Hi. New here....and have a question :)

[2412 Cat]

I've been asked to monitor blood sugars, but I'm a bit confused as to what's 'normal' and what's not. My fasting level this morning was 6.8, two hours after eating it was 6.9. a random test just now recorded 6.3
I'm finding this all very confusing and would appreciate any help/guidance
Thanks, Cat

 

[Leadinglights]

I've been asked to monitor blood sugars, but I'm a bit confused as to what's 'normal' and what's not. My fasting level this morning was 6.8, two hours after eating it was 6.9. a random test just now recorded 6.3
I'm finding this all very confusing and would appreciate any help/guidance
Thanks, Cat

It depends on when you test, pairs of tests are the most useful in seeing if your meals are tolerated, so test before you eat and after 2 hours, and increase of no more than 2-3mmol/l or no more than 8-8.5mmol/l indicates the meal was OK.
Fasting /morning readings and before meals of 4-7mmol/l is the aim.
Random readings other than if done because you feel unwell are not terribly useful.
Looks like breakfast was fine.
Some people find morning readings are higher because the liver tries to be super helpful and releases glucose as soon as somebody sets foot on the floor in getting out of bed and they find it will be lower if they test in bed rather than waiting until they have pottered about.

 

[2412 Cat]

It depends on when you test, pairs of tests are the most useful in seeing if your meals are tolerated, so test before you eat and after 2 hours, and increase of no more than 2-3mmol/l or no more than 8-8.5mmol/l indicates the meal was OK.
Fasting /morning readings and before meals of 4-7mmol/l is the aim.
Random readings other than if done because you feel unwell are not terribly useful.
Looks like breakfast was fine.
Some people find morning readings are higher because the liver tries to be super helpful and releases glucose as soon as somebody sets foot on the floor in getting out of bed and they find it will be lower if they test in bed rather than waiting until they have pottered about.

Thank you! It's not easy to get your head round all of this at once, so I appreciate you taking the time to reply 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I've been asked to monitor blood sugars, but I'm a bit confused as to what's 'normal' and what's not. My fasting level this morning was 6.8, two hours after eating it was 6.9. a random test just now recorded 6.3
I'm finding this all very confusing and would appreciate any help/guidance
Thanks, Cat

It's possibly worth remembering that home glucose meters, despite the decimal point in the results, have an allowable 'margin of error' which means that you can effectively consider numbers a few decimal places apart as being more or less the same. Some members go as far as rounding results to whole numbers.

There's a table in the 'useful links' thread that I'll paste below which shows the allowable variation from any given result - so checking twice in quick succession may seem to give you different results!

BG meter accuracy
It can be quite disconcerting for members new to self monitoring of blood glucose to get different results from BG readings taken close together, even when carefully following manufacturers guidance (washing hands etc). All meters for sale in the UK should comply with the following ISO standards 95% of the time, which allows a degree of variation (and 5% of results can read anything at all). If in any doubt, or if a reading doesn’t match how you are feeling, you should check again with a fresh strip.

 

[Inka]

I've been asked to monitor blood sugars, but I'm a bit confused as to what's 'normal' and what's not. My fasting level this morning was 6.8, two hours after eating it was 6.9. a random test just now recorded 6.3
I'm finding this all very confusing and would appreciate any help/guidance
Thanks, Cat

Those are normal blood sugars @2412 Cat Who asked you to monitor your blood sugars? Have you had a recent HbA1C that was raised? Are there additional things affecting you or concerns about something? Sorry that sounds a bit vague. I’m assuming you maybe got a prediabetes score on an HbA1C test but in those cases it would be unusual to be asked to monitor blood sugars, so I’m really asking for a bit more information about why you were asked - family history, other conditions, strange symptoms, etc etc ?