How To Prick Your Finger Without It Hurting

Tired of painful diabetes testing? These tips for painless finger pricking will help!

For many people living with diabetes, pricking their finger to test blood glucose levels is a painful ordeal. According to the American Diabetes Clan and other sources, checking your claret sugar regularly is an essential part of managing diabetes. Simply no matter how tough you are, the daily ritual of pricking your finger to draw blood tin can go quite painful over time. Fortunately, we have some tips for painless finger pricking that tin make claret glucose testing a little easier to deport.

1. Warm your hands
   When your hands are common cold, pricking your finger for a blood examination can be more than painful. Your blood also flows more than sluggishly, which tin make it difficult to proceeds enough blood for a sample. Earlier testing, you tin can rub your hands gently together, wash them in warm water, or sit on them for a minute. Any of these strategies will warm your flesh and make your fingers less sensitive to testing.
2. Don't use alcohol
   Doctors no longer recommend sterilizing your finger with alcohol as part of their tips for managing diabetes, as it dries out the skin and makes it tougher and more than painful to puncture. Just wash your finger with soap and warm water and pat dry.
3. Avoid the fingertip
   Testing on the fleshy part on the center of the fingertip is more painful than the residue of the finger, because there are so many nerve endings on the pad of your finger. Try testing on the sides of your finger up near the nailbed, where there is better blood flow and less sensitivity.
4. No squeezing
   Squeezing your finger to get enough blood for your test sample can bruise the finger and make testing more painful. If y'all need a larger blood sample, gently massage your hand from the wrist down towards your finger without squeezing. You tin can also hang your manus below your waist for a few seconds to encourage more claret menses to your fingers.
5. Switch fingers
   If you lot are wondering which finger is all-time to test blood sugar, the reply is all of them. Using the same finger each time you test can cause calluses and scar tissue to course that make testing more difficult. Use a unlike finger each fourth dimension you test for the best results.
6. Apply new lancets every time
   Claret testing lancets are designed to be abrupt, but they become duller and blunter each fourth dimension they are used. Using a new lancet each time may brand finger pricking less painful. If even new lancets are painful, consider switching brands. Just because a certain lancing device came with your glucose monitor doesn't mean it is the all-time option for you. Many people find that using pediatric lancets, which accept an extremely slender bract, is much less painful than a standard lance.
7. Adjust lancet depth
   Virtually lancing devices allow you to set the depth of puncture. If you notice lancing to be painful, or terminate up haemorrhage profusely, effort reducing the depth of the puncture. If yous ofttimes have to piece of work to get plenty blood, you lot can increase the lance depth. A little experimentation volition help you observe the ideal depth to reach a more than painless finger pricking.
8. Choose the right equipment
   Many of the newer blood glucose monitors crave only a tiny sample of blood. This smaller volume of blood can brand testing less painful, because the smallest pinprick is sufficient to collect enough blood to get an accurate blood glucose levels
9. Experiment with alternative site testing
   If none of these strategies aid you achieve painless finger pricking, talk to your dr. about the possibility of using alternative site testing (AST) for some of your tests. Taking blood from alternative sites, such every bit the palm of your paw, your arm, or thigh, tin can significantly reduce the pain of testing. Blood glucose levels can vary by as much every bit ten points when you use these sites, though, and so they should never exist used if you are concerned about low claret saccharide.

Be sure to bank check back with www.BetterHealthKare.com for more tips for managing diabetes, including healthy eating tips for diabetics, tasty diabetic-friendly recipes, and lifestyle suggestions that will help yous enjoy a healthier future.

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Source: https://betterhealthkare.com/painless-finger-pricking/

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