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Normal range

I

Itsher

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Don't have diabetes
My wife has not been diagnosed with diabetes but she has a test meter and has taken a number of readings. About 2 hours after a meal she is in the range 4.6 to 5.3. Is that normal? She thinks it isn't because the fasting range is 4.0 to 6.0 and all her 'post-prandial' readings are in that range. She reckons they ought to be out of that range because she has had food. She finds getting to her GP difficult. Thanks for your help.
 
I think that's completely normal. Once all my non diabetic kids and my hubby tested themselves on my meter and they were all of them in the 5s that was a couple of hours after food too.
 
Itsher said:
My wife has not been diagnosed with diabetes but she has a test meter and has taken a number of readings. About 2 hours after a meal she is in the range 4.6 to 5.3. Is that normal? She thinks it isn't because the fasting range is 4.0 to 6.0 and all her 'post-prandial' readings are in that range. She reckons they ought to be out of that range because she has had food. She finds getting to her GP difficult. Thanks for your help.
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If her readings were actually out of that range then there might be a problem but since they are not then everything is fine. It's only us diabetics who have problems by going out of that range after having food.
 
This seems like a first world problem to me. Someone who is not diabetic has perfectly normal non-diabetic readings but is still worrying about being diabetic. Get her to eat a Mars Bar and get back to us if there's an issue with that.

There are T1 people in the third world who (a) can't afford to buy insulin in the first place, and (b) even when they get it, are scared to use it, because their one dollar a day a day pay check doesn't let them them buy enough fast sugar to sort out hypos.

They're also doing that without having meters.

Tell your wife she's incredibly lucky and should stop worrying about nothing.
 
Itsher said:
My wife has not been diagnosed with diabetes but she has a test meter and has taken a number of readings. About 2 hours after a meal she is in the range 4.6 to 5.3. Is that normal? She thinks it isn't because the fasting range is 4.0 to 6.0 and all her 'post-prandial' readings are in that range. She reckons they ought to be out of that range because she has had food. She finds getting to her GP difficult. Thanks for your help.
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I guess the main question is "Why is she testing?".
Does she have relatives with diabetes?
Is diabetes the only thing she is concerned about or does she have broad ranging worries about having a chronic complaint?
I don't think many people just up and get a blood glucose meter and test the BG for no reason whatsoever (but I may be wrong).
 
Scott-C said:
This seems like a first world problem to me. Someone who is not diabetic has perfectly normal non-diabetic readings but is still worrying about being diabetic. Get her to eat a Mars Bar and get back to us if there's an issue with that.

There are T1 people in the third world who (a) can't afford to buy insulin in the first place, and (b) even when they get it, are scared to use it, because their one dollar a day a day pay check doesn't let them them buy enough fast sugar to sort out hypos.

They're also doing that without having meters.

Tell your wife she's incredibly lucky and should stop worrying about nothing.
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Thank you for answering, but please don't be unkind. She has severe M.E.; Atrial fibrilation; Breast cancer (for the third time); and is diagnosed with Heart Failure. This last diagnosis she disputes for reasons that are complicated, but which are connected with the fact that her mother went blind because she had diabetes that the GP failed to diagnose. That is why she got the meter and started to test her blood glucose. The M.E. means that seeing doctors is very difficult. Over and over again she makes appointments (or in the case of the cancer, appointments are made for her) and then when the time comes she cannot attend because she is too fatigued.
 
As others have said, your wife's post meal readings are perfectly normal. There is nothing there to indicate diabetes. She needs to stop worrying about it.
 
Hi @Itsher welcome to the forum :)

I would agree with those above who have reassured you and your wife that those blood glucose readings are 'normal'
And I am going to suggest (if you want to read a bit more on the subject) that you have a look at the www.bloodsugar101.com website.

It has a lot of useful and very interesting information on how type 2 diabetes develops, and the misconceptions that people have about it. There is also quite a lot of info on what does and doesn't constitute 'normal' and what goes wrong went we start to drift out of 'normal'.

I want to reassure you though - I am not recommending the website because I think there is anything wrong with your wife's readings, but rather so that she is in a position of knowledge, and can understand why they are normal - which (hopefully) will give her more reassurance than a bunch of strangers saying 'those readings are OK'.

Hope that helps.
And also hope that your wife's cancer and other health problems have the best possible outcomes.
 
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