I’m evaluating the time I have left during this pregnancy in finger pricks. Twenty-four One hundred sixty eight left to go.
I’ve written about my gestational diabetes and how I have it for the second time around, but this time seems to be driving me crazier than the first go ’round.
Four times a day I have to prick my skinny little fingers with a sharp object until enough blood oozes out so that I can test the blood and get my sugar count for the previous meal. Four times a day doesn’t sound so horrible when I write it, but it’s a real pain. Pun intended.
While it doesn’t hurt that much, it does make me flinch every time I do it. The worst part is when I do it and don’t get enough blood for the testing strip. Then, I have to do it all over again.
Not only and I tired of pricking my finger and testing my blood, but I’m tired of having to remember to do this at exactly one hour after I took the first bite of each meal. At home I set the kitchen timer so I don’t forget. At work, I try to eat around times when I will have meetings. Some times, however, it is impossible to do it at the right time, so I do it when I can and make a note of it.
So, I have a little more than 6 weeks to go before Baby Girl is born. After lunch today, it will be only 167 finger pricks to go.
Update: when I originally wrote this post I said I had 24 pricks to go. As I did my testing this morning ( a few days after this post launched) I was thinking of many lancets and test strips I needed to have until the end of my pregnancy. Twenty-four I remembered. What? That can’t be right, I thought. I test 4 times a day, 7 days a week – for six more weeks. Then it hit me, when I was writing this post I multiplied wrong.
4 times a day X 7 days a week = 28 pricks
28 pricks a week X 6 weeks = 168 pricks left.
WOW. That’s a lot of finger pricking!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL, Alicia – I was a little confused by your math the first time I read this. Take heart that you have still have it easier than me – I am on insulin now with my meals, so in addition to the 3-4 pricks a day, I’m also doing 2-3 shots a day. And the shots are yuckier! 7 more weeks to go for me….
Thanks for the reminder, Susan, that it could be worse! I hope you do well with it for the remainder of the pregnancy.