First time for this one

[coochiemia]

I've only been dx since July of this year so I'm still learning, but this morning really confused me. I took my fasting bg and it said 160. Has never been that high first thing in the morning.

My hubby, who is also type 2, dx six months before me, told me to check again in the other hand. I did and it read 110.

Is this a common thing, should I always re-check when I get a reading I don't like?

[princesslinda]

If I get an unexpected reading, i'll always recheck...you never know what might be on your hands...or you could have a bad strip.

[georgepds]

Hi

What Linda said, but also the readings are ~20% acuracy

160+/32
110+/-21

The 50 point differrence you saw was at the limit of the accuracy range (top end for 110 , bottom end for 160) .

With this kind of variance it's difficult to believe the meter. What I did to restore confidence in the meter is ask to read someone who does not have diabetes (my wife) Invariably the reading is below 100

[Scratch]

Something on the hands, or it's also even worth pointing this out:

The meters can have up to +/-20% variation from the actual glucose level. A reading of 110 might have an actual value of somewhere between 88 and 132. A reading of 160 could be a blood sugar between 128 and 192.

There is a small overlap between the upper end of the range for the 110 reading and the bottom end of the 160.

[Trinifar]

I was told by my DE that, while the meters might have 20% variance from actual BG level, a given meter will perform consistently from reading to reading. That is, if your meter is 15% high, it will always be 15% high. Makes sense to me in that if you could get 20% high one time and then 20% low the next it would be hard to make any reasonable use of the results.

Anyone have more info? This is an important topic for me.

[mho357]

I've gotten different readings from different fingers.

I don't think one should worry too much about a single reading that seems out of the ordinary. I agree with princesslinda, I would wash my hands and retest.

Mark

[shockme]

not just food residue can raise it-some lotions and soaps can too....trish