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Intensive testing and rogue readings

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Anonymous

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I've been doing some intensive testing over the last 2 days, taking a reading every 1 hr during the day and logging what I eat between readings. It's fairly enlightening, though I can't do it for long because it uses so many strips.

But today I took the following sequence:

15:14 - 6.2
Then ate one dried apricot and 2 prunes :D
16:22 - 9.9
(now that's a bit high - I have exactly the same this morning and it raised me 1.5)
I was just popping in to Asda, so when I got back to the car I tested again.
16:34 - 8.0
(a drop of 1.9)
So when I got home I decided to test 5 times in a row.
16:52 - 9.2 Hmmn - I hadn't eaten anything more. Last food was a 15:14.
16:53 - 8.4 (same hand - same needle , but a drop of 0.8 )
I then changed the needle and took 3 more readings a 1 minute intervals - and got;
8.3
8.3
8.4

So - I am clearly getting some odd (higher) readings. This is not within the tolerance of the meter and they were all with plenty of blood. Could this be needle re-use. These meters (Accu-Chek Aviva) don't have to be calibrated.

Would appreciate your thoughts - I have my blood test tomorrow ready for my review next week and need to formulate a plan.
 
Hi,

Firstly, I'd be inclined to swop the apricots and prunes for a nice avocado. But that's just me. :crazy:

As far as your meter's concerned, I only have experience with the Accu-Chek GT, and that tends to give higher readings when the batteries are on the way out. So possibly the same deal with the Aviva. :?:
 
The 9.2 was obviously the rogue reading. Could be you had something on your finger which contaminated the site. could be there was something left on the lancet which did the same. Could even be a dodgy strip - unusual, but I got a reading of 11.6 once, cursed, did another reading immediately and got 7.something
 
Sometimes when people use bolus/basal they may need to bolus insulin in order to eat a snack which is what you might need to do especially if you are using a low carb diet and are not using much insulin.
 
What are your levels like without eating the fruit, could be your lantus dose needs increasing if they typically rise late afternoon.
 
noblehead said:
What are your levels like without eating the fruit, could be your lantus dose needs increasing if they typically rise late afternoon.
Click to expand...

Through the day the readings were:

10:00 - 5.3
11:06 - 6.8 (after fruit)
12:04 - 7.6
13:12 - 6.3
15:14 - 6.2

But I think you might have something with the lantus comment. My lantus dose 3 weeks ago was 30 - but I've been trying to reduce this. I take the lantus at about 10pm and tend to think of it lasting through the night but not longer. Last night I took 15 and I woke up at 5.2 (I went to bed with a reading of 7.5). Could it be that the lantus was holding my readings down during the morning and now I've reduced it, it's not any longer?

Out of interest, why do I take Lantus at night and not first thing in the morning? I don't eat at night (well not often).
 
swimmer2 said:
Then ate one dried apricot and 2 prunes :D
Click to expand...

An average dried apricot has 37g of carbs and thats without the prunes, then the stress of testing 7 times in one hour :crazy: I wouldnt be at all surprised with those readings swimmer
 
Sid Bonkers said:
An average dried apricot has 37g of carbs and thats without the prunes,
Click to expand...

Not according to my book Sid (Collins Gem) - 8 Dried Apricot Halfs - 14.5g - so 1 dried apricot (2 halves) should be 3.75g. Or in the snacks section 25g of dried apricots is 13,5g - and one dried apricot weighs 7g - so that would make each one 3.78g

Prunes are better - at 5g carb per 25g

I admit that Avocado would be better but there's no way 1 dried apricot is 37g - that's half my daily intake.
 
Swimmer,

Lantus is a basal (background insulin) and is supposed to last 24 hours in the body although some people find it doesn't and either split the dose (which the manufacturer don't recommend) or switch to an alternative like levemir.

I was told when starting lantus that it didn't matter when you injected it at long as you leave 24 hours between each dose, I did inject before bed but found I had better control injecting it early evening.
 
That's useful. I have my review next week and will discuss moving the timing or changing to something else.
 
@ Stephen and swimmer, yes I should of course have said 37.4g carbs per 100g not per apricot :thumbup:

My mistake :D
 
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