I’m sorry – I lost this picture. Imagine my finger with a drop of blood.
This would be normal…if it was where I poked myself! I actually poked the LEFT side of that finger, and as you can see I got a sample from a previous test on the right side.
Another time that this happened my finger actually bled from both places! I didn’t have a camera then, or you’d be looking at that picture instead.
Another fun thing is when you get the “sprayer” – that’s when you’re squeezing and squeezing, and nothing happens, until you notice the spray of blood all over the place (the squirt is such a fine stream that you can’t see if coming out of your finger!).
On that note – how often do people really change their lancets? Many long time diabetics have more boxes of lancets than you can count, but rarely change them. I know myself, I usually don’t change my lancet until it is so dull that it feels like I’m driving a large nail into my finger AND it doesn’t produce any blood.
I don’t know why I never change it – I guess I never think about it until it inconveniences me during testing.
For my son (who is 4) we change out his lancet (his main one) once a day at breakfast. At night we have a different one upstairs… and it probably gets changed every couple of days.
I change my lancet maybe once a year, or when I believe the old one is no longer pierces my callused fingers enough to get a drop of blood. Interestingly, other people with diabetes I’ve chatted with seem to find that old, lower-gauge lancets seem to work better for a longer period of time, and frankly, I’ve never found the higher-gauge lancets any more comfortable or less painful.
The gauge of the lancet refers width of the metal point. The higher the gauge, the smaller the perforation the lancet makes.
I change my lancet about once every three weeks, if I even remember to then! I have had many times when I poked my finger, gave a little squeeze and two drops of blood emerged from different areas on that finger. I also do not sanitize my finger before I poke it. I used to but it doesn’t seem to matter. I normally test up to 10x day. I don’t think I have filled a lancet prescription in about three years and I still have two boxes of 100 left!
I’m like Scott, change mine only when it gets bent.
I change mine every time I test. Which is, on average, 12xdaily.
It’s a personal thing; while there is a relatively small chance of infection, there’s still a chance. But my main reason is that, after 14 years of this, my fingers don’t look like I’ve done over 61,000 lancings. The spots heal quickly and are hard to see. Not to mention, I don’t have any troubles getting blood samples. (But then, I’m also an Obsessive-compulsive hand-washer!)
The large nail thing has me cringing!! Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…
I rarely change mine. It’s just too much of a hassel to change everytime you test, and I test sometimes over 10 times a day.
Luckily, my boyfriend will sometimes alert me that I need to change it, or he’ll do it for me when I’m not in the room. But my reasoning is this – I’m not sharing the pricker, and it’s not like the people I do share it with (sometimes I have family members who want to check their sugars) have weird blood transmitted diseases.
But, another thing I don’t do that people don’t like, I don’t use a wipe on my finger before I test, you know, to santize it. Does anyone else not do that?
I average just under 10/day, but I’m using multiple meters at different locations, so it’s not all using the same lancing device.
I would estimate probably about 2-3 each day on three different meters/lancing devices.
That’s pretty much how long I wait as well before I change the lancet. How often do you test?