Variations in Blood Sugar with Monitor

[AlasdairE]

Hello,
I'm using a Glucomen LXplus blood sugar monitor and have done so for the past year.

I had normal blood sugar (~6.4) and was interested in the variation of values which the monitor gave me.
On further testing, after feeling low 10 minutes later, the levels varied from 3.4 to 5.5, over the course of 6 tests.

Is this a sign of needing to have a new monitor or is this a normal thing to happen?

I've only been diagnosed for 2 years so somewhat still getting the grasp of things and any help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Alasdair 🙂

 

[Steff]

Hi alastair a warm welcome to the forum. Some people have been using the same meter for years and years have you seen or heard of any recalls of your particular metre
I know we have to allow minor diacrepincies with our meter m maybe buy yourself another to have it to compare to your current one.

 

[Ljc]

Hi Alasdair , Welcome e. As you were feeling low you probably were low. Which I assume you treated. apologies for asking were your levels going up and down. Quite a few if us have been having problems with our levels the last few days , we think it's down to the hot weather, mines been up and down like a yoyo.

How long were you leaving between tests.

Sorry I don't know anything about your meter, have you done a control solution test . This checks that the meter is working within certain parameters.
If you haven't got any control solution it's available from the maker of your meter.
I hope this helps.

 

[grovesy]

Welcome.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I would imagine this is more down to allowable variation rather than a problem with the meter itself. Home BG monitors are supposed to give results within 15% of lab values 95% of the time.

 

[pottersusan]

Also if you do your blood from two different fingers within seconds of each other, you can get widely differing numbers😱

 

[Ditto]

I think it's a bit scary because if I'm 7.0 I might be much higher yet I'm feeling complacent. I wish they were spot on so we knew what's what darn it.

 

[pav]

I found glucomen c/s to be very good and over the time had had 2 meters fail but not for giving out big differences in there reading, one was replaced as the date kept resetting itself to factory made date and the second very recently for the test strip port being a bit intermittent in recognising a strip was inserted.

Glucomen will be able to send you a control test solution so you can check the meter, what I also find it is handy having two meters, mainly I keep one in the house and carry one with me while out, which they can also act as a cross check with each other if you are not sure.

As I have also changed docs recently and they support a different glucomen meter, and for me it's a better meter that the new docs support and is on the acceptable meter list for cheap test strips. When I phoned glucomen up they supplied me with 2 of the newer meters that my docs support without any problems.