I’m new to these forums and relatively new T1 diagnosed 4+ years ago. I’ve never experienced truly high and low swings like I did today and it might be my meter.
I woke up high at 172 after pump inset failed - (hate these) at 5:48am. Swigged down coffee w/milk, bolused and corrected for a total of 1.7 units then went for a walk, moderate speed. Check my BG with meter at 6:06am it was 203. Makes sense since I had milk. Kept walking then 12 minutes later at 6:18am I was 106. That looked odd so I rechecked at 6:19am and was 78!!! I figured I was heading south fast so ate 4 glucose tablets and sat down. Rechecked 6 minutes later and was 125. Ok so tablets working so continued to walk. Checked again at 6:34 am and was 140 thought I would be good but checked again at 7am and was 202. Thought it was wrong so washed/dried hands again and got a reading of 94 at 7:04am - just 4 minutes later. This kept going on all day!
if anyone can relate or have a notion on why there was such huge swings minutes apart I’d appreciate a comment.
recap of readins
5:48 am 172
6:06 am 203
6:18 am 106
6:19 am 78
6:25 am 125
6:34 am 140
7 am 202
7:04 am 94
From 202 to 94 in 4 minutes does seem extreme. Is it possible that your finger was contaminated from handling the glucose tab.
Hi there,
You are going through a tough time. I can empathise. Everyone with T1 has different experiences and at times there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to our blood sugar readings.
It appears your glucometer may be inaccurate/faulty. Suggest you obtain another glucometer and cross check the readings. How old is your meter?
Sounds like either your hands were contaminated or your meter is malfunctioning. It looks like until 6:30 am your readings were making sense but that 202 down to 94 was wacky. Do you have a backup meter to cross check readings?
good point, I usually wash my hands but perhaps not as thoroughly as necessary thanks for reply
I ever imagined my glucometer could be faulty. I need to try a new one
thank you
I do have a backup meter - good idea thank you
I don’t think any of those swings are huge or really wild.
But they are erratic enough over a short enough time scale that I believe some of the +/-50 swings are not real but are just bg measurement problem.
It does seem possible that between 7AM and 7:04AM that you might have had some powder from the glucose tablets on your fingers that you washed off.
Every so often I take my “main bg meters” (I always have at least two) and make some measurements within a minute of each other with different fingers and make sure that they all line up +/-10 or +/-20 or so. Often they line up +/-3 with each other but not always.
I’ve never had meter readings like that before. Goofy business. Meters might be expected to have 20% variance. 100 points difference between 2 readings is abnormal. Normally I would ask you to wash your hands incase they were contaminated with sugar, but that is way too many goofy readings in a row. Could be bad strips, or it could be a bad meter. Can you calibrate the meter?
I received a recall notice yesterday from my pharmacy about faulty Accu-Check Aviva test strips. Do you use this meter? The recall only applied to certain lot numbers. I’ve been using Accu-Chek strips for a long time and find them dependable.
Did they tell you what lot numbers? I have been using those for years and find them reliable.
A major mistake the medical profession makes with type 1 diabetes is to understand the disease all the time in terms of its presenting symptom, which is high blood sugar. But endocrinologists encounter those patients only very rarely, since most of their diabetic patients are established cases already treated with insulin, and these patients don’t have a disease which is primarily high blood sugar, but one whose main feature is unstable blood sugar. This is the problem they (and we) have to deal with.
Changed my strips and my meter now getting better readings. I have 3 meters- 2 new plus the one I’ve been using. They all have similar numbers with the new strips. It never occurred to me that the strips could be faulty! thanks everyone
Were you using any of the strips that were recalled? What brand were you using?
No I use One Touch and silly me I add strips to the same container not keeping the lots separate.