You know what's worse that daily injections?

Having to pinch belly skin with ice cold wintery fingers, that’s what!!!

Do you ever really get used to this? My hat is off to those of you in colder climates…

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Speaking as a Chicagoan, no, that’s one thing you never really get used to. And the alcohol swab gets SO COLD :rofl: :roll_eyes:

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I live in Northeast Ohio, so weather is pretty much like Chicago. Why do you use alcohol swabs? They do NOT sterilize the skin unless you leave it soaking for at least 20 minutes (in an alcohol bath, at that), they only help to loosen up any drt on the skin so that it can be wiped away.

I gave up totally on alcohol swabs about 30 years ago, have had no infections or other problems from it, and continue to do very well. As long as you get at least 1 shower every week, and don’t have anything rubbing dirt in at an injection site alcohol is not worth using.

I work outside in MA. The RealFeel yesterday was in the teens.

Alcohol doesn’t sterilize (destroy 100% of microbes), but it does disinfect (reduce the # of microbes). That said, I don’t bother with alcohol swabs for injections, either. (I never used them on my skin growing up; we used them to clean the top of the insulin bottle when I was little). I do use them before putting on my CGM, though. If it’s going to be on for over a week I want to make sure the site’s clean.

I don’t usually bother to pinch my skin anymore, either. It’s too hard to do on my arm and bottom and I’ve got plenty of fat on my belly so no need.

Cold hands have always been an issue for blood sugar checks though. It’s really hard to collect blood from frozen fingers. Rub your hands together really fast, blow on them a little bit, sit on them for a couple minutes… That’ll help.