All the commercials I see and personal experience from observation has shown people testing the blood from their fingertips - only from their fingertips. There’s more fat on most people’s behinds so theoretically it should hurt less to click that little machine for a second on one’s butt.
So, why don’t they? I’d trade less convenience (going to the restroom to test) for less repeated pain on my sensitive parts.
Because the lancets used for most of that kind of testing are very tiny and don’t draw blood if you stick yourself in the butt or thigh or something. You need a place that a needle that small can actually manage to draw blood and for most people that stops being effective about halfway between your wrist and elbow.
So it needs to be an area w/ thin skin, then? The more I think about testing the less I want to follow in the steps of every older woman on both sides of my family - they all have/had diabetes.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the lancet size.
Rather, what you’re looking for is real blood, rather than interstitial fluid. I don’t know about other kinds of blood tests, but for blood sugar, testing interstitial fluid results in a slightly inaccurate reading - it’s about 15 minutes behind a test done with real blood.
The best place to get real blood is from the fingertips, thus, that’s where it’s recommended to test.
Apparently. My husband is diabetic and when I’ve had to check his blood sugar (he made me practice in case I ever had to do it for real and then one day he did go so low he went unconscious and I had to check his sugar and force sugary goo into his mouth to revive him) sticking him anywhere beyond his forearm never yielded any blood to test. If you are super fit and have almost no body fat you may have other places you can test on your body but for the most part fingers and forearms are it. I’m sure there are other reasons too, but I’ve never seen usable blood available from a stick anywhere else on the body.
Previewed to see that Athena has other excellent explanations for a finger stick. I knew there had to be other reasons as well!
The ear lobe is another site that is used by some people. There’s even a number of studies examining the feasibility, accuracy, and comparative pain of ear lobe blood sugar testing.
I have an Accu-Check blood glucose meter which is built to allow for testing on your forearm as well as your fingertip. The forearm test seems to be more hassle; as I’ve never had a big problem with fingertip testing, I’ve never even bothered with trying the forearm test.
Of all the things about diabetes you need to worry about, the testing is waaay down the list. My wife has Type I diabetes and has to test regularly. She says it’s really not at all painful. It’s just a tiny and very quick jab with a very fine needle, which makes the tiniest of holes that you squeeze a little drop of blood out of. No big deal at all. The insulin injections (in the abdomen or backside, usually) can be a little painful, but you rapidly get used to it.
'tis true; the little jab you need for a test isn’t a big deal at all. Testing, in general, isn’t a big deal - the only time it’s kind of a hassle for me is exercising, where it’s a pain in the butt to get off my bike, dig the kit out of my backpack, and test. But it beats going low, so I do it. The jab itself is only one small part of it, and far from being the biggest hassle.
How about one’s dong? Can testing be done there?
Obviously, this wouldn’t be an option for female diabetics, but wouldn’t it be awesome to hear Wilford Brimley say, “I’d like to talk to you for a few minutes about diabetes. And my penis.”
This is what I was taught in phlebotomy class a half century ago. Apparently the ear lobe had been very popular until about mid-century and then fell into disrepute.
Some diabetics I know test on the sides of their fingers, rather than the fingertips. They say there is less pain there (less nerves than on the fingertip), and less pain later, because you don’t use the side of your fingers as much as the fingertips. Never heard them mention any problem with getting sufficient blood to test.
In my experience, the insulin injections are often without any sensation. The needle is so small I can’t feel it at all. The fingertip test is usually low on the pain scale, but every once in a while I hit a sweet spot that leaves a bruise - I try to avoid that finger for a few days.
All in all, the whole poking and injecting thing is a non issue as far as pain goes.
Aren’t there more, and more easily accessible, capillaries in the extremities than elsewhere on the body? (More nerve endings too!)
I thought that was why a small cut on a finger (or worse the scalp) bleeds more than the same length and depth cut elsewhere on the body, correct?
CMC fnord!
I must work that into a conversation very very soon.