Little Help - Can Anemia Mess Up Diabetes Blood Glucose Readings?

from working at all? Does it make the meter throw off used strips like beads from a Mardi Gras float with nothing to show but error messages?

We use WaveSense Jazz meters at school. Over the past few weeks our school nurse reports increasing instances of meter errors. As in it takes 2-4-6 up to 10 strips to get a reading. This is an experienced nurse and kid with 6+ years since type 1 diagnosis. They have literally thousands of blood test between them. They know the ropes of finger pokes.

The kid had lingering cold. That with exposure to whopping cough led to a doctor visit.  The visit in turn called for a blood draw that showed nothing but low iron. Which in turn led to a more detailed blood test that isn’t back yet.

Meanwhile the nurse is getting a more and more checks that just fail to give a reading. 2-4-6-8-what don't we appreciate? Using boat loads of strips to get a single Meter Readings! Yeah BG!!

Oh and some consistency between readings would be cool too. Three days ago after a bunch of errors the nurse got a BG reading of 22. That seemed suspicious given the circumstances (a word that hear means: a lack of hypo symptoms factored in with prior tests that day, the amount of insulin on board and time since eating.) So being familiar with such circumstances, they tested again. Three minutes and another bunch of strip later the low transformed into a 308. I don’t think anyone wants to confuse a 22 and a 308. Certainly not our nurse. She is tip top.

She called and sensibly but timidly asked for another meter. I love her. No worries I could swap out one from home with fresh strips in minutes. Guess what? - That replacement had the same issues and more the next day.

Could this explains some of the resistance to checking we are seeing at home? Gee I don't know - finger pokes are not that much fun to begin with so yeah maybe having them not work could be frustrating.

So I dragged a Tru2Go ninja meter up to school today when they called (3rd day in a row!). Would a different blood electrochemical process make any difference? Yes - No problems giving a reading, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Now I for one don’t think a kid should have to poke her finger 5-10 times to get a reading. Also all in all I would prefer not to burn through strips at a rate of 2 to 8 errors for each reading. And lastly and I know this is being really picky of me I would prefer not to see 280 point swings between hypo and hyper in three minutes.

I asked the 800 number if they were aware of any issues. The operator at the call center was sure it is temperature. I know the environment well so I know it isn't about temperature. I called WaveSense directly, they said they 'wanted to support' me in the use of their product but little else.  Nothing about low iron and strip issues. 

I can find academic articles on the subject: Error Rates Resulting From Anemia can be Corrected in Multiple Commonly Used Point-of-Care Glucometers and Anemia causes hypoglycemia in intensive care unit patients due to error in single-channel glucometers: Methods of reducing patient risk.  I guess is a very scholarly, Yes - anemia can mess up numbers. But it isn’t much more helpful than my opening Doh!  

How about any of you out there in the big wild blue yonder of the DOC? Does anyone have experience with low iron and meter errors? If so what did you do about it? (Other than cursing - Kerri says we can’t curse. I may have forgotten that.)