# So My Thermomter Is .5 Degrees Off.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 6, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768 "2005-11-06T06:50:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/1 "2005-11-06T06:50:52Z")
Today [has not been my day.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=343430) In addition to having my dinner spontaneously menstruate, I discovered today that my thermometer is .5 degrees off. I practice FAM. I got suspicious a few days ago when my temps were a little _too_ regular. 10 days post-ovulation and they’ve been 97.6 /97.6/ 97.6/ 97.6 /97.6 /97.6 /97.6 /97.7 /97.7 /97.7. So I got another thermometer out and double-mometered. I was VERY careful that I didn’t grab the one with the postage stamp on the back- 'cause that’s the baby’s buttmometer.\* The results? The one I’ve been using to very carefully and diligently track my basal temp read 97.7. The other read 98.2. Awhile later I ran the test again- 97.7 / 98.5. :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: Today is not my day. \*and whenever we use it we sing the song- you know the one: _“the itsy-bitsy buttmometer climbed up the rectal spout down came the poo and pushed the buttmometer out…”_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/2 "2005-11-06T16:10:56Z")
Methinks her real name is Myrtle 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/3 "2005-11-06T17:29:02Z")
How do you know that the second thermometer isn’t .5 degrees _high_? What difference does it make anyway? Relative change is all that matters, and that’s not going to be different even if the thermometer is twenty degrees off. ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/4 "2005-11-06T17:34:44Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > How do you know that the second thermometer isn’t .5 degrees _high_? > > What difference does it make anyway? Relative change is all that matters, and that’s not going to be different even if the thermometer is twenty degrees off. Well, that’s kind of my point. #1 just gave the same reading, whereas #2 showed multiple tenths of a degree variations. And actually, the temperature itself is of an issue. There’s a threshold you expect to be under at points and over at others. So the value itself is an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/5 "2005-11-06T17:34:47Z")
Oh, I just re-read your post. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/6 "2005-11-06T17:39:42Z")
Thermometers just ain’t what they used to be. I distrust those digital ones, be they oral, rectal, or ear. Just two days ago, I had a diabetic whose blood sugars had recently become rather out of control, after a month of reasonable numbers. Searching for a cause, I took his temperature. 104.3 Holy S\*\*T, he’s septic! But he doesn’t _look_ septic! Recheck. 103.8. Damn! But his forehead is cool! So I take _my_ temperature with the same thermometer. 103.9. Another digital thermometer then reveals his temperature to be 96.9. **I miss my mercury thermometers!** At least we’re not pregnant or menstruating. Or trying to figure out when we’re fertile. ---
**Author:** ![lorinada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5e925/32.png) [@lorinada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorinada)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/7 "2005-11-06T18:14:53Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Thermometers just ain’t what they used to be. I distrust those digital ones, be they oral, rectal, or ear. > > Just two days ago, I had a diabetic whose blood sugars had recently become rather out of control, after a month of reasonable numbers. Searching for a cause, I took his temperature. > > 104.3 > > Holy S\*\*T, he’s septic! But he doesn’t _look_ septic! Recheck. 103.8. Damn! > > But his forehead is cool! So I take _my_ temperature with the same thermometer. 103.9. > > Another digital thermometer then reveals his temperature to be 96.9. > > **I miss my mercury thermometers!** > > At least we’re not pregnant or menstruating. Or trying to figure out when we’re fertile. I was admitted due to an ER temp of 101° (and sorta high BGs) despite the fact that I kept telling everyone that I was fine, had not been running any fevers, that my cough was due to my asthma, not any respiratory infection. Even relatively low fevers make me quite ill, so if I had been running 101° I would have been in the bed, not out running around with my family all day. By the time I got on the floor my fever had disappeared? It went from 101° to normal in a matter of an hour? Not likely. Put on IV antibiotics despite a clear CXR and a now normal temp and a slight cough that always exists and probably always will until they can cure asthma. Finally had to leave AMA because no one but me seemed to be willing to concede that the digital ER thermometer was broken. Heck, I was just there because I thought my meter was broken and wanted to make sure my BGs weren’t really as high as they were reading. Admitted because of a broken thermometer! Walked out because I was the only one with the sense to realize it was the thermometer that was broken, not me! ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/8 "2005-11-06T18:19:32Z")
**lorinada** , your experience confirms what the most important thing I’ve learned in over 2 decades of practice really is in medicine: Look at your patient and listen to them. A good doc can get a lot of useful information from that. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/9 "2005-11-06T19:01:43Z")
The big question becomes - FAM for contraception or FAM for conception? ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/10 "2005-11-06T19:26:09Z")
> [@LaurAnge](#): > > The big question becomes - FAM for contraception or FAM for conception? That now certainly is the question indeed. ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/11 "2005-11-06T19:27:49Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Thermometers just ain’t what they used to be. I distrust those digital ones, be they oral, rectal, or ear. > > **I miss my mercury thermometers!** > > At least we’re not pregnant or menstruating. Or trying to figure out when we’re fertile. I wonder if there’s a black market for mercury thermomters. Or if they can be ordered from other countries. At least you never had to worry about the mercury being off. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-thermomter-is-5-degrees-off/329768/12 "2005-11-07T04:07:46Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > **I miss my mercury thermometers!** Most (younger) people these days wouldn’t know how to read them, or would wonder where the red line went if they do understand the non-digital version. (Seriously, I have a friend who didn’t realize what the silver line meant in an old thermometer. She kept insisting that it was broken since the “red stuff” was obviously “gone.”)