Friday, January 7, 2011

Blood glucose meters

ARGH!!!! So since I am scared s-less of the big GDM diagnosis and the implications on how care free my pregnancy will be, I have been monitoring my sugars with a home meter. Today I decided to research the "accuracy" of home monitors.

And argh! This is one article I found...

The part that makes me want to kick my old NJ OB and PITA Nurse is this paragraph...
bG (blood glucose) meters are not as accurate as the readings you get from
them imply. For example, you might think that 108 means 108 mg/dl, not 107 or
109. But in fact all meters made for home use have at least a 10-15% error
under ideal conditions. Thus you should interpret "108" as "probably between
100 and 120". (Similar considerations apply if you measure in units of
mmol/L.) This is a random error and will not be consistent from one
determination to the next. You cannot expect to get exactly the same reading
from two checks done one after the other, nor from two meters using the same
blood sample.


WTF!!!! That makes a big difference in how pain in the arse nurses deal with your 2 hour post prandial numbers. If I was "under 120" they were happy. But if the number was 122 or 125 they would go ape... Based on this article, and what I know about accuracy, the stress they put me under was more than the capability of the monitor!

So that makes me question on the big deal of monitoring during pregnancy? I mean maybe if your post prandial numbers are like 200... But honestly if you do not have a big problem, monitoring may cause more stress than be beneficial!

UGH.

No comments:

Post a Comment