Blood sugars

[Christafur]

Hi, I don’t know if I’m going crazy but can someone clarify something for me. Is it possible to have different sugar readings depending what hand you use? I have found if I test my blood on my left hand it is always higher than blood taken from my right! Is this normal? Do I go by the lower reading or like meet in the middle of the higher one?

 

[Robbity]

If this is the case for you, to be consistent just take both your pre and post meal blood tests from the same hand when checking what difference your meal has made to your glucose levels.

Blood is constantly circulating so glucose levels may not be identical throughout our bodies, and meters are "permitted" up to 15% variance in the accuracy of their results. AFAIK it's possible to get different readings from different hands, different fingers on the same hand, and even 2 different readings from the same drop of blood. And maybe do a search on the forum too, as there's been a very recent thread on this topic.

 

[KennyA]

Hi, I don’t know if I’m going crazy but can someone clarify something for me. Is it possible to have different sugar readings depending what hand you use? I have found if I test my blood on my left hand it is always higher than blood taken from my right! Is this normal? Do I go by the lower reading or like meet in the middle of the higher one?

Perfectly normal. The meter is neither accurate nor dependable enough to guarantee replicating a reading. When I'm doing a before and after food set of tests, ideally I want to isolate the food/meal I'm testing for, which means trying to keep any other variables out of the picture. So same meter, same batch of test strips, same everything as far as possible. I only ever test on my left hand.

Just editing to mention that this morning I did two tests, within 15 seconds of each other: same finger, same test strips. 5.7 and 5.3. The difference (to me anyway) is insignificant.