Hi Gina sorry to hear that your having such troubles! I too use the Precision Xtra to monitor ketones, and have sticks too. (but as the above comment says urine shows much later. Medisense has been very good at maintaining their meters and always replaced mine without any troubles but a couple of days shipping. also you can plot your readings on a sheet and see your trouble times when sugars are reacting wrong. tis helps a great deal for a full picture. Now ketones is a liver thing, and ketones only occur if your insulin has not been adequate in the past, also may occur due to alcohol the liver cannot do both at the same time and this is dangerous! I have been to both sides of the world and they say different things about ketones. I say (NOT A Medical ADVIsor) just a thought for you as a diabetic. Why did the ketones occur? forgot to give insulin, drank too much alcohol? wine is alcohol too although based on percentage. Or big difference here is adverse effect from insulin, such as skipped an item for sugar intake that was accounted for when injecting. Or worse yet a rebound effect from too much insulin in the body so called peeking at same time interval, hard to actually see but one could assume, this goes with the effect of too much exercise too and not feeling the drop! Any way my German Endo's said not do not give extra insulin give the correction only at meal time according to sugars and ketone level then. This made sense to me for when you give a correction soon after having eaten your insulin may double it's dose cuz there may be some within you at the time. Again I am not a doctor maybe a diabetic with too much experience, 30 years and still failing too maintain a "good" control. But older diabetes has more complications than they say too. Somethings for you too study for yourself and come to understand you bodies timing for insulin "peeks" when you yourself understands this you are able to anticipate things a bit better not falling too far from our guidelines given to use from "the team" Good night RAD

Most of the reasons you listed for ketones were bad, and they can be. But it should be noted that ketones also represent ketosis, which is a harmless biochemical state in which your body is burning fat for fuel. Those on diets, especially low carb ones may have ketones in their urine.

Thank you for your post...I was trying to find out if a "small" reading on the urine stick meant anything.  I have it all the time.  Also, I'm in a state of denial with my health and stopped taking any insulin...crazy I know.  I'm dealing with a lot of stress right now.  Anyway, thanks for your post...