Yesterday when it was time to check my blood sugar, I realized that I had forgotten my lancet device at home-- it fell out of the case apparently. (I have a very tough diabetic buddy who doesn’t even use a lancet device-- she just pokes herself manually with a lancet. Respect to her.)
But since I’m not that tough, I’m not used to just stabbing my finger. But I was feeling low and needed to check! So I started searching my purse for something to poke myself with. No syringes, needles, or even a safety pin anywhere. Then I saw my trusty glucagon… and thought problem solved.
I removed the cover of the glucagon needle and used it to draw blood. I’m sure this is not the perfect method and I did have to open the glucagon kit, but I thought it was better than actually needing the glucagon injection and thankfully caught a low!
Anyone been in this situation? What did you do?
Now I think that I will stick a lancet (just the needle part, not a lancet device) in every purse and bag that i use-- just in case. I have hundreds sitting around because I’m in the “I never change my lancet” club!
How unpleasant to be trapped and unable to check your sugar. We’ve all been without needed supplies at times, I’m sure…I’ve had to resort to the use of syringes to prick my finger in a situation just like yours.
And I don’t change my lancets often either…I even resuse syringes…and have been known to inject right through my pant leg. There was a study some time ago, (it was by a physician/researcher named George Grunberg, I believe), in which it was demonstrated that diabetics who inject thier insulin directly through their pant leg suffered no ill effects or increased rate of infection over those injecting into bare, and alcohol-swabbed skin.
I’ve been doing this for years. However, no promises, please don’t take any medical advice from me!
I have a couple extra lancets in my meter case so I’ve used those when my device has fallen out. When I was a kid, and graduated to Chem-Strips (sans meter) from urine testing, I didn’t have a device. I remember sitting in my bathroom, holding the lancet, jabbing the air over my finger repeatedly trying to psych myself into actually puncturing my finger. It was bad enough it took a few minutes just to let the blood sit on the strip and then wipe it off, but it took me forever to poke my finger manually. Testing my blood was a 10-minute ordeal. It didn’t help that the lancets back then were like paring knives compared to the ones today. It wouldn’t have been much better with a device though. The standard device back then was a little guillotine that left your all your finger tips bruised
Back from my tangent… Kristin, your solution was very creative though - and did the job. That’s all that matters
I’ve used a syringe before. And then there’s always the last resort of squeezing your most recently poked fingers and seeing if you can get it to re-spurt, but that’s messy!
I’ll never forget one time in the seventh grade when someone accidentally slammed a book down on my hand and a few of my little finger poke holes re-bled. It was embarrassing - and funny.
I do the lancet punch myself and never use the devise to poke myself! HATE IT!!! But to answer your question I’ve used a plain sewing needle more than once when I’ve gotten into that situation or even a tack anything that will poke me and make the blood come out!
Maybe she does it for the same reason as me. When those devises came out I had one that was kinda like a pengulim that only went 1/2 way around. The antisipation of waiting for the pain was way too much so I just started doing it with the lancet!!! HA!!
That’s the guillotine one I was talking about - Auto-Clix. Blue with the yellow thing you held your finger under. I didn’t have one, but used it as camp, and it was all I could do to not pull my finger away as I pressed the button. The daggers they called lancets didn’t help either.
I can use lancets by themselves with no problem, but once I was at work with no lancets or device.
I thought about getting a boxcutter from the mailroom; a corkscrew from the partydrawer in the kitchen, and maybe sharpening a paperclip with a nailfile.I also thought of using the power stapler but padding my finger with the proper thickness of cardboard so just enough of the staple would go through to draw blood…
I ended up using a thumbtack that I sterilized with perfume.
Now I always have a few lancets in the bottom of my purse, just in case.
Ew, that’s gross but it’s totally true. There have been times when I’ll accidentally check on one side of a finger, and then on the other side the next time (I try to rotate) and both sides will start to bleed…
I think only twice have I ever manually lanceted myself (huh, “lanceted” isn’t in the spell check…). I just can’t do it. When my pump malfunctions, I’ve gotten to the point that I have to prep myself to do an injection.
And, I know this is probably not advised, but in some of my meter cases (I have quite a few meters; I get free offers all the time…) I can’t honestly remember the last time that I changed my lancet…
I always carry my meter in a case. It’s a pain because it takes up much more space, but it means that I always have lancets and a lancing device. That being said, I’ve seen safety pins used before - but I would much rather deal with the size inconvenience than not have my complete kit with me…
