Measuring and recording your blood sugar regularly is an important part of the healing process. Seeing what your blood sugar is doing on a daily basis allows you and your practitioner to see if progress is being made, and may provide insight into things that are both improving and worsening your condition.
To take your blood sugar you will need a glucometer. These can be purchased at any store that has a pharmacy. However, not all glucometers provide equally accurate results. If you do not already have one, we find this glucometer provides more accurate results than most.
Once you have a glucometer, we strongly recommend that you calibrate it. To calibrate it, the best thing to do is to take it with you when you're having a blood draw that will measure fasting blood glucose (this will be done either as a stand along Fasting Blood Glucose test or within the larger test called a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, or CMP for short). Immediately after they draw your blood at the lab, do the finger prick and measure you blood sugar with the glucometer. When the results come back from the lab test you can compare and see if the glucometer tends to read high, low, or exactly right.
Most likely, you'll test your blood sugar first thing in the morning in order to test your fasting blood sugar. Your practitioner may ask for you to test at other times as well. But if they ask for your fasting blood sugar you want to test after fasting for at least 8 hours. Also, refrain from doing exercise before you test as this may increase your blood glucose levels.

To test your blood sugar with a glucometer, start by swabbing the finger you are going to prick with alcohol.
Place the testing strip in your device. Then use the finger lancing device to prick the finger. Squeeze the finger around the prick to create a blood droplet. Wipe that first droplet with a clean tissue. Squeeze another droplet out. Place the end of the testing strip up to the blood droplet and allow it to absorb onto the strip. Wait for the glucometer to provide you with the reading and record the value.
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