I just can’t buy a reliable blood sugar test device. One showed my blood sugar as 20, which is impossible - I’d be near a coma if so (I felt perfectly fine) - then also gave error messages most other times. Other machines gave wild readings all over the place, varying from minute to minute.
Anyone have this issue? The blood samples were drawn perfectly fine…maybe these devices just don’t like me? 
Are you washing your hands before you test?
Using strips that are not expired?
Calibrating the meter using control solution?
mmm
If you’re using rubbing alcohol to clean your finger, are you letting it dry completely before you draw the blood?
If your machine requires it, have you coded for the batch of test strips?
Are you vigorously massaging the finger and/or squeezing the blood out to get a big enough drop? If so, stop that. Run your hands under warm water before you test, and give em a shake or two in the downward direction if you must, but don’t massage or squeeze.
Are you using alternate site testing?
Is your glucometer reading in the mg/dl scale, or the mmol/L scale? 360 mg/dl = 20 mmol/L; is 360 a reasonable number for your condition?
Yeah, 20 is high, but not coma-high. For the record, I’ve tested mine as high as 25 (450 in US units). I didn’t feel weird at all at the time. And I’m pretty sure it would get much higher at times, this was when I was first diagnosed and not yet in control.
Do wash your hands before testing; a little bit of juice or other sugar will make a huge difference.
If you do suspect the machine is off, try again on a different finger immediately. If both fingers are around the same (a little bit different is normal), then I’d tend to believe the meter.
“Varying from minute to minute” is normal. I can test the same finger twice in a row and get different readings. Not VASTLY different, but 5% or so is pretty common. Those glucose meters are unfortunately not vastly accurate, but they do seem accurate enough for us diabetics to control our sugars well enough.
Oh and if you’re not talking mmol/L, and 20 is a low, not a high, were your hands wet? I’ve had false lows with wet hands before, definitely. Other than that, like I said above, if you’re getting a number you don’t believe, check a different finger, on the other hand. If they both are in the same range, I’d go with it.
Velocity, what meter are you using?
Been using the One Touch mini for years now with consistent results. They only cost about 20 bucks and insurance pays for the test strips.
By the way, your meter should have come with a check strip, and some calibration solution for testing the accuracy of the system.
Uh, I think someone better go check on Velocity.
Who is closest?
mmm
Moved to IMHO (from MPSIMS) as a medical advice thread.