STEPS TO CHECK YOUR BLOOD SUGAR:
NOTE: Please wash hands before proceeding.
1. Open everything up and sit it out on the table beside you.
2. Open the glucose meter bag and load the lancet device. Double check the depth gauge on the lancet device so you don't accidentally poke yourself on the highest level.
3. Get your test strip ready and put in the edge of the meter....just enough so that it holds itself but does not actually trigger the meter to turn on yet.
4. Get a cotton ball or alcohol pad ready. Personally I buy cotton balls and a bottle of rubbing alcohol and then just mix my own into a mason jar. It seems to be cheaper and quicker that way IMO.
5. You should have already washed your hands, but depending on the situation and where your meters bag has been you may want to use an alcohol pad and lightly wipe off the area that you are fixing to prick. In diabetes class they told us to not necessarily use alcohol pads at this point because the alcohol can cause the blood and meter to give a false reading. Give the spot plenty of time to dry before poking if you have to do this. If I am at home doing the testing I will go wash my hands now, then come back and poke myself.
6. Go ahead and push the test strip into the meter at this point and let it activate.
7. Now prick your finger! - Have your alcohol pad or cotton ball at the ready.
8. Take your blood sample - Be sure to hold the meter and let it do the work. It will suck up the blood on it's own like a straw....you don't need to force it. Let the test strip gather as much blood as it will hold so you get an accurate reading.
9. Wipe off your finger on the alcohol pad, but don't throw the ball away. If you are insulin dependent you will have to give yourself a shot in a minute. You can flip the cotton ball over and use the other clean side. There's no sense in wasting another ball of alcohol. They don't cost much, but between that and the cost of everything else that's involved in being a diabetic, it adds up! Especially, if your like me and do not have health insurance at the moment.
10. Now at this point, the doctors really recommend to write down your blood results in a log for future reference. I recommend that also for many reasons, but do not honestly follow my own advice all the time.
11. Now you need to dispose of your test strip, and lancet that you poked yourself with. Also, probably the cotton ball cause it has your blood on it. I use an old bleach container. It has a wide mouth for dropping the stuff into and then I just tape the lid to the side for whenever it's finally full. (As a note: When it's full, tape the lid on it with duct tape, and write on the side of the bleach jug in permanent maker "DO NOT RECYCLE" then just dispose of the jug as normal. This is what the hospital told me to do whenever I was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in July of 2010.)
At this point your ready to take your insulin if you need to. That I will not describe because it is different for everyone. I personally am on a sliding scale with the amount of carbohydrates that I eat. For every 30g of carbs i have to take 1 unit of fast acting insulin with my meals. I also take 10 units of long lasting insulin before bed with a protein snack. The basics of your insulin taking would be to be cautions of germs and infections, so once again use rubbing alcohol to clean the area you will be poking the needle. I was also recommended to wipe down the top of my insulin bottle with an alcohol pad before coming in to contact with my needle.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
It's hard Counting Carbs Sometimes
Counting Carbohydrates - "Carbs"
I think that one of the main complaints I have of being a diabetic is counting carbs when not cooking my own food. When you don't add each individual ingredient yourself, or weigh out each portion, it's easy to mis-count the amount of carbs that is going in to a meal. I tend to not give myself enough insulin at times because I'm afraid of getting "The Lows" rather than to be a little higher on the chart.
For instance:
I ate some wonderfull vegetable soup the other day, and it was hard to judge the exact amount of carbs that was in it. I had 2 cups of soup. There was potatoes and many different vegetables in it. I added some saltine crackers which I had accounted for when I added up the carbs. I checked my sugar, and I personally take 1 unit for every 30 grams of carbs that I eat over my target blood sugar goal (yours may be different), I took the amount of insulin that I thought I should take for a 60g meal. However I found out a couple hours later that my blood sugar was up 100 points more than I wanted!
Fast food is hard to judge too.
I never really was a fast food eater before I found out I was diabetic, but I guess my favorite fast food restaurants used to be Sonic and BurgerKing. I now see why they say that Fast Food is so bad for you... If you pull up to the drivethrough or even go inside the restaurant, there is not a single menu showing the nutrition information of each meal. I have been out to eat a couple times in the past few months and was unable to judge the amount of carbs correctly. I can get it pretty close and always try to keep something to snack on in the car just incase I misjudge, but it's still aggravating not knowing the exact numbers!
Keep the boxes or bags of Freezer products
Something else I have experienced is that freezer products can be hard to keep track of how many carbs an item is. For instance, When I first found out I was diabetic I would go buy a box of Blueberry Eggo Pancakes (blueberries are good for diabetics) and after opening the box and then opening the bag inside.. I don't want the rest of the pancakes to get freezer burnt in that open bag, so I put them in to Freezer Bags and store them. After the first time of looking at the box and counting the carbs I instinctivily threw the box away which had that nutrition information on it! Then the next time I went in the freezer and wanted a pancake I didn't have the carbohydrate information on how much a pancake was! Luckily we live in an age of the internet and GOOGLE, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Since then I have tried to remember to label the bags with a permanent marker before throwing the box away.
I think that one of the main complaints I have of being a diabetic is counting carbs when not cooking my own food. When you don't add each individual ingredient yourself, or weigh out each portion, it's easy to mis-count the amount of carbs that is going in to a meal. I tend to not give myself enough insulin at times because I'm afraid of getting "The Lows" rather than to be a little higher on the chart.
For instance:
I ate some wonderfull vegetable soup the other day, and it was hard to judge the exact amount of carbs that was in it. I had 2 cups of soup. There was potatoes and many different vegetables in it. I added some saltine crackers which I had accounted for when I added up the carbs. I checked my sugar, and I personally take 1 unit for every 30 grams of carbs that I eat over my target blood sugar goal (yours may be different), I took the amount of insulin that I thought I should take for a 60g meal. However I found out a couple hours later that my blood sugar was up 100 points more than I wanted!
Fast food is hard to judge too.
I never really was a fast food eater before I found out I was diabetic, but I guess my favorite fast food restaurants used to be Sonic and BurgerKing. I now see why they say that Fast Food is so bad for you... If you pull up to the drivethrough or even go inside the restaurant, there is not a single menu showing the nutrition information of each meal. I have been out to eat a couple times in the past few months and was unable to judge the amount of carbs correctly. I can get it pretty close and always try to keep something to snack on in the car just incase I misjudge, but it's still aggravating not knowing the exact numbers!
Keep the boxes or bags of Freezer products
Something else I have experienced is that freezer products can be hard to keep track of how many carbs an item is. For instance, When I first found out I was diabetic I would go buy a box of Blueberry Eggo Pancakes (blueberries are good for diabetics) and after opening the box and then opening the bag inside.. I don't want the rest of the pancakes to get freezer burnt in that open bag, so I put them in to Freezer Bags and store them. After the first time of looking at the box and counting the carbs I instinctivily threw the box away which had that nutrition information on it! Then the next time I went in the freezer and wanted a pancake I didn't have the carbohydrate information on how much a pancake was! Luckily we live in an age of the internet and GOOGLE, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Since then I have tried to remember to label the bags with a permanent marker before throwing the box away.
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