Lancet help

[Salphy]

Hi does anybody purchase their own lancets or have any idea what to look for?

I do all my bloods with medichecks finger prick tests as I have a severe phobia of venous blood draw.

I switched from BH due to finding their customer service better (found BH abrupt on a couple of occasions), frequent offers and initially found their lancets better.

However they have since both changed their lancets to ones that I find pretty useless. For my last test I used 2 and barely filled a quarter of the vial. I then used an old one I had left over and filled the remaining 3/4's and a second vial with the one (white with pink/purple round top)

I have contacted medichecks but they are no longer able to get hold of the old ones from their supplier.

I've seen BH responses on here to say they have some old stock you can request. But I'm not too keen on returning to BH and presume this old stock will run out at some point.

So I'm looking to purchase my own but have no idea how or what to look for. Ive seen some ones that sound good on manufacturers websites but no way to order as a private single customer. One said up to 500iu blood which was the biggest they did but 500iu of blood means nothing to me. Hoe much do the vials hold?

Most on Amazon seem aimed at diabetes tests which I think would be much less blood?

I do wonder if they have both done this to make us use the more expensive phlebotomy options. But that would make me spend less as i'd get everything I could on nhs then only basic tsh t3 and t4 private. Whereas now I get all thyroid, vitamins, fbc etc private. So frustrating x

[alannalifts]

I can't help with lancets for finger prick blood tests, but I do use one for monitoring my blood glucose periodically. As you said, they typically don't result in much blood being drawn, but the lancet I use does have different settings depending on how much blood I need (1-5, with 5 = more blood, and I typically use 1 or 2 for blood sugar monitoring). So, they may be flexible enough to suit your needs! Sorry I can't help beyond "don't rule out blood glucose lancets yet."

[Salphy in reply to alannalifts]

Thank you. How much blood do you get with a 1-2?

Don't suppose you know how much you get with a 5 and if it would be enough to fill 2 of the medichecks/BH vials?

I always thought you only needed a drop for diabetes testing so that's good to know thanks x

[alannalifts in reply to Salphy]

Yeah, you only need a small drop for the blood glucose strips. 1 is a small drop, and 2 is a couple large ones.

Unfortunately I don't know how much you'd get with the 5 setting, and as you can guess I'm not keen to test it (though now I am kind of curious XD). I do tend to get bruised with these lancets, even on 2+, so that might be another consideration - I don't know if that was a problem with the BH/medichecks ones.

[Salphy]

I'll pay you to be guinea pig 😂

I do get tiny bruises with the medichecks ones. I think it takes me about 4-5 large drops to fill a vial and I usually need to fill 2 vials.

But I'd rather have one really sore one that works than 10 uncomfortable ones that dont x

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Salphy

If the old lancets are the light blue/white ones then they are

BD Blue lancets

Unfortunately not cheap to buy, and seem to be only sold in boxes of 200

scrubsuk.com/bd-contact-act...

[Salphy in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thanks Susie. They look like the ones they send now which I find rubbish. They were white with a round pink top. They said they don't make them any more though

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Salphy]

Salphy

I am surprised!

The BD Blue were the original lancets for Medichecks and Blue Horizon, then they changed them to one with a round top. Paul from BH asked on the forum which one members preferred and the BD Blue was the winner.

He did a post showing the difference between the blades

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu......

I get on well with the BD Blue and didn't do well with the other, round topped one. But at the end of the day we're all different

[Salphy in reply to SeasideSusie]

I did see that they may not be the same but they do look it on the outside.

But I can see from the holes in my fingers that the pink round one is more of a slider/wider than the marks from the blue and white ones.

I might break one open to see x

[Salphy]

I might try the neonatal version of these:

praxisdienst.com/en/Laborat...

I just wish I knew what the difference between them all is. I wonder if I could break them open and measure the difference.