

Similar to rotating your infusion and sensor sites, it’s also important to rotate your lancing sites to allow your fingers to heal. This technique can be very helpful for people who have checked their BG for a long time. Instead, hang your hand below your waist for 10 seconds.

This can cause more pain, and may cause an incorrect BG reading. If you’re having trouble getting enough blood, don’t squeeze or milk your fingertip. This helps the blood collect in your fingertips.

To bring more blood flow to your fingertips, after washing your hands with warm soapy water, rub the spot on the finger you are going to prick until it becomes warm while letting your arm dangle at the side of your body for about a minute. The sides of your fingers also have more blood vessels closer to the surface, so you don’t have to prick as deeply to get the amount of blood required to take a BG reading. The sides of your fingers have fewer nerves and are less thick than the pad of your fingertips, so it hurts less when they are pricked. Choose A Less Painful SiteĬhoose the sides or tip (not the pad or near the nail bed) of your finger to take a BG. (Have any of you ever checked your BG after treating low with an orange juice and gotten an inaccurate reading? This could be why!) 3. Even if a small amount of food or liquid is left on your fingers, it can dissolve into the blood drop and artificially raise your BG reading. Washing with warm soapy water will help bring blood to the surface of your fingers, reduce the risk of the lancet pushing any dirt under your skin, and will remove any food residue from your last meal or snack. If possible, instead of using alcohol, wash your hands with warm soapy water. Additionally, if the alcohol does not dry completely, it can mix with your blood and cause an inaccurate reading.
#Typing fingers bleeding skin#
Using alcohol, such as hand sanitizer, to clean your hands before testing can dry and toughen the skin over time, making it more difficult and painful to obtain a drop of blood. You might also try experimenting to find the right lancet or lancing device for you, or change it out more frequently. It may take some experimentation to see which setting works best for you. The more shallow the poke, the less it will hurt. Use the lowest setting on the device that will obtain an adequate amount of blood. So make sure to carry extra lancets with you, and remember that you should never share yours or use another person’s lancing device. Be sure to change lancets with each fingerstick to ensure they’re sharp and clean. Change Your Lancet OftenĪlthough many people may reuse their lancets, they are likely to become dull over time, causing more pain with prolonged use. Here are 6 tips to help minimize sore black-and-blue fingers. Good fingerstick techniques can help provide more accurate readings, reducing the number of times you have to redo that BG check. We know that with each blood glucose (BG) check, you are making a proactive decision to proactively manage your diabetes and we applaud you for that! In doing so, we’ve heard feedback from our customers that this can also become painful and frustrating over time so we wanted to see what we could do to help.įrequent blood glucose (BG) testing is critical to good diabetes management, but sometimes it can leave your fingers bruised and sore.
