DIABETICS!!: whats your HBA1c???

Travel is good

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

I was at 7.9 last time, gone up to 8.1 yesterday. I was on Ammaryl but they have put me back on Diamicron now because of the rise. They took me off Diamicron last time because it gives me so many hypos, 4 in one day last time I was on them, so here we go again.

10.3 now, but was 9.6 in June 2009.

I am also on Diamicron, though no hypos. I'm also on Glucophage and insulin.

I really need to get my act together so the nurse told me I should be aiming for 7 initially. Therafter, good control would be 6 or 6.5.

I haven't drank alcohol so far this week and I guess that's bad for me, with all the sugar. I love brown toast and marmalade, so that's out too. I'll just have to get used to it. I always loved jam/marmalade.

Apart from everything else I'm following the usual healthy diet that we all should be on! I'm getting great inspiration here, on how to actually lower your Hba1c.

Griffin87

Type 1 male diabetic here

I got my HBA1C tset about 3 weeks ago.

Hba1c was 5.4

Doctor said i was on too much insulin as i am doing alot more excerisce than i used to. im doing alot more walking and cycling.

lantis has gone down from 30 to 24 as i was going low alot during the nite and this has improved the problem.

i have also reduced my novarapid to about 6 for breackfast 4 for lunch and 4 for Dinner. it used to be 8 8 8

I try to do some excercise after my meals so i have to take less insulin. but I find i still go low when going for a walk in the evening. i think 2 units is too small amout of insulin to be taking with a main meal.


ive also lost a bit of weight im 13.7stone and 6"ft in height i used to be over 14 stone before christmas.

so am happy enough

does any1 else do about 20 blood sugar tests a day ?

CathyMoran

My last HbA1c was 4.8 I think but I was having lots of low blood sugars and was pregnant at the time - I have to do a lot of blood tests as I had other surgery (not diabetes related) that affects my ability to absorb food. I find that the lower the goal that you put for yourself the more you have to test - mine varies due to stress, time of month as well as the GI of the food that I eat. I am on the smaller side of normal both height and weight wise and am a type 1 diabetic over 25 years...there are far worse things (unfortunatly I have experienced some of them).

DrIndy

4.8 is VERY impressive!

Well Done! Be careful you are not too tightly controlled though!

Wayne Scales

DrIndy wrote: »

4.8 is VERY impressive!

+1 Thats fantastic control Cathy -Fair play to you , take care of yourself

lucernarian

I haven't seen any research saying that blood sugar control at a level lower than 6.5% is beneficial, so I try to aim for that level. Unfortunately, my HbA1C levels are in the 7.0-7.5 region consistently and I have found it impossible to break the 7.0% barrier since I started college. The last two results were 7.0% and 7.5% which were both in 2010.

I really hate the fluctuations that exist from one week to the next in exactly how much to dose for a given meal.

graflynn

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I haven't seen any research saying that blood sugar control at a level lower than 6.5% is beneficial, so I try to aim for that level. Unfortunately, my HbA1C levels are in the 7.0-7.5 region consistently and I have found it impossible to break the 7.0% barrier since I started college. The last two results were 7.0% and 7.5% which were both in 2010.

I really hate the fluctuations that exist from one week to the next in exactly how much to dose for a given meal.

I find that keeping a daily record really helps - I have a pocket size notebook that I carry with me and I write my BG's in there, meals, insulin doses, etc. It's handy because when I have something like pizza, I go back to the page where I had it last and look at what my BG was, how much pizza I had and what insulin I took for it.

People usually giggle at me when I pull out the notebook but I swear by it;)

Travel is good

That's a good idea. I only test twice a day, but I guess I should be testing more often. I admit I've been bad for the exercise, but after a 5k walk yesterday, it really helped lower the levels.

Does anyone find stress makes it worse? i've had a lot of stress over the last year or so, and my glucose levels have gone up.

Well done to those of you with low glucose levels, I'm getting good inspiration here. How do you do it? Do you eat less starchy carbs like bread? I love brown bread, but usually only eat one portion in the morning & that's it.

I often don't get to eat dinner until late, 8pm or so, so I'm wondering if eating late is the problem.

