Little Pricks

One of the questions I get asked the most is if it hurts to check my blood sugar or give myself insulin shots. No, it really doesn't, though after breaking my leg and having to have my bone popped back into place, my tolerance for pain has increased greatly.

Checking blood sugar is more annoying than painful. I have a One-Touch Ultra, which comes with a little needle that you pull back, and then it kind of ricochets into your finger. You then place the drop of blood on a test strip and it gives you a glucose reading. It hurts about as much as it does when you dig your nail into your finger (which isn't much), but sometimes I just can't get out enough blood. There are days when I get it on the first try, but then other times, I have to prick my fingers over and over again to get them to bleed enough -- even if I use a brand-new needle. I don't know why my fingers are so uncooperative, but they can suddenly turn against me when it comes to this task.

I try to make it "fun," though by turning the whole thing into a game. As the meter counts down from 5, I try to guess what my blood sugar number will be. I also find myself humming that song from Little Shop Of Horrors -- the one where Seymour has to prick his fingers to feed blood to Audrey II. Plus, it's kind of cool to watch the test strip suck up the drop of blood. I've nicknamed them "vampire strips."

As for the insulin shots, the only thing that's uncomfortable about them is that they're injected into my stomach. The location freaked me out at first, but I'm getting used to it, and they really do hurt at all. They make the needles so thin that they just slip right into your body. They do leave a tiny mark, but that's it. I'm wondering, though, if I can arrange the marks into a cool design -- sort of like George Seurat did with his pointillism.

Other than that, these tasks aren't so bad. They take up very little of my time and it's so, so important that I get them done every day. So I do what I can to deal with them and try to stay positive about the whole process.