At what point in your diabetic journey, did you feel in control?

And maintaining A1cs of 5-5.2! Since you haven't taken the bait on my suggestions to write a little something up, I'll just ask the question more directly: what does a typical day look like for you? Food? Insulin? Activity? Strategies? Doctors treat my 5.8 or so A1cs as though I were a unicorn, I love how on here, folks stress about having A1cs like that!

I don't have anything to write up because my tactical solutions are different every day. Some days I redline basal and some days I overbolus because I think my BG will fly up unexplainedly. And, if it doesn't I back off on the throttle and set my basal at 7%, since 7 is lucky. But it really is different every day and there's no way I could explain it.

diabetes ignoramus, lol!

I have never felt in control really to be honest.. I do my best but it has been a whirlwind from years of not feeling well and sometimes being made to feel that I was crazy, to more and more symptoms to dka/hospitalization and now to finally trying a pump to get better results. I like Jen's term of managing rather than control.. I'm just starting to really dislike that word for some reason.

I get more accurate information right on this site. I don't take any information from any diabetic "professional" without researching it thoroughly ---- learned over the years that they get 1 pt for schooling, and the rest comes from acutal experience....the only one that has that is my CDE, I live in a very rural area where medical people are in high demand, and are very low in numbers, so I do have to travel to get to anyone who really indeed does know something. So I rely a lot on info here and on my own knowledge and experience. She is at the bottom of my list as far as professionals, If she didn't have to be present for my ins to pay for the visit, she wouldn't be invited at all,

I guess I use "control" in the same way I would use "managing". I manage things on a daily basis, with eating, medications, insulin and exercise. There are days I do better and days I do worse, but all in all, my 3 month A1C's are in the "great" range meaning 5.8 - 6.8. I am happy with that and satisfied that I am managing my diabetes as best I can. That's being "in control" instead of the disease being "in control" for me,

Simple answer: NEVER.

I've repeated my story many times here, so I'll give the short version. Even though I knew a fair amount about diabetes and utilized insulin pumps, CGMs, and liberal fingersticking, I didn't make a breakthrough to reasonable control until two and one half years ago.

At that time I adopted a "lower carb diet," daily exercise, and regular participation here. I dropped my A1c, cut my total daily dose of insulin in half, and drastically reduced my BG variability. Since then I've felt a degree of control, 28 years into my 31 years with diabetes. It's not the control that gluco-normals feel but it is a tangible comfort to me.

I would disagree with the assertion that 30G of carb meals “aren’t enough to keep your body alive”. When I first joined, I got into it with a former member on some thread and decided to try a week of really low carbs (for me anyway), like 30-50/ day. It was also the first week I ran > 30 miles, capped off with a 7 miler in 7 degrees (January 2010) and I felt fine running. I was off work so it was a slacker week but I just modified stuff to cut carbs and was fine. I eat way more than that these days but I think that’s a reasonable approach of you can do it. If you eat a lot of protein, it can be pretty manageable…

Terry, how many carbs a day generally do you eat? Target?

You make it sound way too seat of the pants for someone who reports a 5-5.2 A1c. You must be acutely aware of when to redline, and when to overbolus, and when not. I have a hard time getting my mind around the idea that you have wildly unpredictable BGs, you don't eat a low-carb diet, and you somehow maintain a wholly non-diabetic A1c. Translation: I'm having that feeling when a unicorn meets an iridescent rainbow unicorn and he's like, whoa, you exist?

Well, seat of the pants seems like a way more reasonable approach to me than having a "this is my plan" approach because we have so many options to treat things with and every day you might try a different approach. I've found that tactical flexibility leads to strategic success. Some days, I might overbolus by 5-10 carbs at breakfast, like if its Fruit Loops or something. Another day, I might just nudge my basal. Or, if the over basal makes me crash out, I might kill the basal, I use 7% since 7 is a lucky number. I know some other folks here (Sportster, Clare) who reported that when they started aiming at "normal" numbers they found they could achieve them and that it was kind of less work than aiming for 140 post-parandial and then "chasing the dragon" all the time. Of course, I'm not a doctor and am acidrock23 so, well, I wouldn't take any medical advice from me but diabetes seems to be characterized as a disease of defeat.

I think this is because goals of 140 PP suck. I hit 140+ all the time, but that's not my GOAL. That leads to PP 200 is "ok" and fasting of 120 is "pretty good".

If you haven't hit those levels with diabetes and hit them for the first time, they are great achievements and you are kicking some ■■■. But, if you keep pushing to do better, you are human and you may very well find that you can do...better. Then one better leads to another and soon, you are doing better and might approach a level of "normal". Doctors and the medical industry will express concern at this but, if you're not passing out all the time and keep an eye on things (ok, I cheat with a CGM...), you can do it. If you can't do it right away, keep testing and practicing and you'll get better. Doctors and the sort of diabetes mind set don't seem oriented to kicking ■■■. I'm a totally weird person and was heavily involved in a really intense martial arts program, my A1C went up and I decided to try a pump to see if it might help. It kicked ■■■ and helped me get my BG to where I feel like I'm in the driver's seat. Occasionally I slack off and go "oops..." and then get back at it. I'm not a unicorn but maybe I'm more into seeing what I can do and, at least so far (*knock on wood*), I'm doing it.

I know what you mean, I don't mean to be critical of your using that term... I feel we can do the best we can but we are never going to remove the impact and the amount of time D takes from our lives, if you want to do intensive control, unless you are super lucky and stay flat all the time and don't have problems with a lot of foods. For me it is essential because I literally can't function after a certain amount of time at too high a level, my brain just doesn't work and I can be a danger just like if I'm too low. I wonder why doctors never address that fact. And then there is the managing of everything, not just bg, but doctors, cdes, trainers, insurance plans.. it takes a huge amount of time and it's very exhausting.

I aim for 30 at meals and 15 at snacks. I can stay at that point with out much trouble, I feel good and have enough energy to do what I do during the day, Having had tests on kidneys, liver and pancreas....this number is about right for me