Finally, after 2 and a half years, I have an a1c. Got it at the safeway a1c clinic, and the diabetes educator didn’t want to it to me and told me the machine might not be accurate because it was calibrated for high levels. But at least she did run the test.
I’m happy with it, and I’ve been on vacation since, so I’ve been eating things I normally wouldn’t, though, not pre-diagnosis different. Back to work on Monday, and back on the regular routine.
I’m still bothered by a couple of things. One, I know this has to be an improvement, but I’d like to know how much. What was my a1c last year? What about at diagnosis? I want to know how much progress I’ve made.
The second thing is that I have no idea how I compare with other pre-diabetics. I read a lot of blogs and find them really interesting, but there’s no one I directly relate to. There’s no standard measure I can use. I can say, hey, for a type 2 I’m doing great! But… for a pre-diabetic… well, am I doing good? excellent? average?
Eh, in the long run, what matters is that I stay healthy and avoid complications, but it’d be nice to have a frame of reference.
Laura:
Congrats on getting your first A1C. Being the first one, I can understand how you may be feeling, wanting to know whether you are doing better or worse than before.
You can look up the A1C number in this table:
http://www.dlife.com/dLife/do/ShowContent/blood_sugar_management/testing/a1c_conversion.html
And get an idea of how your blood sugars must have been like over the course of the past three months.
Regardless of how others you could compare with have been doing, this is really a personal thing. So, if you have a number between 5-6, you are doing excellent. If you are under 7, you are doing well. If you are over 7, you need to work some more on it.
Indeed, regardless of how low the number is (unless you are in the low 5’s) we can always work some more on improving it.
For me, diabetes has been about trying to do MY best and it seems that you are on your way to something similar.
Hope this helps, amiga!