How important

[s4par]

is it that you always wash your hands before testing you BG levels? i tested mine twice in a two minute time and it was 143 the first time and 155 the second. BTW, I am using a accu chek active, which I heard is pretty reliable.

[HeatherP]

You SHOULD clean your skin before testing, but not doing so is not likely to cause an infection or something. The biggest risk you're taking is that if there's something on your skin that could influence the sugar reading. I've had to do it in a pinch a few times and I feel that my meter readings were accurate on those occasions.

You can try to carry around some of that sterilizing solution with you. It comes in very handy!

[Pelp]

Hi! I confess that I don't always wash my hands before I test, and luckily I've never had a problem.

I do have an interesting story to share though. My nine year old daughter is non-diabetic, but every now and then I get paranoid and test her. I did so one day about an hour after she'd eaten a pretty high carb lunch. I forgot to have her wash her hands. Her result was 177! :eek: After I stopped hyperventilating, I calmly asked her to wash her hands and told her that we needed to re-test. Our new result was 110. :) Talk about major relief! Heaven knows what she had on her hands. Anyway, that was the perfect example for me about why hand washing is especially important, particularly if you get a reading that doesn't seem quite right.

Lees

[David]

I agree with Heather and Pelp. You should try to wash (and rinse) your hands, especially if you haven't washed them in a while or have been handling things. Washing (and rinsing) is better then an alcohol wipe too since wipes don't have flowing liquid to carry away sugar residue. I've also learned that inaccurate readings from sugar residue depends on how sensitive your particular meter is to other sugars besides glucose.
My recent experience:
I was recently grilling chickens and had just drenched them with sauce. I then checked my BGL. Result was over 500. Yikes!, how'd that happen and I feel fine. I then noticed my fingers felt a little sticky, so I washed then with soap, water, rinsed and checked again. Result: 154 This was with a CoZmonitor, which I like otherwise and will continue to use, but I will keep this in mind. I previously was using the One Touch Ultra, which didn't seem to be so sensitive to sticky fingers, at least not to that degree.
David

[s4par]

thanks for the replies :o

[KrisinNM]

This was with a CoZmonitor, which I like otherwise and will continue to use, but I will keep this in mind. I previously was using the One Touch Ultra, which didn't seem to be so sensitive to sticky fingers, at least not to that degree.
I agree that the CoZmonitor is much more sensitive than any other meters I have used.

[Dewey]

I agree that the CoZmonitor is much more sensitive than any other meters I have used.
I also agree that it's more sensitive. I usually try to wash my hands prior to testing, too, but sometimes don't or can't. That could be why I experienced those differences with my Cozmonitor when I checked two times in a row and got very different readings. (One was over 200, the other was in the 100's). Thanks, good thread! :thumbsup: