Finger stick training

[lance]

Oh happy day. The Coaguchek S monitor has arrived and the first training session is over for the "finger stick" method.

Talk about getting blood out of a stone--it just would not come even with an INR of 2.9. So a larger lancet is needed.

It is a lot at first with and somewhat challenging but I have every expectation of success.

Thanks to the site I became aware of home monitoring and how successful and pleased its users are.

So out of my vein and into my finger--YAY.

 

[Ross]

You'll get better at it and it certainly is much better then needle pokes.

 

[Karlynn]

I try to remember not to test on days I have to play the piano because my poor little finger always gets somewhat sore.

 

[Gail in Ca]

The ring finger seems to hurt the most after poking. I never test on orchestra rehearsal or concert days. It seems even with the tenderlett junior, I still get little bruises on the chosen finger.
Gail

 

[Guest]

Where I try to stick my patients is on the little finger. I draw an imaginary line from the outside corner of the fingernail to the middle of the fingerprint area. Then I stick halfway along that. Supposedly the little fingers have fewer nerve endings and away from the fingerprint area has fewer yet. This is supposedly true because when you want to carefully examine the texture of something, you use your index finger. It has more nerve endings.

I also try to be very firm with the stick. The bruises seem to come when you have to squeeze really hard.

It is much easier to do on someone else than to do it on yourself. If you have someone else who will do it, try it and see.

 

[lance]

Many thanks

Many thanks

Thanks to everyone for your helpful words and information.

While i got a great hanging droplet from my instructor's finger I wan't successful at all with my own and am now sporting 4 bandages.

So let me see which little pinky gets the jab to-day? and practice, practice, practice sticking---it'll work out in the end.

Thanks again to everyone.

 

[Gnusgal]

I tend to use the middle finger of my left hand. Simply because I seem to have more dexterity in getting the blood INTO the cup with that finger (I use ProTime). For some reason when I use other fingers I end up with blood running all up and down my hand! I don't think I'd be able to use the pinky finger. I'd end up a big ol' mess.

 

[Harpoon]

I don't do home testing (yet... Would REALLY like to see if my insurance would cover it) but I do have a "standing appointment" with a CoaguChek machine at my primary physician's office once a month.

The nurse usually uses the inside pad of my left ring finger, almost on the side just a little ways below the nailbed. Usually it bleeds enough for a good sample but she always squeezes the hell out of my finger to do it.

I'd probably do it the same way if I was on my own. I'm failry ambidextrious and can do almost anything (including write) with either hand though some fine motor skills work better on my left than my right (and vise-versa.)


Finger sticks are a LOT better than the old blood draws I used to do. Those were just a pain in the arse and on two occassions I've sprung leaks after leaving the blood draw clinic only to have to walk back in to get bandaged up even more.


When I go now, the office calls it a "level I" visit which means in addition to checking INR, I get weighed and vitals are taken. That's actually kinda useful because I've been working on bringing my weight down and I get a monthly (or more so) weigh-in on a "good" scale to track my weight plus they have previous results written into my records so I can look back to see where I've been.


With the EMT thing, I'm getting fairly good now at checking my own BP since I have a practice cuff and stethescope on loan...

 

[Guest]

Another reason that I use the little finger is that many of the people that I see have had strokes and are unable to bend the little finger independently to get it out of the way if I use the ring finger.

 

[Marty]

Lance, checkout capillary tubes. They make testing much easier.