Testing time

An elderly lady called today asking me what she could do about her fingers since they were getting really sore from finger prick testing.

On looking at her records I could see that she had Type 2 diabetes but wasn’t using insulin, so I asked her how often she was testing her blood glucose levels, to which she replied twice a day.

Not wishing to tread on any one’s toes at this point I said that I would discuss this with her practice nurse and get the nurse to give her a ring (since the local guidelines quite rightly recommend testing twice a week).

I explained this to the nurse and she told me that the lady was really well controlled with a recent HbA1c level of 7. Therefore the nurse agreed to ring her back to ask her reduce her frequency of testing.