Hi, I'm new to this forum; and I'm sorry if I post this in the wrong place. I've had Type I Diabetes for about 11 years: wear an insulin pump for about maybe 5 years, have maintained my A1cs between 6 and 6.5, and no complications. This is also my first time, joining an online support forum for those with diabetes. This website seems like a good place to get good support :)
But anyways. Back to the original topic of this post. Not sure if anyone else has done this. But not too long ago, out of curiosity, I wanted to see if there was a difference in BG readings between my right and left hand. I started to feel a bit low after my workout, so doing what I usually do, I checked and got a reading of 126 when doing a fingerstick on the finger of my right hand. Thought this was really weird, because I did actually feel like I was dropping--and I usually have a good sense of when I'm going up or down. Soon after, I re-check on a finger of my left hand, and got a reading of 110.
I'm just wondering... has anyone else noticed this? Not sure if this is normal: maybe I may have to replace my monitor (I did do a recent test on the monitor with the test solution--although the solution has been expired for like 2 or 3 years). I use a One Touch Ping that communicates with my Animas pump. Dunno. If anyone would like to share their input, that would much be appreciated. Thank you! :)
I know that when I am dropping at a fast pace I will feel low even if my sugar is 120. Perhaps, that is what happened to you. That could also be why the second test you did was 10 points lower then the first test?
That could be it. I just thought it'd be weird it would go down that fast in like... 10 seconds, lol. Well, I'll check it again in like 15 minutes to see if maybe that's what it is. I know that, especially during exercise, BG levels go up temporarily, then drop once muscles start getting all that glucose. Thanks for the reply!
This posting asks many good questions. As an old 30 year plus type 2 who has done much caveman fingerprick testing, my experience and results seem to show the following:
a) after some serious exercising all fingers seem to show reasonably close readings within 5 to 10 points.
b) afer sitting resting for a while I usually find all fingers and both hands there is a strong variance.
c) usually I find the best finger on each hand and then I find those two usually pretty close when sitting and resting.I stay away from the slug fingers with high readings and inconsistent readings.
d) the other riot driving one nuts is that glucose is not necesarily fully and evenly mixed throughout your system so that readings vary in timing as the blood coarses by your test point with readings taken at different time delays.
The other problem is to ensure you have cleaned fingers well. Touching and handling a gluocse tablet and then testing blood glucose using meters with smaller samples can really be thrown off by trace amounts of glucose on ones fingers etc.
I have had differing results within a few seconds on different fingers, not sure about different hands.. but I think a 10-20 point difference is not unusual. That is an excepted error. My endo also told me to use the second blood drop but didn't say to wipe away the first one.
Hi AN welcome to TU and thats a great picture. These are all good ideas that others have come up with. I would like to repeat that there is natural variance. The FDA requires meters to have an accuracy of +/- 20% and (if my memory serves me correctly) many meters are around +/- 12% and any meter that is under 10 is a great meter IMO.
126 mg/dl versus 110 has a variance of 12.7%. I would say, unfortunately, this is about what you should expect for meter accuracy. There are some methods or ideas that you can use to increase your chances of getting more accurate data. Control solution tests, new battery (this one helps more than I expected) and using the same meter all the time. The best test you have for your meter's accuracy is comparing it against a laboratory blood test. I have read some diabetics test before and after their blood draw and then compare results.
If you are concerned about accuracy I would buy a new meter. I treat my meters and CGM the same, or they must earn my trust before I believe them. Earlier this week I thew out a One touch ultra mini and got a new one. I just did NOT trust its numbers and thought it was about =/- 30%. I use a few meters for simplicity and this meter lives upstairs in my bathroom. I found myself walking downstairs to test to avoid the meter and finally gave in and got a new one (one touch ultra mini was $16 at walmart).
Thanks Capin101! I was going write essentially the same message. Without getting all nerdy scientific even the lab test has an error range (much smaller than the meters). This is why we should all support the strip accuracy campaign.
The other issue not discussed up till now is that all meters are not the same and some are specific glucose D reading systems with excellent interferor rejection while others are reading all sugars in the blood with poor interfeor rejection. Their stated accuracies DO NOT Take that into account. And to be fully nerdy, readings are affected by hemocratic values in ones blood system and not compensated out in home systems as well as response to water and oxygen.
For many, yes generally most meters/strios read the similar numbers within the stated accuracies, for anybody affected by interferor's, hemocratic issues oxygen content and moisture/water they may see much more serious errors.
It is critical to evalute different meters/strips to see which ones run best on your body. The specifications released on these deadbeats are a disgrace, unhelpful and incomplete!
Yes meters do vary in accuracy from time time. I am a 45 year type one vet. A 110 to 126 is really not a variance to be concerned about, as long as you keep testing to see if you are really dropping, say in another 10 minutes . However a similar 16 pt. spread in two minutes on the same hand ,between 77 and 51 is . These are readings I got 2 days ago from my Long term One Touch Ultra link. This weekend, I am Going to switch to the Bayer contour Link I got last month.
