fingersticks

As I was popping out a piece of Eclipse gum that Misa brought down for me (the gum here isn't as good hehe), I managed to slice the pad on the tip of my middle finger.  Ouch!  Immediately, I surrounded the cut with my two thumbs and started squeezing out a blob of blood into a red droplet, ever growing and challenging its own surface tension.  What?!  My normal reaction (though unhygienic) was always to instantly start sucking and applying pressure. Why was I here milking out my own blood?

Fingersticks.  We just spent a week doing over 130 fingersticks in our patients who returned for a scheduled test.  

When we were trying out the lancets, I spent a good few
minutes trying to stick myself to test our glucose machine,
with the needle threatening to pierce my skin but too
cowardly to plunge it in.  Eventually, I just went for my palm.

What are fingersticks?  It's what some diabetics do multiple times daily, as capillary blood (particularly from the fingertips, as compared to the less sensitive palm) gives a quite accurate measure of blood sugar.

These little buggers are painful!  I'd suffer other things gladly over a fingerstick. The fingertip has one of the highest concentrations of nerves (others include the tongue and erogenous zones), and thus painful stimuli are PAINFUL.  

These are similar to the lancets we use here.
The picture doesn't do justice to how solid
 and unneccesarily long that needle is...
...compared to a fingertip at least!

It's a strange sensation to open a relatively thick needle, cringe myself, and plunge it as fast as possible into the soft fingerpad of an innocent person, only to know that seconds later I will plead "I'm really sorry!  I know that hurt!".  The funny thing is, when done right the pain is instantaneous, but shocking and intense.  Half the people can handle it, but half almost jump out of their chair in pain, and watch cautiously with dread as you milk a drop of blood out.

Anyhow, I'm glad to be done with the week of fingersticks.  One medical procedure I will be happy to pass off anyday!