New A1C

Well, I couldn’t wait. I rode over to the hospital at lunch today to find out my new number, instead of waiting for my doctor to tell me at my appointment on Monday.

It’s 6.1. That’s up from 5.7 at the end of January. I’m not too happy about it but am hoping it’s more because of the way I got lazy about food this summer (breakfast at greasy spoon diners on weekends, and way too many ice cream treats), and not because I’m “deteriorating.” Although maybe it’s both. It’s only the fifth time I’ve had an A1C and I don’t know yet how much I can expect it to go up and down … I have also been told that there is some room for variations at the lab … and that 6.1 is still not a terrible number. It sounds pretty terrible to me.

According to my lab, 6.1 corresponds to a BG average of 126 mg/dL. Charts I’ve seen online say it’s more like 140. Either one is higher than I want it to be.

Ugh. How does everybody STAND it? Every three months I have to go through this again?! I mean, I do feel kind of energized to work harder and see if I can get it back into the low 5’s by the time I have my next test at the end of the year. But mostly, right now I just feel kind of depressed and scared. I don’t want to wait three more months to hear a better number – I want there to be something I can do to make it lower RIGHT NOW.

Okay, I’m officially done whining now. Thanks for listening.

6.1 is still a very good number…especially if you have very fewer lows to get it. I went to my Dr. yesterday and he said it’s the lows that really affect your quality of life…They take so much out of you. (At least 15 min to recover then you’re left feeling drained for hours)
A 6.1 with few highs and lows seems far better than a 5.7 with too many lows.
All I can say is keep up the good work and do what is best FOR YOU.

Agreed, many doctors will tell you that a tighter standard deviation is far better for your body than a lower A1c with too many lows.

To help adjust your attitude/perspective about A1c, sweetpotater, I would suggest that you try different blood sugar logging methods so you can feel some measure of confidence about these results. I don’t wait around for the A1c to tell me how I’m doing. I use programs like Abbott CoPilot, Log for Life, Minimed Carelink, or my Cozmo pump history to give me my stats. I want to know my range (high/low), my standard deviation (how often I’m near my target average), and my trends during certain periods of the day. If you have your high and low numbers charted and you’re testing a few times a day, you ought to be able to tell how you’ve been trending rather than wait for three months in the dark. I got tired of that long ago. Then if you think you’re doing better and your A1c shows otherwise, you will be able to tell that there must be something major you’re not catching and change your habits.

I don’t remember if I’ve suggested this to you or not, but the key to dropping that A1c is to see how high you’re spiking after meals (at 1 and 2 hours after the start of the meal). If those numbers are high, that’s skewing your A1c average way up.

Also, I know you’re tired of hearing this, but non-diabetics have an A1c below 5. Many of our members (all types of diabetes) here see 8s, 9s, 10s, and 11s and higher even. Anywhere near a 6 is the tightest control we can hope for, to be honest. So I think you’re doing a great job. You’re being really hard on yourself (which you shouldn’t be) in your quest to be more vigilant (which I do applaud).

Yep, mine went up just a little bit too. That is why that I am so glad that I found this place to give me the assistance that I need to keep this disease under control.

My Endo says the same thing!! Too many lows :slight_smile: Don’t beat yourself up embrace 6.1:)

Thanks for this – very useful, and I will try some different testing methods. For example, I’ve sort of stopped testing so much after meals, thinking I already know what it’s going to be. But maybe I’m missing some spikes. Truthfully, I think that’s the real reason my A1C went up; I know I’ve been getting lazy about portion sizes, especially with sweets. Time to start paying attention again to what those are really doing.

I’m Type 2 and metformin (500g) is my only med, so I’ve been assuming I don’t really have lows, but maybe I’m missing those, too. The other night after riding home from work I tested at 60, which was about the lowest I’ve ever seen … I felt fine, though. Good, even.

My understanding about lowering the A1C is that for someone who deals with lows, shooting for a very low A1C (less than about 5.5) could be dangerous because it would mean they were going too low, too often. But for someone like me, a Type 2 who doesn’t have problems with lows (that I know of), a lower A1C is safe and in fact a good goal, because it means lessening the chance of complications.

Maybe I am being too hard on myself, though. It’s been known to happen! And I am slowly realizing that what everyone told me at the beginning is true – this whole D thing is not as simple as I wanted to believe. But definitely workable, all the same.