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Meter Reading Anomoly

T

tow

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Im Type 2

Diagnosed 9 months ago and have been aggressive in tackling this. Test 3 times a day but after a light lunch of chicken salad tested an was nearly 12mmol

I nearly fell over

Tested again on another finger as was 5.2mmol

Now Im worried my readings aren't accurate. Is this sort on anomaly expected or should I get a new meter
 
It happens. If you don't believe it then test again just as you did. Meters are not accurate anyway and there are significant differences between makes of meter.
 
tow said:
Im Type 2

Diagnosed 9 months ago and have been aggressive in tackling this. Test 3 times a day but after a light lunch of chicken salad tested an was nearly 12mmol

I nearly fell over

Tested again on another finger as was 5.2mmol

Now Im worried my readings aren't accurate. Is this sort on anomaly expected or should I get a new meter
Click to expand...

It's more likely you could have had something "rogue" on your finger or had a dodgy strip. Don't panic, unless it happens every time you test. If it does, rewash you hands. If that still doesn't cure it, then try another pot of strips.

Good luck with it all.
 
Definitely test again if you feel like your meter isn't showing the correct results. It can happen and is understandably annoying, might be that you had some residue on one of your finger that caused the meter to give higher results.
 
tow said:
Im Type 2

Diagnosed 9 months ago and have been aggressive in tackling this. Test 3 times a day but after a light lunch of chicken salad tested an was nearly 12mmol

I nearly fell over

Tested again on another finger as was 5.2mmol

Now I'm worried my readings aren't accurate. Is this sort on anomaly expected or should I get a new meter
Click to expand...

And obviously dry your fingers carefully. This has caused me a raised eyebrow or two. Liking the "aggressive approach". Keep it up.
 
No it isn't very likely to be your meter! Various factors, such as mucky fingers, test strips that are out of date or stored incorrectly are more likely to be causes of large variations than the meter itself, though as has been pointed out, meters unfortunately are only accurate within a certain specified, and required, range.

Your high reading may have been due to a contaminated finger, but since your blood is continuously circulating, so is the glucose in it and you will usually get somewhat different readings from repeated tests on different fingers, and often from the same finger, when taken within a short space of time. Not as large as you've just seen, but 9 times out of 10, they will differ. If I need to repeat a test for this reason I always try to take the blood again from the same (cleaned) finger in an attempt to minimise such issues.

Robbity
 
tow said:
Im Type 2

Diagnosed 9 months ago and have been aggressive in tackling this. Test 3 times a day but after a light lunch of chicken salad tested an was nearly 12mmol

I nearly fell over

Tested again on another finger as was 5.2mmol

Now Im worried my readings aren't accurate. Is this sort on anomaly expected or should I get a new meter
Click to expand...

It's more likely you could have had something "rogue" on your finger or had a dodgy strip. Don't panic, unless it happens every time you test. If it does, rewash you hands. If that still doesn't cure it, then try another pot of strips.

Good luck with it all.
 
tow said:
Im Type 2

Diagnosed 9 months ago and have been aggressive in tackling this. Test 3 times a day but after a light lunch of chicken salad tested an was nearly 12mmol

I nearly fell over

Tested again on another finger as was 5.2mmol

Now Im worried my readings aren't accurate. Is this sort on anomaly expected or should I get a new meter
Click to expand...

It's more likely you could have had something "rogue" on your finger or had a dodgy strip. Don't panic, unless it happens every time you test. If it does, rewash you hands. If that still doesn't cure it, then try another pot of strips.

Good luck with it all.
 
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is soap. It has sugar in it. If you wash your hands and don't rinse thoroughly then that can give you a surprise.
 
JohnEGreen said:
I check my meter periodically with control solution. Then I know its reading in the correct range.
Click to expand...

I also use control solution to make sure that it is reading the correct range.

As has been already been said, it was likely something rogue on your fingers.
 
It's very likely as has been said that it may have been something on the finger giving an anomalous reading or the strip but it occurs to me and this may be a daft question but how do we know in circumstances like this which of the two readings is correct and which one is not, a level of 12 is by no means an impossibility is it.

I suppose a retest on the original hand would suffice though how could you be sure that the meter is not giving incorrect subsequent readings.

No best to use control solution as is only way to be certain.
 
John, all you can do is be aware of and keep a record - your meter should be able to do this - of your readings and you should begin to see a fairly consistent pattern. if you also keep a dairy of food (and maybe exercise) you'll see how these affect your glucose levels. So after a while you get to know what to expect in various conditions or from various foods. If you get an unexpected/unusual reading, and retest with a similar result you start to look for a possibly cause. If you retest and get a slightly different reading and both are close-ish to what you expect then it's just a normal fluctuation in your glucose levels and either will be near enough to be "correct". It can never be a nice exact science...

Robbity
 
I'm sorry to disagree but speaking as some one who spent ten years working as a calibration technician meter accuracy and reliability is an exact science which is what we are talking about.

Edit to add
If you cannot rely on your meter every thing else is guess work.

Though I must admit there have been times when unsure of my meter reading I have checked it against my blood oxygen % reading on my Pulse Oximeter which gives me a fair estimate of where my BG reading should be.
 
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