make sure that the patient's hand is warm and relaxed before collecting the capillary blood specimen wash the hand in warm water for a couple of minutes to improve blood circulation and remove any lotion or cream if necessary massage the finger with a downward motion several times before performing the finger stick lower the hand to below the heart level when collecting blood clean the testing site with an alcohol swab then air dry the testing site thoroughly puncture the side of the middle or ring finger for easier sampling use a different finger if the finger is callous [Music] we recommend a 21 gauge single use safety lancet hold the safety lancet and carefully rotate and pull off the protective cap press the lancet against the puncture side tightly to lance the skin discard the lancet in an appropriate sharps container to obtain a sufficient blood drop gently squeeze and massage the finger in a one second interval until a full drop forms do not excessively squeeze the finger for cholesterol testing wipe away the first drop of blood with gauze and generate a second drop the mission capillary transfer tube helps to draw the correct amount of blood the transfer tube also makes it easier to apply the blood sample to the test strip or cartridge squeezing the bulb hold the capillary transfer tube horizontally and use the tip of the tube to touch the blood drop blood will flow automatically into the tube by capillary action fill the tube past the black line indicator if not enough blood is generated from the drop repeat previous steps by gently squeezing the finger until another drop of blood forms if an air bubble is seen inside the transfer tube perform another finger stick and repeat the previous steps do not attempt to aspirate the sample by squeezing the bulb once the sample fills past the black line indicator on the transfer tube squeeze the bulb to expel the sample onto a test strip or cartridge discard the transfer tube in an appropriate manner you