diabetes help

[johncomic]

I usually do my blood glucose monitor around 7:30am, just before I eat -- by which time I've fasted for over 8 hours. Lately my readings are always around 7-point-something or 8-point-something.

This mornin I woke up kinda early and decided to do my monitor at 6am. As it turns out, this represents a 6-hour fast. The reading was 5.7, way better than I've gotten for a long time. But this sudden super-improvement got me curious, so at 7am I took another reading. 7.8!

Now, during that hour I didn't eat a thing, I didn't even drink water. I just checked my email and did some research online. So: no food intake, no strenuous exertion, nothing that should've affected my blood glucose one way or the other. So what the eff made my level climb up over +2 in that hour?!?!

As it happened I was in to see my doctor this mornin and I told her about it. She seemed baffled, same as me. Anyone out there have any idea what's going on here?

Comments

[tinman.livejournal.com]

Weird! I have no idea what would raise it like that. Maybe I'll start checking mine twice in the morning, too, see if mine has the same behavior.

[brandifer.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I'm not going to be a lot of help, friend. My blood glucose readings undulate like a pole dancer; I've never been able to make a rhyme or reason out of them. I went from checking religiously to 'pretty often' to 'more times than not' all the way down to 'almost never'. Oddly enough, the fewer times I checked the better my HbA1C tests were.

So, I take my meds religiously and watch my diet, and listen very carefully to my body - taking a reading when feel anything other than fine - and my h1cs are consistently excellent. My doctor has pounded on me a time or two for not being able to tell him what my numbers have been, but he can't argue with the evidence. :-)

OH OH OH - I almost forgot this! A good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with diabetes and threw herself into testing and recording and whatnot with a vengance. One thing I had read but never verified for myself is that substances ON YOUR SKIN can effect the glucose reading. We actually verified this! She had handled a yogurt cup before she tested and forgot to wash her hands, her test was OFF THE CHARTS. It alarmed the hell out of her, but I told her to wash her hands well and do it again, and sure enough it was right where it was supposed to be. She experimented and was able to repeat the result, so there you go, something else to consider. :-)

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Hey, this hand-cleaning sounds like a useful tip, I'll give it a shot! Thanx!