A diabetic's blood glucose meter, or blood sugar monitor, is one of their most important tools. A blood glucose meter lets you know how high or low your blood sugar is, giving you the information you need to keep it within the normal range. If your blood sugar monitor fails to give accurate results, you could endanger your health by taking insulin at the wrong time or trying to raise your blood sugar too much.

Testing Your Meter for Inaccuracy

If you ever suspect your blood sugar monitor isn't working properly, test your meter by checking your blood sugar two or three times in a row. If the results differ significantly from each other, your blood sugar meter may have a problem.

When you realize you may have inaccurate results, the first thing you should do is check your meter's battery. Your blood glucose meter's battery needs to be replaced regularly, and a dying battery could lead to bad readings. After putting in a new battery, try testing your blood sugar again. If the results are still inaccurate, contact the manufacturer for advice on repairing or replacing your blood monitor. In the meantime, use your backup blood monitor to check your glucose levels or purchase a temporary replacement.

Minimizing Blood Reading Errors in Day-to-Day Usage

Even if your blood glucose meter is working perfectly, it's still possible to experience errors. In these cases, problems are mainly due to user mistakes or problems with supplies.

Here are some simple ways you can minimize inaccurate blood readings:

• Protect Blood Strips: Blood glucose test strips are coated with chemicals that are easily damaged by heat, cold, or moisture. If you store blood strips anywhere but a room temperature environment, you risk damaging their ability to properly measure glucose levels. In addition, every package of blood test strips has an expiration date that must be observed. Attempting to use expired test strips can result in highly inaccurate readings.
• Sanitize Your Hands: Before handling test strips or drawing blood, sanitize your hands with soap or an alcohol swab. Dirty hands can cause problems with readings, and also makes your diabetic supplies less hygienic.
• Don't Try to 'Fix' Bad Readings: If a test strip fails to work the first time, people sometimes attempt to use it again. However, recycling or putting extra blood on a test strip will only cause inaccurate readings. Taking test strips out and putting them back into the monitor will likewise result in poor data. If your reading doesn't work right the first time, destroy your test strip and start to process from scratch.

By taking good care of your diabetic supplies and regularly checking for problems, you'll be able to keep glucose reading inaccuracies to a minimum. That means you'll be able to have confidence in your meter's results, and will be able to use your diabetic medical supplies with confidence. Managing diabetic supplies isn't always fun, but the peace of mind well-maintained diabetes supplies provide is always worth the effort.