CathyMoran

Travel is good wrote: »

That's a good idea. I only test twice a day, but I guess I should be testing more often. I admit I've been bad for the exercise, but after a 5k walk yesterday, it really helped lower the levels.

Does anyone find stress makes it worse? i've had a lot of stress over the last year or so, and my glucose levels have gone up.

Well done to those of you with low glucose levels, I'm getting good inspiration here. How do you do it? Do you eat less starchy carbs like bread? I love brown bread, but usually only eat one portion in the morning & that's it.

I often don't get to eat dinner until late, 8pm or so, so I'm wondering if eating late is the problem.

Testing more often is a good idea. I try and follow a low low gylcemic index diet but I do not restrict my carbs (am normal/underweight), if I want food high in carbohydrate I give myself the appropriate insulin. I tend to eat late too but try and not start much after 8pm, it means that I have to watch my blood sugars for longer in the evening and I do like to sleep occasionally!

Stress does affect my blood sugars too as does my monthly cycle. Planning for a child really helped me to focus on my blood sugars. It also helps that I like the blood testing machine that I use (it gives averages so I can have a rough idea how I am doing).

It does take a lot of work but for me the reward is my 8 week 2 day old son, plus I know that I have done everything I can to look after myself.

lucernarian

graflynn wrote: »

I find that keeping a daily record really helps - I have a pocket size notebook that I carry with me and I write my BG's in there, meals, insulin doses, etc. It's handy because when I have something like pizza, I go back to the page where I had it last and look at what my BG was, how much pizza I had and what insulin I took for it.

People usually giggle at me when I pull out the notebook but I swear by it;)

That's the interesting point, when I give myself the same dose for one pizza as I did two weeks previously, the results occasionally vary considerably. Even if the activity levels after the meal and how much fluids I drank and how high my pre-meal blood sugar were all similar. And I usually have meals within 45 minutes of 8pm so that's fairly regular.

It's those sort of inexplicable idiosyncracies that I find frustrating about diabetes, as the professionals I talk to either can't find an answer as to what went wrong or else keep thinking that there was something I forgot to consider etc. I've given up looking for an answer and I just try my best anyway and adjust the carbohydrate grams per unit that I use for e.g. my evening meal.

douglashyde

7.5 the other day - down from 9.6 - I have recently really got my act together in terms of diet etc.

Carsinian Thau

Griffin87 wrote: »

Hba1c was 5.4

CathyMoran wrote: »

My last HbA1c was 4.8

Both of you have now become heroes to me!

I'm actually not doing so well. I'm actually frightened by the fact that it just keeps going up and up and there's almost nothing I can do to fix it. Going back to my endocrinologist soon and hopefully we'll be able to sort things out (during college terms I just got the HbA1Cs from the nurse and interpret them myself, probably not the best of ideas to be perfectly honest).

Carsinian Thau

douglashyde wrote: »

7.5 the other day - down from 9.6 - I have recently really got my act together in terms of diet etc.

Well done, that's a good drop.

If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you to do that?

douglashyde

Carsinian Thau wrote: »

Well done, that's a good drop.

If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you to do that?

It was around 5 months since my last one.

1967

Was out with my endocrinologist this morning had not seen him for twelve months he has changed my medication from Byetta to Victoza which basically means i will have to inject once a day instead of twice and my HbA1c is 5.2 happy with that although it was 5.1 twelve months ago.

tbh

just back from the doc, down to 8.0 from 8.6 - still not great, but getting there! I've made a lot of changes in the last few months, so my target is 7 for december.

colrow

Nice one ;-)

I've been working away for 2 years now and eating well some of the time and getting depressed and doing comfort eating other times, 2 years ago my hba1c was 6.1 and its gradually crept up to 6.7 2 months ago, i weighed 13 st 4 now i'm 14 st 12, i was diagnosed with low testosterone and have been on hrt for 6 wweeks now i feel a bit more grounded, and i started exercising. Now my jobs finished for a while im going to concentrate on my diet and exercise and hope to bring my hba1c down, i'll be going for a blood test next week let you know what has happened to it.

Meauldsegosha

Hi All,

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in April 2009. In December 2009 my hba1c was 5.2 and daily level were generally between 4 & 7. My consultant was really happy with me and lowered my insulin dosage.

