Mauie Flores

I am finally sharing the steps on how I test my blood sugar level. Why now? Well, of course, I am still bragging about the new blood glucose meter that I received from my sister on my birthday! Hahaha!

Lately, my blood sugar level has not gone above the safe level. In fact, it registered 87 mg/dL the other night, one point below the 88mg/dL - 123 mg/dL safe zone. I felt nauseous that night. I am taking 500 mg of Metformin thrice a day and I limited my intake to once a day since my blood sugar level is going lower than usual. I think our consumption of muscovado sugar and brown rice helped a lot in keeping my blood sugar level low. But then again, it puzzles me because I am a Type 2 diabetic. Hypoglycemia or low blood sugar is often seen in Type 1 diabetics.

Normally, I take my blood sugar level in the morning immediately after waking up. When I feel sick, I also have to check it. The other day, I took a test two hours after I had my lunch just so I can see if my blood glucose has gone up after the nausea spell I had the other night.


The first thing I do in testing my blood sugar is, of course, sanitizing my hands with alcohol.


Next, I take one lancet and insert it to the lancing device.


After putting the lancing device's cap back on, I set the puncture level depth to 3. 1 is the shallowest while 5 is the deepest. On some days, I can get a puncture with just using level 2.


Then, I take a test strip and carefully insert it on the meter.


I set the lancing device on my thumb, give it a nice little pull, press the blue button, and close my eyes for the prick. You know, I still can't get the hang of it. I still get a little scared of this step although it doesn't hurt that much. By the way, I choose to prick my thumb because it has the least responsibility in typing.


After the dreaded prick, I gently massage my thumb a bit to form a droplet of blood.


I get the glucose meter and let the strip touch the blood droplet on my thumb. I hold it in place for six seconds until the result appears on the monitor of my blood glucose meter.


I get 101 mg/dL that day which is safe. My target level is always 100 mg/dL to 110 mg/dL. Then I record it on my log book for reference.


So there. Daily blood glucose monitoring is hard (and expensive!) but I need to do that to keep myself on track. Rather than ranting about the pain and inconvenience of this task, I prefer to be think positive and be thankful of the fact that I am luckier than other diabetics who do not have the luxury of having their own blood glucose meter.