Is my meter wonky

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karenlisam

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How quickly can I reading drop . I'm new this but this morning tested 8.1 when I opened my eyes . Four minutes later I tested again and it said 6.4 . Can it drop so rapidly in four minutes or is something awry with the test The meter is a glucomen gm.

I am awaiting my fasting blood test next week to see if I am prediabetic / diabetic after some high morning readings ( lowest 6.4 highest 8.5) on a meter

Post meal readings mostly under 7
Bedtime readings about 6.3 on average
 
Tests can vary, even if taken at the same time, same finger - even same blood drop! They are generally quite accurate, but you do get the odd strip that throws up an unlikely result. They all are supposed to be within plus or minus 10%, for 95% of the time. Perhaps your first reading was on the high side of accurate and your second on the low side?

Once you get more used to testing you learn not to worry too much about the odd variance. I only re-test if the first one was clearly at odds with expectations or how I feel.
 
Until someone with more experience comes along (I no longer test much)... My meter has thrown me the odd rogue figure. I once had a waking level of 1.8, which I didn't believe (I'm not on insulin and had no symptoms). I re-did the test and came out in the high 3s which is still on the low side for me, but much closer to normal. Is there any chance you had a bit of jam on your finger?
 
As Northe says, I tend not to retest unless the reading is really unexpected which does happen occasionally if you get a faulty strip.

When testing, it's important to be sure your fingers are clean, warm and dry before you test. I suspect you may have had something on yours when you tested. LeeLee's jam perhaps, or a little soap.
 
Depends what you were doing in the 4mins 😱 your not related to Roger Bannister are you 😉 (test meters are not perfect)
 
It's surprising what can be done in 4 minutes - not just running a mile 🙂

But, if nothing exceptional happened, then I would trust / interpret the first result, which includes considering impact of contamination on skin eg jam / honey / any sugary food making it higher; skin cleaners and wipes which can send higher or lower; water eg rain, from watercourse, or more rarely in my case, from tap - not that I don't wash my hands, just that I can usually dry them properly after using tap, which doesn't always apply when working / walking / running / canoeing outdoors in rain, puddles, streams, rivers, lakes etc.
 
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