blood glucose

one of the items on the prep list is to get an average fasting glucose (blood sugar) reading. i've bought an accu-chek compact system and had a trial run yesterday to see how it works and my first real - fasting - reading this morning was 4.6, which is fine for first thing in the morning, according to bupa, the uk diabetes organisation and the nhs. so far so good.

so then i went to compare this to the numbers on the rainoshek's blog only to find they use a different system. doh! 

a quick google later and i now know that in the US they use mg/dl and here in the UK we measure mmol/L. that means the following conversion holds (using the groupings the rainosheks provide)

US to UK blood sugar measurement conversion

US               UK

85                 4.7
85-100         4.7-5.5
100-115        5.5-6.4
126               7

i found the algorithm here and as i've never heard of the site before i checked it out across various sites and the numbers above do  hold up to inspection.

as for taking a measurement, it's really quite easy and it doesn't hurt (phew!) the kit comes with a reader powered by batteries and with some really clear lcd readouts, a 'pen' to prick your skin, a bunch of 'lancelets' which aren't a type of medieval knight but are the little disposable sharps that go in the pen and a set of testing papers. oh, and a lot of instructions. you can set a depth for the sharp and i found i only need a very low setting. you massage your finger a bit and the blood wells up into a juicy red drop. you stick the test paper into the blood and the reader bips to say it's got enough for the test. seconds later you get a readout. easy peasy.