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How to Monitor Blood Sugar Levels

Your doctor has diagnosed you as hypoglycemic. You're following the diet, eating small meals, and engaging in regular physical activity. How do you know if your efforts are working? Monitoring blood sugar levels can be done by your doctor's lab technician, but if you want to invest in a diabetic monitoring machine prescribed by your doctor, you can do it yourself.

Things You'll Need

  • Blood sugar diary (usually supplied with the machine)
  • Blood monitoring machine
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Instructions

  1. Monitor Blood Sugar Levels in the Lab

    • 1

      Ask your doctor to schedule regularly scheduled lab appointments to monitor your blood sugar as needed.

    • 2

      Monitor your blood sugar level while you are having symptoms, or after a fast (as approved by your doctor). This is usually done in the morning before you have eaten anything.

    • 3

      Arrange with your doctor or lab technician to take the test again after you have eaten and the symptoms have disappeared. In this way, you can tell if your problem matches your blood sugar level or if it is caused by something else.

    • 4

      Find out from your doctor if you need regular lab blood checks and/or a home blood glucose monitor.

    Monitor Blood Sugar Levels at Home

    • 5

      Check your supplies to make sure you have chemical strips, lancets and alcohol swabs handy.

    • 6

      Place the lancet (the sharp point with which you will prick your finger) into its proper place in the lancet holder (it looks like a pen).

    • 7

      Clean the site from which you are taking blood (the side of a finger works well) with the alcohol swab.

    • 8

      Put the swabbed area over the lancet. Push the button that releases it to prick you finger. Remove the lancet. If necessary, squeeze the skin to get an adequate drop of blood.

    • 9

      Wipe the blood onto the chemical strip.

    • 10

      Put the strip into the machine and wait. The machine will make a beeping noise when it is ready.

    • 11

      Read the number on the screen. If it is below 60, your blood sugar level is low. If over 125, it is high.

    • 12

      Repeat throughout the day as often as your doctor recommends.

    • 13

      Write all your blood sugar levels in the glucose diary, so that you and your doctor can compare them with your symptoms and spot patterns or trends.

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