Sunday, November 23, 2008

Lancet Changes?


How often do you change your lancet?


This question got the wheels in my head spinning! When we first came home from the hospital, 4 months ago, we were told in the hospital that you change the lancet every time you prick your finger...ok... so about a month went by and when Kacey was grabbing the kit and testing on her own, she'd just test and not change it. I'd jump all over her about changing it and she insisted that she didn't need to! So now as the months go on, she only changes her lancet out every few days and most of the time it's because I remind her to! So is that gross? Is that unsafe? Should we be changing it out every time she pricks her finger like the doctor told us to?

4 comments:

Scott K. Johnson said...

Hi Jill,

Many of us are doing well to change them when we adjust the clocks for daylight savings!

It's not gross, and as long as they don't hurt her much and still draw blood you are fine. :-)

Jill said...

LOL Thanks Scott! Whew I guess every few days is perfect then :D

Anonymous said...

I can honestly say that I haven't reused one lancet in probably months and if I did, it was by accident.

I think the recommended method is to not reuse them, just like syringes. However, in the practical world it might not matter much.

I use the BD Ultra Fine 3 (33 gauge) and like them a lot. Not much pain and I don't reuse so there's no dullness. I would love to hear from others on this.

Lynnea said...

Jill,
We were told in the hospital that technically they are supposed to tell us to change every finger poke. But they said in reality it can be every 3-4 depending on how dull the blade gets.

We change it when we remember to...and who knows how often that is!!:-) Hubby says he never changes it and leaves it up to me. J.J. will change it when he feels like it...I think he likes the clicking action on our lancing device when he does change it.

I don't think it matters all that much unless she gets so calloused because the lancets are so dull that it gets harder and harder to draw blood. Or like Scott said they start to hurt her more.