Should I trust my glucometer?

I'm going to try to keep this as simple as possible. Years ago a doctor told me that I was hypoglycemic. Although she never performed any tests, as far as my personal experience went this seemed like a good diagnosis.

Several weeks ago I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and started checking my blood sugar levels. Last week my glucometer fell out of my bag into my car and was in the car overnight in freezing temperatures. When I found it the next morning it didn't work. My mother had told me that cold would kill it, then later denied this and said that I only had to wait for it to warm up. This was two days later (I'd been at work for 50 hours straight with no chance of buying a new one.) and so the machine was warmed up and seemed to be working fine. All week my sugars have been low. Not *very* low, just lower than what I would expect them to be after the few weeks of experience that I have had. For example, last night I had a small baked potato, beans and rice for dinner...I knew these were not the best choices, so I didn't eat a lot...but two hours later my sugar was 85. I really feel like it should have been more than that.

Today, I was unable to check my sugar after breakfast because I was on the road. So, when I got home I had a snack of crackers and cheese and checked two hours later. The first reading I got was 44. This did not seem possible, if it was that low I should at least feel very sick or something. (I did feel a little unwell.) So, I immediately tested twice more to see what readings the machine would give me. The first was 68 and the second was 75. I know that I was very careful to dry the alcohol on the first (44) test, but I was stressed for the next two tests and can't be sure that I did dry the alcohol on those ones.

I then used the control solution to test my machine. The machine tested fine...but it seems to me like range of 103-138 is enormous. Can that really be an accurate test? I called the hotline and spoke to a representative. She had me test the machine again and it came out within the accepted control test range. She said that with readings under 100, a difference of 20 or less is acceptable in readings. She said that I only had a difference of 18 in my readings. Well, I didn't think about it until later, but the difference between 68 and 44 is 24, not 18. I don't understand where she got the 18 at all. So, she may have made a mistake.

I was feeling a little unwell at the time of these tests and eating some toast helped me to feel better. I then had pizza for dinner. I ate enough pizza that my sugar should have been between 100 and 120, but when I checked it was 83. I was also feeling very sick, but I was not thinking that it was because my sugar was low. I really don't think I should feel that sick at 83....anyway, I hate some pretzels and feel much better. I really debated about whether to eat anything at all, I didn't know whether to trust my machine.

Is it possible that my body is suddenly having trouble keeping my sugar up? Maybe it is going high really fast and then my body is flooded with insulin, bringing it down really fast so that when I test two hours later it is low? Do I trust my machine and make choices about eating based on the test results? I am so afraid that the machine is reading low and my sugar is really high and I am hurting my baby. And I can't call my doctor's office until Monday!

Thanks for reading all of this and for any advice you have to offer.