If you have had an extended blood sugar test completed by your physician, and were told that you are pre-diabetic type II, borderline diabetic type II, or have diabetes type two then you now need to know what is needed to monitor yourself properly. It is very important for you to be conscientious and to take action to alter the course of this disease. You have control over what you eat and how you exercise, both important issue if you have Diabetes. Your blood ketones and blood sugars are going to have to be checked often.

They will have to be looked at before and after you eat, and after you exercise, and in the morning and in the evening. You will need to have a quick and fast glucose-monitoring machine that is portable and can give you an accurate blood glucose number to act with until the next test. It is imperative for you to know the amount of free sugars floating in your system. But, the machine is not like an x-ray device. It cannot peer into your bloodstream through the skin and tell you what that number is. You must use an active testing strip, which will react with the sugars in your blood and give you a readout on a monitoring device with the blood glucose results. The test strips are about the length of a toothpick, and rectangular. Some are in a roll and are inserted right into the back of the machine.

But, they cannot be reused, and neither can they be interchanged between monitors. The monitors are all different with regard to the frills they add on to help you keep track of your past numbers, speed of reading the sugars, and amount of blood that it needs from you to take a reading. To get the blood onto the test part of the strip which will react with your blood you must poke yourself with a small needle. It is not like a vaccination. The needle is about the length of the back of a thumbtack. It is not inserted into you to draw out blood but to create a small bubble of blood for you to use on the test strip. It is taken from the fingertips, but some machines are so sensitive that the blood can be taken from the arm or even the belly. The needles are called lancets.

There has been a lancet that is spring loaded for speed and efficiency. The procedure of getting this blood itself is called sticking yourself. Unlike the active testing strips the lancets only have to match your personal preference and not the machine or the strips. So you can take control of your comfort level within this realm. The key here is to monitor yourself often, and know what you need to do once you get the blood glucose reading. Along with your physician's advise, good eating habits and a good exercise program you will have a good start to leading a healthy lifestyle. But, be sure to always remember whom you are monitoring yourself for. It is for your loved ones and the betterment of the quality of your life.