Blood Glucose Monitoring

Why Should I Be Testing My Blood Glucose?

Monitoring your blood sugar levels is the most accurate way of seeing the effect of your diet, lifestyle changes and medication on your diabetes control. It is a great tool for you and your doctor to use together to identify problems and monitor progress.

How Often Should I Test My Blood Glucose?

Your doctor will tell you how often and at what times you should be testing. If you are not sure, ask your doctor or nurse what your plans.

If your sugars are under control, you may not have to test as frequently. But you may have to test more often when you are changing medicines or diet, when you are ill, or if your sugar levels are not in control.

How Do I Share My Results With My Doctor?

1. You have three options to share your results with your doctor.
2. Write your results down in a log book and bring that to your appointments
3. If your glucose meter can tag your readings as pre or post food, bring your glucose meter to your appointment and know how to recall your results
4. Download your results from your glucose meter to your computer and bring the readout to your appointment.

How Do I Take An Accurate Reading?

1. Set your glucose meter, lancing device, strips and lancets on the table
2. Check that your strips have not expired
3. If your glucose meter requires coding, check the code on the strips matches the code shown on the meter
4. Insert a lancet into the lancing device
5. Choose your testing area. (Some meters allow alternate testing sites, but other don’t.) You must test from the finger in the following situations:

• Within 2 hours after a meal
• Within 2 hours after injecting rapid-acting insulin
• Within 2 hours after exercise
• Any time you suspect a low blood sugar level

6. If testing from the finger, shake your hands below your waist and massage the finger you’re going to use to make it easier to draw blood. Use the side of the finger and rotate different fingers each time so they don’t get sore
7. Insert strip into glucose meter
8. Dial the lancing device to the required depth. Use the shallowest depth to get the appropriate amount of blood
9. Press the lancing device tightly to the side of the finger and press the button. Gently stroke your hand and finger towards the puncture site to form a drop of blood
10. Immediately apply the drop of blood to the strip