Type 2's: What was your fasting blood glucose in a morning?

[Sable_Jan]

How's about this for meter discrepancies.

I wanted to get rid of the remainder of my strips in my current tub as I think they are reading high. This is what happened. Hands clean, consecutive tests, different fingers:

6.1
5.6
4.6
5.5
5.2
4.8
5.0

Strips all gone. Onwards and downwards.

Must admit I've often wondered if different fingers make a difference to readings. Not so much that the blood is different running in those fingers but more that some of my fingers give me a good thick deep coloured blob and others a bright red strangled runny smear ..... Now I've never done a retest cos my fingers are sore enuf but......

 

[Bluetit1802]

I think sometimes we push the envelope too far on what these meters can do. We know that they can be +/- 20% of true value at the extreme end, therefore they are best for long term trends rather than spot readings. The only way to pin down meal spikes with any decent accuracy would be to do say 5 tests each time, which would start to get expensive.

So that makes a mockery of testing out new foods before and after. If one or the other (or both) of those readings are way out, we have learnt nothing unless we keep repeating the same meal over and over to see the long term trend.

 

[Sable_Jan]

How's about this for meter discrepancies.

I wanted to get rid of the remainder of my strips in my current tub as I think they are reading high. This is what happened. Hands clean, consecutive tests, different fingers:

6.1
5.6
4.6
5.5
5.2
4.8
5.0

Strips all gone. Onwards and downwards.

Had another thought rereading this post "meter discrepancies" @Bluetit1802 wrote. What's the average lifespan of a meter and is there some way we can test its still reading correctly?

 

[sanguine]

So that makes a mockery of testing out new foods before and after. If one or the other (or both) of those readings are way out, we have learnt nothing unless we keep repeating the same meal over and over to see the long term trend.

I wouldn't say it makes it a mockery, statistically the majority of results will be within 10% which frankly is quite impressive, we just have to accept that there will be some outliers. As we get more experience we might recognise these when they happen and retest accordingly.

 

[beatdise]

How's about this for meter discrepancies.

I wanted to get rid of the remainder of my strips in my current tub as I think they are reading high. This is what happened. Hands clean, consecutive tests, different fingers:

6.1
5.6
4.6
5.5
5.2
4.8
5.0

Strips all gone. Onwards and downwards.

That's mental. I would have to take the average. Does dent your confidence though. Gap between lowest and highest is 1.5. That's like 25%. Those figures make or break your day. Seems pointless spending so much money on them. Thankfully most of the numbers are at least below 6.1. I would be worried if I was getting really low numbers or massively high ones. What to do what to do.

 

[douglas99]

My reading tend to be reasonably stable, but then again I know I can bring them down several points simply by running up and down the stairs.

The only readings I'm interested in are the high ones though.
If it makes sense, it means I've been eating a high GI food, or too much of it, so I know I need to cut don in future.
If it doesn't make sense, it probably doesn't, so I'll wash my hands, re test.
it does mean my averages on my meter are poor, as all I do is chase the bad ones.

 

[Sable_Jan]

That's mental. I would have to take the average. Does dent your confidence though. Gap between lowest and highest is 1.5. That's like 25%. Those figures make or break your day. Seems pointless spending so much money on them. Thankfully most of the numbers are at least below 6.1. I would be worried if I was getting really low numbers or massively high ones. What to do what to do.

Yet plus or minus 15% could show readings of 30% apart. I'd say that consistently "reasonable", over time still keeps us on the straight and narrow. If I get a low number, good; if not I'll think yep, mayb carbs on high side/portion was a bit big. As long as averages are going the right way, and the weight going down then all's good in the Hill household. Don't think it does the health any favours stressing about the fine tuning. @Bluetit1802 I know it worries you and care that it does - but this is just me and how I feel about it/deal with it. We're all different and I respect that

 

[time4change]

4.7 This morning

My readings are always a bit weird, I have multiple monitors and they all give different numbers, but none of them are ever over 5.5. It is a little annoying, but not worrisome. If one were lets say like 4.7 and another one were 6.9 then it would cause a little panic >.>. My doctors assured me not to worry as long as they are in the same general number, but I've only been diagnosed for a few days over a week so might not be very good with this yet.

 

[Pasha]

82 mg/dl or 4.55 mmoles/l

 

[pavlosn]

Must admit I've often wondered if different fingers make a difference to readings. Not so much that the blood is different running in those fingers but more that some of my fingers give me a good thick deep coloured blob and others a bright red strangled runny smear ..... Now I've never done a retest cos my fingers are sore enuf but......

I find that more times than not

"a good thick deep coloured blob" results in a good/lower range count w

While

"a bright red strangled runny smear" will give a higher reading.

