3 Meters - 3 Wildly Different Results = Being Very Confused??

I started out with a True Result, but my pharmacy was out of the strips, so I got a TrueResult Lite I think it is called. They were within 20 points of each other - meaning one read 140 and the other 160! But I kept using both until I ran out of the sample strips that came with the True Result. Sometimes they were close, mostly not.

When I went to get more strips for the second one, I found I could buy much cheaper strips if I switched to Walmart's Relion. So I did. And tested against the True Result Lite until I ran out of those strips.

The Relion is constantly WAY higher. If the TR read 160, the Relion read 204! If the TR reads 100, the Relion reads 130 or 140.

Now I've run out of the TR, and just using the Relion. And every day my reading is way high. I'm not sure what else I can do - I've given up virtually all white carbs, severely restricted my diet, take two Metformin a day...with the other meters I felt I was getting things under control and average was under 120 for the day. Now it's way high and I'm discouraged.

Sorry for writing a book! Any ideas? I'm about 45 days out from initial diagnosis...

Welcome to the Forum, hshobx. I've been using a meter for about 7 years and I've always had results swinging high and low it seems. I had four Bayer Contours and some years ago would sometimes use all four when I tested my blood sugar and I'd get four different readings. Meters are allowed an error range of up to 20%, so you can see how it's possible to have such different results.

If you're on metformin, then has your doctor also prescribed a meter? The Walmart ReliOn tested out quite well on the last Consumer Report list.

Giving up bread and any flour products as well as potatoes and rice (not to mention sugar!) should help lower your blood sugar especially if you also have some regular exercise. The metformin helps your body metabolize any other carbs in the diet.

As far as the sweaty and tired feelings, I'm not sure. Sometimes when our blood sugar is really different from what it's been in the past, it may take some time for the body to adjust. A person who was used to living with high blood sugar may feel 'off' when his blood sugar comes down to normal but after awhile, those odd feelings will pass.

Here's a website that has lots of good information:  http://www.bloodsugar101.com/.   And here is a link to the post with the latest Consumers Reports article on blood sugar meters:  https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=20&m=2527437.

WalMart also sells a ReliOn A1c test kit for about $9.  You put some drops of blood on a special card (Follow their instructions.) and mail it to a lab in their postage paid envelope.  A few days later you can retrieve your results online.  I've done this in between the tests at my doctor's office.

Try not to stress out about what the meters are coming up with.  You can only do the best you can with the diet and taking the metformin.  about the walking, so you're a lazy slug?     Well, that's easy to be in the weather we've got where I live.  Cold and wintry.  If you can't walk outside, then walk inside.  Put the TV on and march for about half an hour.  Or, march for 10 minutes, then do some little exercises, then 10 more minutes of marching.  Lifting weight is also helpful.

 

Yes, there have been several articles about sitting for long periods of time and what it does to the body.  It's scary.  I put our [stupid] laptop on the kitchen counter and can use it there but our PC (which I'm using now) is on a desk so I'm sitting now. 

I don't have a Wii but it looks interesting!  Whatever gets us going is worth it! 

I wish I knew all this years ago instead of later in life, but better later than never, I guess.

It looks like your A1c is coming down and that's great.     This and blood sugar are affected by diet, activity, medication, stress and illness.  Being stressed out can raise our blood sugar and being sick can also do this.  Read the stickies at the top of our Diabetes Forum for more information, too.

A book I highly recommend is Diabetes Solution by Richard Bernstein, MD.  This book is very informative about the disease, food, medication, exercise and so on.  It may have more information than we actually need but I can honestly say it changed my life. 

I thought A1C was only a 6 week average and had to be done in a lab, didn't know they had home kits

2 tests in each kit for about $30, Lanie. And you get the results in 5 minutes. You have to be careful, follow the instructions (there's a video online) but it's marketed as "lab accurate" ... That's the one I used the other day. It was not hard.

I get three a year from my doctor's office and they're covered by insurance. I like to take a couple on my own (I use the WalMart brand.) just for my own knowledge.