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Why do I get inconsistent blood sugar readings?

D

DaveEK

Member
As someone who has been diagnosed as LADA it is important that I am able to accurately monitor my blood sugar in order to ascertain when my “honeymoon” period is coming to an end. In other words to understand when my pancreas is beginning to stop producing insulin and I become a T1.

What makes this difficult is that I get inconsistent blood sugar readings.

Each morning, before breakfast, I wash my hands thoroughly, and then decide which finger on which hand I am going to prick! I am happy with any reading below 6. But if I get a high 6, or even a 7 I do a second test on a finger on the other hand. Invariably this gives a lower reading.

Why should this happen?
 
It happens because no meter is 100% accurate. They only have to conform to the current regulations, which is for glucose concentrations above 5.6 they should be accurate to within plus or minus 15%, and for glucose concentrations below 5.6 they should be accurate to within 0.83mmol/l. All this is for 95% of the time. The other 5% can be anything. I know it is not satisfactory, but it is all we have I'm afraid.
 
Welcome to the world of testing where, alas, nothing is 100% accurate as @Bluetit1802 explained.

I have a Libre and use both Abbotts mobile app plus their reader both of which can give different readings from the same device. Plus I sometimes have two other finger prick blood measuring machines all of which can give different readings only seconds apart.

You need to know your meter and yourself and if you take two readings and they are wildly different, like a couple of points then take an average. If the difference is say only half a point I would not worry about it.
 
HI @DaveEK, I have to pinch myself sometimes to remind myself that I am one person not two. It is the machines' fault!
We learn to work with the uncertainties, maintain the protocol such as clean hands, trying to avoid much squeezing of the pricked finger which can end up watering down the blood sample with fluid from the damaged tissue, not having the machine and strip used in too cold or hot surroundings and thank heaven the days of using urine testing (except in rare circumstances maybe for other reasons) are past.
And humour is always good medicine. In the past when finger-prick testing was more of a novelty and finger-prick devices were more like medieval torture devices I would suck the wounded finger. Even back then we were into recycling !!
 
kitedoc said:
the past when finger-prick testing was more of a novelty and finger-prick devices were more like medieval torture devices I would suck the wounded finger.
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Lol, kitedoc, I still do that, but remember to suck the spare blood out of the strip as well!

Used strips end up everywhere , and in your part of the world, if there's too many bloodied strips lying around, the wolverines are gonna find them!
 
DaveEK said:
Why should this happen?
Click to expand...

Dave, there's a variety of reasons:

Inaccuracy of meters; glucose is never evenly distributed in a massively complex plumbing system; one test might have more interstitial fluid than capillary blood in it than the next one; etc. etc.

The main tip I'd give you is that what T1s think about is ranges, not exact numbers. We tend to think about whether our bg is below 4, or generally 4 to 7, or above 8.

When you look at it that way, you can say 5 or 6.5 on the meter is ok, because it is in the 4 to 7 range, and even though there is uncertainty about whether it is 5 or 6.5, you have a reasonable degree of certainty that it is not in the sub-4 range or the hyper above 8 to 10 range.

You're LADA, which means you are already T1, it's just slower onset. I can understand why you are looking for certainty in bg measurement. It doesn't exist. It's enough to get a general indication from bg tests about general ranges. You'll probably end up on insulin: a difference in reading between 5 and 6 wouldn't make a whole lot of difference to my insulin dose decision.

Good luck, and stop sweating decimal points!
 
Scott-C said:
Lol, kitedoc, I still do that, but remember to suck the spare blood out of the strip as well!

Used strips end up everywhere , and in your part of the world, if there's too many bloodied strips lying around, the wolverines are gonna find them!
Click to expand...
No wolverines in Tassie where @kitedoc lives, but they got a nasty critter called a Tassie Devil there that will take a liking to anything with blood on.
 
Scott-C said:
Lol, kitedoc, I still do that, but remember to suck the spare blood out of the strip as well!

Used strips end up everywhere , and in your part of the world, if there's too many bloodied strips lying around, the wolverines are gonna find them!
Click to expand...
Yes, LOLLOLOL @Scott-C, Now that is a worthy idea, diabetics doing a clean-up used test strips week. Anything to stop them getting into rivers and oceans.
Maybe the companies should make them biodegradable and save the bother. The blood could then help in the veggie garden !!
 
Tipetoo said:
No wolverines in Tassie where @kitedoc lives, but they got a nasty critter called a Tassie Devil there that will take a liking to anything with blood on.
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Sorry @Tipetoo, I must have given you the wrong directions ! I am a crow-eater. Yep, the crows would be after me.
@Scott-C, please forgive @Tipetoo. I must have misled him accidentally. I live in Adelaide South Australia where we are called crow-eaters (we Aussies have such nice names for each other, just as well the sun gives us thick skins);););)
One Aussie saying that applies mainly to the noisy bird called a galah here (but could equally apply to crows) is that you put the dead bird in a billy with a stone, fill up with water ( a billy is metal container with a wire handle instead of a handle, for use over a campfire) and boil until the stone is soft. Eat the stone and discard the bird. Apologies to all bird lovers. The birds used to be culled in past days, from whence the saying arose.;););)
 
Many thanks to all who replied. I guess I saw diabetes as a fight I could win, when the reality is (with LADA) that is not going to happen. I now want to lose later rather than sooner.
 
DaveEK said:
Many thanks to all who replied. I guess I saw diabetes as a fight I could win, when the reality is (with LADA) that is not going to happen. I now want to lose later rather than sooner.
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Hi Dave, sorry but I don't agree. You most certainly can win and you have already started the fight back by striving to understand the condition and making sure you have whatever tools you need to manage it. With diabetes, to me, winning is keeping it under control as best you can and living the best life you can in spite of it. x
 
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