What might affect home blood glucose monitoring?

Reasons you may not be able to do home blood glucose monitoring or why the results may not be helpful include:

• Alcohol in the drop of blood. If you clean your skin with rubbing alcohol, let the area dry completely before sticking it with the lancet.
• Water or soap on your finger.
• Squeezing your fingertip.
• A drop of blood that is either too large or too small.
• Very low (below 40 mg/dL or 2.2 mmol/L) or very high (above 400 mg/dL or 22.2 mmol/L) blood sugar levels.
• Humidity or a wet test strip. Do not store your test strips in the bathroom. When you remove a strip from the bottle, promptly secure the lid back on the bottle to prevent humidity from damaging the unused strips.

Proper care of the blood sugar testing equipment is important to ensure safety and to get accurate results.

• Follow the manufacturer's instructions.
• Do not drop or deliberately bump your meter.
• Do not store your meter in a very hot or very cold place.
• Clean your meter regularly, and change the batteries as instructed.