How to Use a Glucometer to Monitor Blood Sugar level?

Glucometer

Glucometer has now become an integral part of the lives of diabetes patients. These are small-sized portable device that requires a drop of blood to measure your blood sugar level in real-time. There are many Medical Test strip available in Canada, one of the test kit is a glucometer; which provides the readings by detecting the blood glucose content in your body with the help of glucometer strips. These strips contain some kind of chemicals that gives out the electric signals when blood comes in its contact. Therefore, you get the numerical results within a few seconds.

It is a must to check with the concerned healthcare provider about the frequency, at what times of the day a test is required, and what should be done if the test results are low or high. How often a test is required depends upon patient’s type of diabetes and his or her treatment plan.

Type 1: If a person has type 1 diabetes, he or she must test their sugar levels 4-10 times a day. The person can test prior to food intake (may it be, meals or snacks), before and after exercising, before going to bed, and also at night. As type 1 diabetes is characterized by the inability to form enough insulin. Thus, a person must check more often to confirm that the person has adequate insulin to keep his or her blood sugar within the required limits.

Type 2: If a patient has type 2 or gestational diabetes, testing can be done 2-4 times per day, based upon whether insulin is being used or not. Usually, the person can test before taking

Step 1: Preparation Of Lancing Device

First step to measure your blood sugar level is to prepare the lancing device and for this you need to follow these steps:

The internal cap of the lancing device is twisted and removed so that the mounting part of the lancet insertion opens up

You need to hold the lancet from its circular tip and then insert it into the mounting part of the device. The protective circular tip is then rotated to make it use.

Internal cap is then re-attached to the mounting part of the device

Select the depth of the blood sample between the range 1 and 5 where 5 means the deepest penetration

Hold the lancing device and then pull on the sliding barrel. You should stop when you hear the click sound. It will release the button of the lancing device and make it ready for puncturing to get your blood sample.

Step 2: Cleaning Hands and Glucometer

Clean your hands and glucometer: You should clean your hands every time you use a sugar level test machine. Use a good handwash solution and gently rub your hands for atleast 20 seconds thoroughly. In case, you are outside and unable to wash your hands then you can use alcohol swab to clean your hands. Now completely dry your hands specially fingers by gently dabbing it on a towel. Now rub your palm softly so that the blood in your fingers gets warmed up.

Step 3: Preparation Of Glucometer and The Strips

You should switch off the glucometer before inserting the blood sugar strips. Now you need to insert the glucose test strip in the glucometer’s test strip port ensuring that the contact bars face upwards. The glucometer will start automatically with a beep sound when the strip gets in its contact.

Step 4: Take The Blood Sample and Monitor Blood Sugar Level

When your device is ready for testing the blood sugar, you just need to get your blood sample and monitor your blood sugar. For this, you should follow the below mentioned steps or the instructions written on the test kit box:

Firstly, you have to place the prepared lancet against the pad on your finger once your glucometer is ready.

Now gently press the trigger button to get your finger punctured. In this way, a drop of blood will come out of your finger. Checkout the type of blood drop required by your glucometer. Some devices use the hanging drop of blood while the others are one touch sugar test machine. A small drop of blood is used and drawn in with capillary action.

A blood sample is hence applied on the narrow end of the already inserted sugar testing strip.

Wait for around 5 seconds to get the most accurate results. You will get the results given in g/l, mg/dl, or mmol/l. You can get mislead if you do not pay attention to the unit of calculated reading.

Step 5: Dispose Of the Used Lancet and Test Strips

You need to clear the blood from the fingertip after a sugar level check. Twist and remove the internal cap to open the mounting part of the lancet. The lancing device is cocked again after the round protective cover is removed and the lancet needle is inserted into it. Remove the lancet when the lancing device is locked. Now, you throw away the removed lancet and the sugar strips into the dustbin.

If you are looking for a glucose monitoring device with an advanced feature, look for the latest models of glucometers.