Travel Lancets – Disposable Lancets for Quick Blood Glucose Testing
Simply unscrew the plug, hold the travel lancent to your finger and press the button. Available at Walgreens.
Every diabetic has to do a fingerstick to test their blood sugar level multiple times a day but sometimes the necessity comes at the most inopportune time. A few months ago while we were waiting at Walgreens for my husband to get his flu shot, I tripped over a product that made the task easier and quicker. They are called travel lancets (available online here). These are single use lancets that do not require lancing devices to be used. With them, you unscrew the cap, aim on your finger and press the button. After firing, the needle automatically pulls itself back inside so nothing sharp is exposed at the end. Therefore, they can be disposed of easily.
This is much faster than the usual…getting the lancet, opening the lancing device, inserting the lancet, twisting off the cap from the lancet, closing the lancing device, cocking the device, aiming at the finger, shooting, then opening the lancing device again, capping the used lancet, pulling it out and closing up the device again to be put away. I am not suggesting using these as your day-to-day lancets because they are more expensive, but they are great for certain situations. A few examples when travel lancets would be most helpful include:
- When you are driving/at a stop light and need to test. Although you should always test before you drive, it is possible to need to test again before reaching your destination.
- In the middle of an exam. Not only is it quicker, it is also less distracting.
- If you excuse yourself from a business meeting, you could return faster.
- On an airplane or other location where you don’t want to have to worry about drawing too much attention or accidentally dropping either the lancet cap or the head of the lancing device.
- Testing in the middle of the night. If you feel like you may be going low in the middle of the night, timing is very important. The fewer the steps, the sooner you find out how you need to handle the situation. Also, if you end up being in a normal range, you haven’t been awake as long and may be able to fall back to sleep more easily.
- During sports. Children and adults should be able to get their testing done quickly during a timeout if they don’t have to load and reload a lancing device.
We use the Walgreens brand travel lancets. If you use a different brand, please offer a brief review in the comments area.
While there are some ideal times for these, there are also a few downfalls. For one, you cannot set how deep the needle will go (although Kevin, my husband, said it didn’t hurt anyway, so I imagine the puncture depth is not overly deep). The second issue is that if you do not draw enough blood (or any at all) from the fingerstick, then you have to use a whole new travel lancet because they cannot be reset.
Our suggestion…put a few of these travel lancets in your blood glucose testing kit along with your normal ones. Then they are available during the times when you are least expecting it, when quick testing is key.
My name is Kevin Lang and I am a Type 1 Diabetic who was diagnosed in May of 2004 at the age of 27. My last A1C was 6.0 in May 2015. I used to use daily shots of Lantus and Novolog to control my blood sugar until I switched to the MiniMed Paradigm Revel Insulin Pump in February 2011. To learn more about me, follow the about link in the menu bar.