glucose meter...but what does it tell me

So I have a glucose meter in hand. Test result is 68. What range is good? Bad? Major concern?

When should I test in relation to my meals?

68 is considered low. You want to be between 90-110 for ideal BS.  May consider eating a light snack to get it up a bit. I tested about 2 hours outside of meal time generally two hours after. First thing in the morning when you havent eaten in a while gives you a good fasting level.
 

Make sure that light snack is a carb and protein mix or you could spike up then down again. I usually will have a spoon of peanut butter or a piece of cheese. Anything to sweet just starts a cycle of up and down.

The usual "normal levels"  are 80-120. 

Fasting normals are 70-100 mg/dl
Impaired fasting glucose 100-125 mg/dl
Above 125mg/dl  on more than one fasting glucose is diagnostic of diabetes.

Why are you testing?  For diabetes or reactive hypo?

For diabetics doc's suggest testing up to 4 x day.  Fasting, &  2 hours after meals.

For reactive hypo, I'd check when I feel symptoms.

Pup

testing for RHG.   I definitely have some swings of how i feel throughout the day and wanted to see what the numbers look like.

So far today:
Had a snack (can't remember what it was!) at 2 am because I woke up with a headache that I would basically describe as a hangover, but I had no alcohol....I didn't think to test at this point.  Never really went back to sleep.

5 am tested and got the 63 still have the lingering "hangover"

Tested again at 8 am. Reading 87 between 5 & 8 a.m. only consumed 40 oz of water w/ crystal light, so why the increase from 63 to 87?

Ate at 8 am-spinach & cheese omelet

Tested again at 10 am because starting to feel "off"...reading 73.  Ate a South beach Living Protein Fit Peanut Butter bar at 10 am...not hungry but clearly needed something. Re-tested at 10:30 and am now at 118.

Basically I usually eat every 2.5 hours to keep myself going.  I know that if I go to long, I "crash" .  I went 3.5 hours on Saturday and it got "bad" for me. clearly that is TOO long. So, I decided to test so I would have a better understanding of what goes on in my body. 


 

Tested again at 8 am. Reading 87 between 5 & 8 a.m. only consumed 40 oz of water w/ crystal light, so why the increase from 63 to 87?


Known as the "morning phenomenon"  your liver puts out glucose so you are ready for the day.  It's normal.

I would wait 2 hours after eating to test.  After an episode you should know if your sugars are going up because you feel better.  Usually RH episodes will happen 2-4 hours after a carb/sugar laden meal.

DH had an episode this weekend (he hasn't had surg, is 6'5" & 350# and eats like crap)  DH couldn't figure out why he dropped so bad..... He "only" had 2 lg bowls of Fruity pebbles, 2 "donut stix"  and coffee.

I'd have been sicker than a dog with a small bowl of that!

Pup

68 is low

IF you are trying to figure out if you have RH, then you should test an hour after you eat, and two hours after

Once I got my meter, I didn't want to test it, frankly. I hate to ***** my finger, and found that hubby is worse at it than me.

So I waited until I ate something that made me dump

Then I waited (my plan was two hours) to test my sugar, with nothing to eat or drink in the meantime.

70 minutes later, hubby had finished making dinner early, so I decided to test at 70 minutes so I could eat steak (yummy) 

Even as I got the thing all ready for me to test, my hands started to shake, my heart to race, I began to sweat copiously (and I don't sweat, except when I have RH)... by the time I had tested my blood it was 61

You don't want it below 70, and below 40 can be a medical emergency (some folks say dial 911... personally I will just eat if it gets that low, but if it won't go up, I'll be going to the ER)

100 is a good reading.... and you don't want to test right after you eat because it'll be really high.

that's what I"ve learned, but I'm just a baby at this stuff.