Bizarre glucose meter readings - any suggestions?

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Finzi

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Very good low carb day today. Measured pre-dinner at 6.8. Little bit surprised, as that is pretty high for me, but there it is.

2 hours post low carb dinner, measured 7.8. Very surprised, don't think I've ever had a post meal reading that high, apart from an 8.1 after fish and chips. So I thought I'd test again, this time 7.0. Then I thought, well if those two are so different, which should I choose, and so I thought I'd better go again! This time, 8.0!!! Well, I wasn't having that lol so I tested again. This time, 5.9. Which to be fair is almost exactly what I would have expected, that is what my post meal readings usually are.

So how can I trust my meter? I have a reasonably good number of strips and don't appear to be being rationed, but I seriously can't test four times before and after every meal. For one thing my fingers would never stand it! On that subject though, make of it what you will, but the 7.8 and the 8.0 were both readings where I had to squeeze really hard and long to get blood out (I have very poor circulation in my fingers, I think). The 7.0 and the 5.9 were both readings where the drop of blood came quite spontaneously and easily.


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ewelina

ewelina

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Low carb can be very high in fat. Maybe thats a problem?
 
phoenix

phoenix

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On that subject though, make of it what you will, but the 7.8 and the 8.0 were both readings where I had to squeeze really hard and long to get blood out (I have very poor circulation in my fingers, I think). The 7.0 and the 5.9 were both readings where the drop of blood came quite spontaneously and easily.
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I think that gives you your answer.

Don't squeeze hard and don't use a 'milking' action (you are liable to get interstitial fluid along with the blood)
Just touch the end of the test strip to the drop of blood .Capillary action will cause the blood to flow into the test strip. Dont't touch the strip with your finger. The strip should fill completely, if it doesn't don't try to add more.
If you don't put enough blood on a strip you will get an error message, if you try to top it up you may not get an error message but the result will be inaccurate.* ( also no meter has anything like 100% test/retest reliability)

Counsel of perfection here, I tried to get away with doing exactly that this morning, the strip didn't quite get enough blood on it so I tried to add a bit. I was rewarded with a 7.7mmol/l reading, a second strip gave a much more normal reading of 5.8mmol/l.
 
ewelina

ewelina

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The fat may have been relatively high but I'm not sure why that would affect blood glucose?
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Sorry i didnt read your post properly and now i can see the problem was different reading within short period of time. There must have been some problem with your meter or squeezing finger as mentioned above.

Regarding fat in meals Ive noticed that some fats affects my levels. There isnt much info on that online and I still research. My dietician said it doesnt matter how much fat or protein you eat but from my own experience i know thats no true. For example eggs and mayo affect my sugars and i need extra insulin when i have it. Yesterday I had a good example. I ate burger and fries (very high in carbs obviously) plus mayo. I took insulin only for carbs and my readings were way too high all evening.

I found one thread on other forum relating to fat and protein in meals

http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/ ... 1#comments

It would be nice if other, more experienced people with diabetes would share their thoughts on that subject. Thanks
 
phoenix

phoenix

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Sorry this is off topic .(not relevant to people not using insulin)
Ewelina
Protein definitely raises my levels and I do bolus for a no(very low) carb meal. I don't do it very 'scientifically' more by experience about whats appropriate for certain meals. High fat may delay the rise which means that the peak of activity for the bolus is out of synch. (Pizza effect)

Jenny (Ruhl's) statement ' 58% of protein grams turns to carb over 4-7 hours ' may be on the high side. It was apparently a figure calculated originally in 1915.
(protein controversies in diabetes) http://journal.diabetes.org/diabetesspe ... /pg132.htm

Do a search on 'Tu' for TAG, (total available glucose). This is a method that takes into account fat and protein. There were quite a few people who use that system on there.
There is also a page on the Joslin blog that discusses the method
http://blog.joslin.org/2012/01/should-t ... meal-plan/
(personally I really don't want to have to calculate carbs and protein and fat)
 
ewelina

ewelina

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Sorry for all that confusion by posting wrong comments in a wrong place. I didnt notice the post is in type 2 section.

Thank you Phoenix for the links and explanation. It explains a lot why my levels are sometimes different than i would expect. I agree that counting carb+protein+fat is a bit too complicated (and time consuming as well) but its good to have rough idea at least.

Thanks a lot
 
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