I'm not sure how to start this, so I'll just jump right in. I was diagnosed with diabetes in late Oct 2013, when I received a form letter from my primary doctor about a routine BG result of 127. I had told her before she requested the test that I had eaten breakfast, but that information was not listed on the lab report, and she forgot/didn't check, so technically, my original diagnosis was faulty. However, my A1C was 6.8, so there was some cause for concern.
Once I got the letter but before the follow-up appt, I got a machine & test strips & ran a week's worth of tests following the protocol described here.
My home tests showed that I do have some glucose tolerance impairment, mainly Dawn Phenomenon (fasting glucose over 120 but post-prandial under 140). I already tended to eat a diverse & nutritious selection of foods, but I started being much more aware & careful about glycemic impact. I also added 10-15 min of moderate exercise after each meal (since that has been show to help prevent BG spikes). I've worked for years on psychological issues regarding overeating/restricting and such. While I am always still learning & growing, the principles of intuitive/mindful eating have been really critical and focusing on my overall health & wellness.
So, 3 weeks after getting the original letter, I brought my home testing results to my follow-up appt with the dr. Firstly, in those 3 weeks, my A1C had dropped to 6.1. While I was obviously doing good things, the home tests did show fasting numbers above 120, so the doctor reiterated the diabetes diagnosis & issued me a glucose meter, with instructions to test my morning fasting numbers & 2 hrs after my largest meal and follow-up in 3 months.
She was also very defensive about my concern that the original diagnosis was done via a form letter without any attempt to verify whether the BG number had been fasting. Without going into details, the appointment was horrendous & infuriating. I decided that she is not someone that I want to have on my health care team. So I did some research & selected someone else in the practice to become my primary doctor, and I will have my 3-month follow up with him in a couple of days.
Based on my FG & PPG numbers, it is likely that my A1C will be even lower. The original doctor had said to shoot for FG under 120 & PPG under 140. Well, of the almost 90 days' testing (and without any medications), I had a total of 8 FG readings that were 120+ and 4 PPG's that were 140+, with the highest being 151.
Each time my PPG has been high (>125ish), I try to figure out what choices I made that I could try to do differently. I'm still very much in the stage of figuring out what works & what doesn't work for me. But I think I'm doing pretty well with this, overall.