Blood sugar monitors

[Mortblanc]

I just want to put a caution out there about the quality of the equipment available over the counter.

I am a T2 diabetic and must monitor my blood sugar daily in case my body decides to attack me further.

A large percentage of the populations have this condition both over here and over there. I believe it is about half the population over 60 whether they know they have it or not.

I have been sitting at a relatively stable point for more than a year but my readings would bounce up and down by 20 points as the days passed. Never into the danger zone of organ damage or such, just sometimes too high and sometimes too low.

The monitor warns that there might be as much as a 10% fluctuation in readings but I never really thought about it too much.

The scale we use over here is different than the one you use so I will not give numbers. The difference in scales is a relative thing, like using Imperial or metric.

Today I got an extreme reading and since I already had a drop of blood on the tip of my finger decided to take a second reading to verify the first.

The second reading was 15 points lower than the first reading from the same drop of blood! That was exactly 10% variation due to the machinery used.

Showing 15 points high is a shock but the chances of showing 15 points lower than actual is also a situation to consider.

The real thing is that one does not know if there is a variation or if the variation is on the high side or the low side??

Needless to say I have come to the conclusion that I am not really "monitoring" my blood sugar levels, I am just observing them casually, sort of, with only a minor connection to reality.