of the fingertips a rest. My Twitter brother however, could not draw blood from his palm, so he ordered an AST cap. I personally never needed those, I usually throw them out, but other people swear by them. So he tested it and still could not get any blood. Then, he read the instructions and it said to leave the pricker on palm, which he said he thought would help draw blood. And it worked for him! He got a few blood sugar checks out of his palm. Hurrah for AST.
This morning I decided to try something new with my pricker. I set it to a lower depth and pricked my finger. I left the pricker there for a few seconds, rather than prick and remove it immediately, and when I removed it there was a tiny drop of blood already. I didn't have to squeeze hard to get a sample either. It was awesome, painless, and today's finger seems much better than yesterday's or Monday's. I'm guessing that this is the proper way to check your blood sugar. Leave the pricker on site for a few seconds, then remove. Makes for much easier blood drawing, trust me...
I told my t1d student and his mom this discovery and they tried it out right there. Unbeknownst to my student, she set his pricker to a lower depth and he held his pricker there for a few seconds. He got a nice big sample out of that finger prick. His mom and I were elated that it worked.
So, point of this long blog: next time you can't draw any blood, try holding your pricker in place for a few seconds. That may help.
PS: I know that it is not called a "pricker," that it's a Lancing Device, but Lancing Device is just so boring...
