This morning I went to calibrate my Dexcom so I had to do the 2 finger sticks. I took each finger stick from a different finger and ended up with completely different results. The first one gave me 119 (not bad!). Then the second one gave me 219 (wtf?!). So then I thought something must be up and took a 3rd stick and got 169.
Anyone else have something like this happen or know what could cause this? I know it’s normal to see some variance, but I don’t usually see that much.
If it was me, I would discard all readings. Wash hands. Change lancet.
Try again different finger from the one hand and then different finger (new lancet) from the other hand.
I could try changing out my lancet, but I haven’t seen that do anything like this in the past. My hands were clean to start though. This was just after taking my morning shower.
Understood. Just saying this is what I would do as a reasonable first step.
If you are more comfortable with a different approach you could try a different meter for the new set of fingersticks and use strips from a different, unopened and unexpired container.
In terms of the lancet, I always use new lancets for both of the initial Dexcom calibrations. No reason not to. Not like I am going to run out of them anytime soon. If nothing else, it is simply one less thing to consider if there are any problems or questions.
You could also try a different vial of test strips, especially if yours might have been exposed to extreme heat or such (left in the car).
If you are doing everything you are supposed to do, clean hands, dry hands, etc., that sounds like a bad meter or bad strips.
I swapped out for a clean lancet and retested a couple of times and now I’m getting pretty consistent readings. I find that a bit odd though as I wouldn’t expect the lancet to make much difference and I only change them out about weekly because I’m a cheapass.
It is not the lancet.
I wouldn’t think the lancet would affect the reading either. I’m going to calibrate against another meter tonight after I get home from work to see how they align, but right now I don’t have any other options.
No downside to a new lancet. I like to remove as much as possible from the equation when dealing with a problem. Potentially your fingertip might even appreciate the fresh lancet !!!
Lancet was a good place to start glad it helped, Note that I have found sugar CAN be used as a preservative in soaps and lotions - thought it was the shower raising my BS …then someone suggested I research and read the labels of the products I was using. My shampoo actually had sugar as did my soap…too funny…
The only problem with it is when you have randomly bad meter readings, and you do something like change a lancet and you see a different result, people have a tendency to assign a cause/effect to it.
So if they make a change that does not fix the issue - and they see a different result - they will think they have solved the problem. And that can make it worse.
Bottom line, if you are using proper testing techniques, and you see inconsistent results, such as big differences between readings that are minutes apart, you need a better meter/strips. Otherwise you will be chasing ghosts.
I would let it sit for 30 minutes and try it again, with a new lancet, and after thoroughly washing and drying my hands. I always test on the same finger on different hands. Sometimes I see as much as a 30 point swing, but in answer to your question yes I have had a wild gap between sticks. I always wait it out
In a situation like this, I like to verify that my meter and strips are OK first. I would start with a LARGE drop of blood, perhaps from two or more finger sticks. I would then mix them together for uniformity. I use a kitchen spoon as a convenient sample preparation vessel. Next, I would take two or more tests from the same meter in rapid succession. If I had another brand of meter, I would also take a test with that. It’s important to do this fairly quickly so the blood doesn’t start to dry up.
Such a test eliminates variables such as lancets, different fingers, different degrees of cleanliness of fingers, etc. These multiple readings should be fairly close together unless the meter or strips are bad. I would continue this type of testing until I was sure I had a repeatable meter and strips.
I know different fingers can give different results, but the range you describe seems far too much. But if you do the tests I describe, at least you would know they are real.
For me, it is almost always having something on my hands. I end each meal eating fruit, so if I forget to wash my hands, I’ve just wasted a strip and my time.
Do you wear a pump? I have had this happen. It turned out that my pump inset was slightly bent and providing erratic dosage amounts. I changed insets and problem solved.
Hate to say it, but it’s those darn “sugar fairies”! Came across this term in The Diabetes Burnout book. Sometimes the blood sugars just don’t make sense. That is diabetes. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense or play fair. So I just shrug it off and try again. And everyone’s suggestions are good places to start but realize that sometimes it just is. And if you are one of those who like everything to make sense, it could be very, eye hard for you. I use to be a perfectionist but realized this disease could drive me nuts, so big deep breath, try and trouble shoot and move on.
And side note to lancets. Really don’t know if that might a problem but if you don’t change it often, who knows what might be on it. And if you look at some of the pictures on line about needles that are reused and what they look like, pretty scary! And no I don’t change every time but I have made progress in that, by doing it every 3 days, when I change my pump site.
We use the Accu-Chek FastClix lancet. It takes a drum which contains six individual lancets. A box of drums is dirt cheap. Especially with a CGM and reduced number of times doing a fingerstick, no reason not to use a fresh lancet for every fingerstick. The drum also means no exposed sharps so after the drum is used, it is simply dropped in the trash with no special handling required.
The problem I had with that one is if you accidentally turn past the last lancet in the drum, you can’t recover from it. It’s done. If you are not at home, you are screwed. I had to use a staple from a stapler.
Made that mistake once, and then threw the lancing device away.
Eddie, that might have been a previous model. (We did have an older model but I would have to dig it out to see how it worked). For sure, with the current model once you hit the last lancet in the drum, you can not click past it. The button to click into the new lancet will not push all the way over. It just stops. So that is not an issue - perhaps something that was rectified in a product revision?
Plus we carry two spare drums in the meter case.