As you may have noticed, Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics has a tagline: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). It’s another way of saying “eat to your meter.” However, you can’t “eat to your meter” unless you have and use a blood glucose meter. Mastering use of your glucose meter is perhaps the one single most important habit you can establish!
Establish this essential habit by checking your blood glucose at least once a day up to six times or more if you are testing how a specific food or meal affects your blood glucose.
Learn how to use your blood glucose meter. Below is an instructional video for the OneTouch Verio Flex:
If you have a blood glucose meter but have not been in the habit of using it, it may take a little time to get used to it again, especially if you haven’t used your meter for a long time. If it’s been over two years, you probably should get a new meter. You should replace your meter every 2-5 years. You do not need a prescription to purchase a blood glucose meter.
Test strips are proprietary to every meter, though some meter manufacturers may use the same test strips for more than one of the meters they make. Test strips are not interchangeable between different brands of meters.
Make sure your test strips have not expired! Expired test strips will give inaccurate results. The manufacturer prints an expiration date on every vial of test strips. Always keep the test strips in their original vial. When you are handling a test strip to put it into your meter, be careful to not touch the part of the strip that receives the blood drop.
Most of the time, it is unnecessary to use a control solution. However, if your readings don’t look “right” to you and seem to have a wide variance between readings taken at about the same time, this would be a reason to use your control solution to make sure your meter is functioning properly. Also, make sure the control solution you use has not expired.
Most meter manufacturers also make their own brand of lancing device and lancets. But you do not have to use the same brand of lancing system as your meter’s brand.
Manufacturers recommend you use a new lancet for every test. Those of us who have been doing this awhile use a lancet for several tests or until they get dull (because a dull lancet will hurt more than a new, sharp lancet). Rachel Head, a Certified Diabetes Educator, says, “In the grand scheme of things, a fresh lancet is not as critical to your health and well-being as the many other self-care tasks on your plate, like taking medications and counting carbs. If reusing a lancet makes it any more likely you’ll check your blood sugar, it’s fine to let it linger a little longer.”
Adjust your lancing device so that the lancet will go deep enough to get the required size of a blood sample, but not deep enough to bruise or be painful. You may need to squeeze gently to get enough blood, but do not squeeze too hard!
If you have sensitive fingers or just “needlephobia,” there is a lancing system called Genteel, which a doctor developed especially for children’s delicate fingers and purports to be painless. At the time of this writing, you can find it at https://www.mygenteel.com/.
You have ten fingers and two sides on each finger, giving you a possible 20 sites to stick your fingers for a blood sample. We recommend you use the sides of your fingers, rather than the tips or the pads because there are fewer nerve endings in the sides of your fingers (and thus less pain). Rotate through your 20 test sites.
You should wash your hands before every test! This is to make sure you don’t have something on your hands (like food or anything else) that could interfere with the test. To assure accuracy in testing, always wash your hands with warm, soapy water (preferably with unscented soap), massaging the fingers, and dry your hands thoroughly. If your skin is not dry, the blood sample might become diluted with moisture. Failure to take the simple action of washing your hands with water before pricking your finger could cause falsely elevated readings. Do not use alcohol or hand sanitizer (which contains alcohol) on your fingers before testing! Alcohol will give you a false low.
It is unnecessary to discard the first drop of blood and use the second drop for testing. We recommend washing the hands with soap and water, drying them, and using the first drop of blood for self-monitoring of blood glucose. After washing and drying your hands, massage the fingers together; then massage more on the one finger you’re going to use, especially if your fingers are still cold. After lancing your finger, it’s okay to squeeze it a little to start the blood flowing. Even if a bit of interstitial fluid comes out, it contains about the same amount of glucose as the blood.
Fasting (and pre-meal) blood glucose should be in the range of 70-99 mg/dL (3.8-5.6 mmol/l), and 1 hour after the first bite of your meal should be less than 140 mg/dL, or 120 mg/dL for good control. At 2 hours after the first bite of a meal, blood glucose should have come back down to close to the pre-meal number.
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Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics™ Recipe Book was published in April 2023. It can be found on Amazon at (https://www.amazon.com/Adventist-Vegetarian-DiabeticsTM-Recipe-Book/dp/B0C1JJTGLW/) in both Kindle and paperback formats.
Our classic book, Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics, 2nd Edition, was published in May 2023. It can be found on Amazon at (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5KNKS8B) in both Kindle and paperback formats.
We encourage you to join our Facebook group for Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics™ in order to ask questions, make comments, and share your own experiences. If you are not a member of the Facebook group for Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics but would like to be, please click the link and request to join. You will be asked 3 questions. Here’s a description of the Facebook group.
If you just want continuing information and don’t want to take part in any discussion, we recommend you peruse our website at https://adventistvegetariandiabetics.com/. We also have a Facebook information page, Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics Resources.
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@adventistvegetariandiabetics.
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