is my meter accurate?

SlimLizzy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,212
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
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football, both the game and the culture.
back history
yesterday had meal out at friends house: far too much food. waaay too many calories and carbs.
today no breakfast. ok has a cup of tea, thats all. went out to help friend with some garden clearing. physically active day. 11k steps ( really, all that from tending a bonfire all day ?)
no lunch
home about 4pm
cup of ginger tea. Would that up BG?
pre dinner reading 7.1
thought this might be wrong so tried again 7.2
ok wash hands, new lancet, another test strip not enough blood so try again.
this time BG 6.0
find such a big difference difficult to believe, test again, few seconds later is 6.2.
Can I believe anything meter is telling me?
 

xfieldok

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,182
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
back history
yesterday had meal out at friends house: far too much food. waaay too many calories and carbs.
today no breakfast. ok has a cup of tea, thats all. went out to help friend with some garden clearing. physically active day. 11k steps ( really, all that from tending a bonfire all day ?)
no lunch
home about 4pm
cup of ginger tea. Would that up BG?
pre dinner reading 7.1
thought this might be wrong so tried again 7.2
ok wash hands, new lancet, another test strip not enough blood so try again.
this time BG 6.0
find such a big difference difficult to believe, test again, few seconds later is 6.2.
Can I believe anything meter is telling me?
Which meter are you using and if the CodeFree what is the batch number?
 

SlimLizzy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,212
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
football, both the game and the culture.
Which meter are you using and if the CodeFree what is the batch number?
its a TRUE METRIX 60 only had it about two weeks
just tested again after meal, bit late,
pre dinner 18.14 fina resut 6.2
post dinner 9 pm 3.6 ?
what is going on here?
 
Last edited:

Scott-C

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Can I believe anything meter is telling me?

You can be reasonably confident that your bg was generally in the 6 to 7 range.

For practical purposes, that is good enough.

I'm T1, so I have to inject insulin several times a day to not die, meter readings help me with clinical decisions about dose amounts, so you might think the accuracy matters to me.

It does, but not that much. If I read at 6 and then 7 the bolus amount would be about the same.

If I'm running at around 5, there's about 1 gram of glucose per litre of blood in me. The test strip is sucking up a tiny, tiny part of a litre, absolutely minute parts of glucose. It's amazing that bg meters get as close as they do.

All I'm interested in is whether I'm in a broad range - sub-4 is bad, 4 to 7 is good, above 9 is bad.

Even though I know meters are not that accurate, I know that they are close enough to indicate which general range I'm in, and that's good enough.

T2s expect too much from meters. They indicate broad ranges. The decimal points don't matter. When T2s attach some significance to a reading being 6.2 one day and 6.5 the next, we just kinda roll our eyes. Any number between 5 and 7 is more or less the same.
 

SlimLizzy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,212
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
football, both the game and the culture.
was surprised it was 7 @4pm as had not eaten all day and been active as well.
 

Hiitsme

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,987
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I don't think any meter is that accurate. My husband, non diabetic, was having blood tests regularly at a hospital as he was on a drug trial, They would do a finger prick and also check with an armful of bloods, Often the results could be quite different, one from a vein and one from a finger, So if the hospital meters aren't that accurate after they are calibrated at least daily what can we expect with a home meter.
 
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HSSS

Expert
Messages
7,465
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
I have found this a bit frustrating too but there’s a fair degree of tolerance allowed (15%) I think and then 95% of the time not 100%. Also you did get a drop after washing hands so maybe that was part of it too. I think you just have to check again in case it’s handwashing needed and then just roll with it. We’re looking for trends not isolated incidents.
 

HSSS

Expert
Messages
7,465
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Sometimes I go up a little if I haven’t eaten a while. I think it’s dawn phenomenon type thing where your liver thinks you need a bit extra.
 

SlimLizzy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,212
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
football, both the game and the culture.
Did wonder about the dawn phenomenom. But then post lunch was 3. 6
 

bangkokdiabetic

Well-Known Member
Messages
409
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Every meter out their will give different reading even if you take 2 readings from the same drop of blood HSSS is right its the tend that is important.
The Dawn Phenomenon is really given that name because its taken after the longest period of fasting our body reacts to I suppose if your a night worker t would be the evening etc. in your case the Long fast etc Perhaps that's why I was told it was important to eat at regular intervals 3 times a day
Most of us use a meter as a guide to where we are with our control. And have blood sugar level we have got down to where we are happy. The other use is to trace why 2 hours after meals we sometimes get spikes in our reading by thinking what you ate and testing each item in another meal till you or reduce in future find the culprit which you can then avoid and most importantly DO NOT OVEREAT !!
 
M

Member496333

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I use a Bayer Contour Next system which I’ve found to be extremely repeatable within 0.2mmol/L from multiple experimental measurements taken moments apart from the same finger.

For me this translates as relative accuracy that I can reasonably rely on to provide valid data for the purposes of tracking trends. Absolute accuracy is another matter and open to debate but I do trust my meter. The strips are fairly expensive though at around £45 per 100pcs from Amazon.