Accidental Miracles

Blood Glucose Test Kit:



Nate's biggest fear with his daily treatments have always been his blood glucose tests. These are the finger pokes, where we have to prick one of his fingers and then test a drop of blood to see where his glucose levels are before eating and at a couple of other times during the day. Since he hates this, we usually have to struggle with him, holding his hand tightly so it will stay still while we prick his finger. It is very unpleasant. The lancet we use to poke his finger is housed in a little plastic container that spring loads the lancet and makes it strike the finger very quickly and at a preset depth. This way, the poke is as painless as possible, and after checking it myself, you hardly feel anything. Here is what it looks like:

Open with the lid off:



Put together:



This morning, Angie changed the lancet (we need to change it every few days) before the morning glucose test. When Nate had finally chosen a finger to use, she pushed the button, it popped, and Nate said, "hey, that didn't hurt!" What Nate didn't know, was that the lid was not on all the way, and the lancet didn't even touch his finger.

Angie and I looked at each other in fear, neither of us wanting to tell him it didn't work and that we have to do it again. He was still pretty impressed with how much it didn't hurt, so when we said we had to do it again, he was fine with it. The great thing was, this time he just held out his little finger and we didn't have to hold his hand at all.

Now the trick with finger pricks, is that in order for it to be a practically painless event, you have to have a relaxed finger. Up to this point, since Nate was so scared of doing the test, he would make a fist and we would have to pull one of his little fingers out and hold it tight so it didn't move while we poked it. When we did this, his little finger was squeezed tightly, which made the poke as painful as it could possibly be, thus perpetuating his fear of the tests.

When Nate held his finger out softly, the skin wasn't stretched tight, so we did the test again and he didn't even flinch. Again, he said, "hey, that didn't hurt!" We tested the little drop of blood and cheered! Of course now, for some reason, he's afraid of his shots again, but it looks like we will be making ground on his blood tests. If we can get him to hold his finger out himself every time, this will be a breeze. Woohoo!

Greg

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