Finger, Y U No Bleed!!?

Today wasn't one of my best days mood-wise. I was up and down all day (mood, not blood sugar, thank God), with more downs than ups. Then I went on Twitter for a few minutes before one of my students arrived at the library and #bgbingo was on. For those of you who have never heard of #bgbingo (I just learned about it myself not too long ago), it's well, a bingo of sorts. During the weekly Wednesday night Twitter chat by #gbdoc, they call out a blood glucose number. The person who has the closest blood glucose number at the time wins a prize. The number called today around 5pm EST was 6.2 mmo/l - 112 mg/dl.

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...

'Betes Rollercoaster Hangover

After a weekend of the 'betes rollercoaster (tons of lows, then extreme highs), I woke up today at exactly 8:26am and wanted only to curl up into a ball and go back to sleep. But then I remembered how great I felt last week after waking up early, having breakfast, working out, getting my tutoring materials ready for the day, then going to teach my munchkins. Yes I was tired at night, but my days were much more fuIfilling. (Yay for New Year's Resolutions!)
I had tons of energy and felt optimistic for the first time in a long time (more on my d-history, bouts of denial and negligence later).
   
So I got out of bed, made coffee and had some cookies (still working on healthier diet, but I'm getting there little by little). I checked Twitter, my diabetes support haven, talked to a few people, and reluctantly turned on my iPod, got on the bike and started pedaling. And I'm happy I did. My morning felt better after 30 minutes on that monster of a bike, I felt a bit more energetic and well, my diabetes thanked me... (At least I think it did. Ha!)

Diabetes doesn't take a break. My pancreas will not jumpstart itself on days I feel down. So I must get up. I must exercise. I must do everything in my power to tame the 'betes beast that threatens to overpower me if I give it the chance.