It's getting to the point that I can almost predict whether it will be a good count or not just by the look of the blood droplet.

Anyone else think this?

Pavlos

 

[pavlosn]

4.7 This morning

My readings are always a bit weird, I have multiple monitors and they all give different numbers, but none of them are ever over 5.5. It is a little annoying, but not worrisome. If one were lets say like 4.7 and another one were 6.9 then it would cause a little panic >.>. My doctors assured me not to worry as long as they are in the same general number, but I've only been diagnosed for a few days over a week so might not be very good with this yet.

Just use one monitor only, as then your results will be more consistent and comparable.

There is nothing to be gained by testing with different monitors as given the fact they are only accurate to +/- 15% they will only show the same result by accident. In fact even testing twice on the same monitor using the same drop of blood will usually not result in the same count.

If none of your morning readings are ever over 5,5 mmol then you are doing well so try to be a bit relaxed about them. Better to make sure that you are testing before and after each meal rather than testing morning levels multiple times.

 

[Pasha]

I find that more times than not

"a good thick deep coloured blob" results in a good/lower range count w

While

"a bright red strangled runny smear" will give a higher reading.

It's getting to the point that I can almost predict whether it will be a good count or not just by the look of the blood droplet.

Anyone else think this?

Pavlos

Yes, I think that I experienced that this morning. Instead of stabbing my little finger I decided to share the burden with my index finger. Got a very nice full blob of blood within a very short time and the results were good. ie 82 mg/dl

This surprised me a bit because I take Pradaxa, a very strong blood anti coagulant which I thought was always giving me a fast appearing blob ie I did not really need to apply much pressure to get a good sample.

Maybe I shall now record finger number and rate of blood drop appearance and see if I can notice some pattern. I would gladly also note colour, but alas I am colour blind.

In any event yesterdays result was 94 mg/dl and todays 82 mg/dl so that 82x1.15 = 94.3 [ 15%] so that the results may just be reflecting the accuracy of the meter-strip measuring system.

Forgot to mention that yesterdays drop was a scruffy looking little SOB, seemingly more dilute and easily smeared.

 

[pavlosn]

How's about this for meter discrepancies.

I wanted to get rid of the remainder of my strips in my current tub as I think they are reading high. This is what happened. Hands clean, consecutive tests, different fingers:

6.1
5.6
4.6
5.5
5.2
4.8
5.0

Strips all gone. Onwards and downwards.

In truthfulness I would have probably just accepted any one of these numbers as being a reasonably good morning/pre meal count and moved on from it.

Possibly the 6,1 or 4,8 might cause me to retest if I could not think of a reason for them, but then again I probably would not.

I too only really retest Bad counts

Leaving the lowest and highest readings out of the picture give five readings between 4,6 and 5,6.

That may seem like a big range but as all are good readings I would be happy with them.

Pavlos

@Bluetit1802 I am just explaining my attitude towards this. I am not saying that my way is in any way superior to yours

 

[pavlosn]

Yet plus or minus 15% could show readings of 30% apart. I'd say that consistently "reasonable", over time still keeps us on the straight and narrow. If I get a low number, good; if not I'll think yep, mayb carbs on high side/portion was a bit big. As long as averages are going the right way, and the weight going down then all's good in the Hill household. Don't think it does the health any favours stressing about the fine tuning. @Bluetit1802 I know it worries you and care that it does - but this is just me and how I feel about it/deal with it. We're all different and I respect that

I fully agree

 

[pavlosn]

That's mental. I would have to take the average. Does dent your confidence though. Gap between lowest and highest is 1.5. That's like 25%. Those figures make or break your day. Seems pointless spending so much money on them. Thankfully most of the numbers are at least below 6.1. I would be worried if I was getting really low numbers or massively high ones. What to do what to do.

No figure ever makes or breaks my day.

Glucose counts are just data. Necessary feedback to allow us to take corrective action to control our disease better.

Seen in this light a count that is too high is just as useful if not more than one that is in range

Our glucose meter is not a teacher grading our paper. It is just a tool, an imperfect one at that, that we need to use to progress.

Pavlos

 

[pavlosn]

A 5,1 for me today.

Have a great day everyone.

Pavlos

PS having already stated that I rarely retest I was almost certain that today's reading would be bound to be too high, forcing me to retest. Thankfully it was not!

 

[Silver Hammer]

5.2 this morning, either despite or because of my cold.

Maxwell

 

[connie104]

4.9 this morning !!!!!

 

[pavlosn]

5.2 this morning, either despite or because of my cold.

Maxwell

Both, I guess!

 

[eddie1968]

Sorry, just prepping for insulin injection and scored a dismal 10.5 mmol/l. Oops need to adjust. Must have carb counted wrong