Milking fingers causes low BG readings

I'm glad to hear that other people 'milk' their fingers as well - thanks for that.

I think this is a very difficult subject. The volume of blood I obtain from a lancet stab can vary with ambient temperature. If it is a frosty day my hands are cold and it seems difficult to make any blood come out without some pressure or milking even with the deepest depth lancet setting. Having said that I have occasionally been embarrassed to find that what starts as a very tiny blood sample ends up as a spray which can travel 50cm across a table or splattering a book I have been reading. As others have mentioned, even though the result goes down into decimal places the accuracy is probably at best to the nearest mmol/l . I have been pleased with the Contour test strips system for use with the insulin pump or with the Optium Xceed or Freestyle lite as they seem to use a minute volume of blood and give a reading within 5 seconds.

...and sometimes my fingers are wet , having just washed them prior to pricking..............does that make any difference to the count?

I was doing this on one side of my finger when the site on the other side on same finger (used in the morning) started to give a sample as well - 2 for 1 offer.

XCeed meter can be useful as it requires a smaller sample (and can be topped up within a minute) unlike Xpert which needs larger volume, and if insufficient volume a new strip is required.

Regds, alturn.

I think that if your finger is wet before you get the blood out, the blood sample will be diluted, which could give you a false 'low' reading.