Varying readings on different fingers

[DeanLJ]

Hi,

just want to put this out there to see if i'm an odd ball or if this is the norm.

I'm managing my levels well through diet (lower carb, higher fat, approx 70 o 90 gr of carbs per day) and Metformin 4 x 500mg

After 7 months from diagnosis I'm consistently reading in the low to mid 6's.

I wash my hands very thoroughly before my morning fasting test, I make sure each finger is washed and dried well as i don't know which finger i'll use until i sit down with my meter.

this morning i had a reading of 7.2, odd I thought. so i tested a different finger... 6.3, i tested another finger 6.5

This happened last week too with and 8.1, 6.3, 6.2

I know there is a chance the high readings are likely to be something on the finger from the towel when drying hands or tissue after wiping first drop of blood but...

Has anyone else experienced this?
Is there a situation where blood from one finger genuinely reads higher than another without an external contamination?

just curious really.

thanks

Dean

 

[Mike d]

Same here .... I can test fourth and middle finger 30 seconds apart and notice a big difference ... as much as .3 or .4

Careful of your lancet (clean it a lot), where it hits and its interface with your finger and how the blood throws to the strip

Not as great a fall as you I admit, but I just take the lower number and scold myself for being lazy if I don't wash beforehand (though I do clean them a bit on a tissue) just to get the reading. I must be lucky ... two lancets in 15 months. Bleed easily, heal VERY easily and task done for the day.

 

[tim2000s]

It's all perfectly normal. Blood isn't homogenous so you shouldn't expect even different drops of blood from the same finger to have the same readings. Add to that that you do get variation in the strips and it is perfectly normal.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Take away all the external factors such as contamination and, most likely, meter inaccuracy, and everything else being equal, I assume it is normal to have differing results.
I am talking through the top of my hat here and am probably quite wrong, but our blood flows quickly, so even in the short time between stabs there is completely different blood in the same place, and presumably not all our blood cells will take up glucose simultaneously, so 2 adjacent blood cells will have different amounts of glucose attached to them.
If I have a test that is outside my normal range I do another, and if that is wildly different, another. If 2 are similar, I take the higher. Otherwise, I average all 3.

 

[DeanLJ]

thanks folks, i figured it was probably not out the ordinary.

 

[Lazybones]

Numan43 asked a similar question (Confusing Readings) a few days back which I answered, so I thought I would add it to this current posting - So once again here it is:-

Dear Numan43,
Yes it is a fact but unfortunately it's one that most diabetics aren't aware of or have been told about. The trend in recent years has been to produce meters that use an ever decreasing sample size and any error in testing such small samples is as a consequence greatly magnified.
The first droplet may well have rested there just below the skin's surface and hardly moved and having lost it's surrounding glucose through cell take up will as a consequence give a slightly lower and false reading - For this reason a second droplet will usually prevent this error occurring.
Hope the info is useful to you all. - Best wishes - Lazybones