Type 2 Could BG Monitor be faulty?

Cobwebs said:

I have a Code Free BG monitor, but wondered are they ever faulty?

I've stuck rigidly to a low carb diet and lost a stone in weight in a month just over. But my BG hasn't changed at all in that time.
My last hba1c was 12.5 (112). Every morning my fasting BG is around 14.5 or 15.1 and my before lunch test is 12.5.
Surely it would have started to come down after being on the low carb diet for just over a month?
I have a fatty liver and under active thyroid. Don't know if that affects anything?.

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It’s possible, but not very likely that you have a faulty meter and I know you’ve now updated the testing strips. You could ask Home Health who distribute the Codefree for a control solution/replacement meter.

However, far more likely is that it’s the morning FBG that is often the last to come down. I also started with a very high HbA1c (108/12%) but didn’t test for the first month so have no sense of what happened in that time, but it took at least 6 months of keto to bring that reading anywhere close to normal.

Are you testing before and after meals - how you’re responding to food might give a better idea of the trends in your blood sugars. Alternatively you could get. a 2 week free trial of the Libre to get a fuller picture: https://sample.freestyle.abbott/gb-en/freestylelibre.html

Cobwebs said:

I can't understand why my fasting test is so high because I don't snack in the evenings well I don't snack all day.

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https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/dawn-phenomenon.html

Your fasting figure is mainly determined by your liver making sure you get enough fuel to give you a good start to the day, so you won't generally have as much control over this as you'll have for the meals you prepare and eat. So you really need to be testing immediately before each meal and then two hours later to see how what you've eaten is affecting your glucose levels - by watching these figures and possibly then adjusting your carbohydrate consumption you should have most control over these results.

And definitely consider the Libre. It wasn't available for some time after I was diagnosed, and although I considered I knew what I was doing low carb wise by the time I could get hold of one, the sensors gave me much more information about what what going on not only in relation to food and glucose levels, but how other issues, such as certain medications (e.g. steroids), stress, pain etc, all had an impact on them too - and sometimes even more so.

Do you have someone without diabetes who could do a blood test to check your meter?
If they have not eaten recently, their number should be around the 5s (could be 4s or low 6s).
This is not as exact at the test solution but it should give you some confidence in your meter.