Glucometer

Who would have thought that my latest gadget would be an insulin meter, or the glucometer. The blood glucose monitoring tool to help manage my diabetes. This is the Optium Xceed Diabetes Monitoring System.

A first must-haves of a diabetic. Here's how: 1. Insert electrode test strip to the port. 2. Use the lancing device to prick chosen site to obtain a blood drop. 3. Touch the blood drop to the white area at the end of the test strip until it reaches the end of the electrode. A countdown will indicate that it is beginning to test. 4. Blood glucose result will display. Of course all these making sure that chosen site as well as your hands are clean. Needles of the lancing device are to be replaced also.

I am to check my blood sugar five times a day: when I wake up in the morning (this is called fasting blood sugar or FBS), two hours after breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one before dinner. Target goals vary as well. FBS should be between 80 to 90. Post meals should be between 100 to 120 and the one before dinner should be between 90 to 100. Note that these goals are more strict because the baby inside my tummy is taken into account.

It is very important the my blood sugar levels don't always go very high, or very low. It will cause long terms effects for the baby. High blood sugar might cause that baby to be very large, lungs might develop more slowly, risk of early delivery, risk of injury during birth, low blood sugar in the baby at birth, risk for stillborn, pre-eclampsia and the need for a C-section. Too low might cause the slower development of the baby's brains.

Too much information scares me. I have to remind myself to stop reading and researching.

For now, this will explain the tiny, tiny dots on the tips of my fingers.