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Question: My fingers are sore from testing my blood sugar. Is there
anything I can do to take care of them and encourage them to heal
faster? Are there other convenient sticking points?

(Established 11Jun96; not yet updated.)

Questions answered by list members.

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I find that when people are having sore fingers, it is usually because 
they are lancing the same places too often. If you aren't really 
consistent about rotating your lancing sites, you will tend to go for 
certain sites over and over again. So what you need is a very easy way 
to remember where you should lance today. This is what works for me (a 
four-times-a-day tester):

First, each day of the week has a particular finger assigned to it. On 
Monday, I use the left index finger; Tuesday, the left middle finger; 
Wednesday, the left ring finger; Thursday, the right index finger; 
Friday, the right middle finger; Saturday, the right ring finger; 
Sunday, one of the little fingers (or, very occasionally, the thumbs).

On each finger, I have particular sites for the time of day. I use the 
sides of my fingers for lancing, and I use the length of the fingernails 
as a landmark to help me remember exactly where to lance. I get the 
first morning reading from the side towards the thumb, to the side of 
the base of the fingernail; the lunchtime reading from the side towards 
the thumb, to the side of halfway up the fingernail; the evening reading 
from the side opposite the thumb, to the side of the base of the 
fingernail; and the bedtime reading from the side opposite the thumb, to 
the side of halfway up the fingernail. If I need to do extra tests on a 
particular day, I use sites above or below the fingernail sites already
mentioned, or I go to the thumbs.

By being really consistent this way, I am only lancing each particular 
spot once a week. This gives each spot plenty of time to heal before I 
hit it again.
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Try puncturing the side of the finger without alcohol. The alcohol does 
nothing to prevent infection (several studies have proven this), but it 
does make a prick more painful. Some studies have shown that there are 
*more* infections when people use alcohol swabs! Really, the only 
disinfectant you need is some soap and water.
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