In the last two months i have put on about 2st (probably what I had lost before I was first diagnosed). I'm not eating anything different but I am exercising more. In the last week my daily levels have really changed they are between 7 and 11.1.

The diabetic clinic did tell me it would take about a year for things to settle down and for my body to get use to being diabetic. Is the increase in my levels this week normal or should I be worried. I'm due to see the consultant again in July.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Carsinian Thau

We generally tend not to give advice on this board, for safety reasons.

Do you have a diabetic nurse that you could call? They can be very good if you have any quick questions that need answering.

Carsinian Thau

tbh wrote: »

just back from the doc, down to 8.0 from 8.6 - still not great, but getting there! I've made a lot of changes in the last few months, so my target is 7 for december.

That's still very good. Nice work!

sam34

TishyO wrote: »

Hi All,

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in April 2009. In December 2009 my hba1c was 5.2 and daily level were generally between 4 & 7. My consultant was really happy with me and lowered my insulin dosage.

In the last two months i have put on about 2st (probably what I had lost before I was first diagnosed). I'm not eating anything different but I am exercising more. In the last week my daily levels have really changed they are between 7 and 11.1.

The diabetic clinic did tell me it would take about a year for things to settle down and for my body to get use to being diabetic. Is the increase in my levels this week normal or should I be worried. I'm due to see the consultant again in July.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

we cant give medical advice here

ask your gp or diabetic nurse

tbh

Did the diabetic team explain the honeymoon period to you?

Meauldsegosha

tbh wrote: »

Did the diabetic team explain the honeymoon period to you?

Not in those words, tbh. Just that it would take a year for my body to get use to things and not to be suprised if I got depressed when I realised this was something I would have to live with the rest of my life.

tbh

Well that's definately true, from a mental point of view. The honeymoon effect tho is, when you start to inject insulin, your own pancreas gets a new and brief lease of life, so to speak, and so produces some insulin of it's own - it doesn't last forever tho. So wah your seeing may just be the end if your own insulin, and a total dependance on injections. Your team will tell you more tho, and don't be afraid of contacting them with any questions you may have outside of appointments. And try not to let it get you down matey, we're all here to listen if you want to have a moan

Meauldsegosha

Cheers tbh, that sounds familar now that you mention it. There is so much info your given at the beginning it's hard to remember it all. I gave the diabetic clinic a ring this morning and got an appointment for Tuesday so will have a chat with them then.

joolsveer

I have recently been referred to a diabetic clinic by my GP so I guess I must have type 2 diabetes (although I have not have a formal diagnosis yet). My HBA1c was 10 when it was measured and I believe that this is high.

Since my referral I have been testing my blood sugar and taking glucophage. The blood sugar score has come down from 13 to 6.4 over the last three weeks. I have not yet had another blood test for HBA1c. Is this likely to have decreased also?

The_Conductor

joolsveer wrote: »

I have recently been referred to a diabetic clinic by my GP so I guess I must have type 2 diabetes (although I have not have a formal diagnosis yet). My HBA1c was 10 when it was measured and I believe that this is high.

Since my referral I have been testing my blood sugar and taking glucophage. The blood sugar score has come down from 13 to 6.4 over the last three weeks. I have not yet had another blood test for HBA1c. Is this likely to have decreased also?

The HbA1C test is a measure of glycated haemoglobin in your blood. It is an average that changes over a 3 month period (reflecting the length of time it takes to glycate haemoglobin blood cells). If your blood sugar score has reduced significantly over the past few weeks- its very possible that your HbA1C will trend in the same direction- but as its measuring a ~3 month average- it will take a lot longer for it to measure a commensurate reduction.

Well done on getting your blood sugar down- keep up the good work!

Travel is good

tbh wrote: »

Well that's definately true, from a mental point of view. The honeymoon effect tho is, when you start to inject insulin, your own pancreas gets a new and brief lease of life, so to speak, and so produces some insulin of it's own - it doesn't last forever tho. So wah your seeing may just be the end if your own insulin, and a total dependance on injections. Your team will tell you more tho, and don't be afraid of contacting them with any questions you may have outside of appointments. And try not to let it get you down matey, we're all here to listen if you want to have a moan

That's interesting, what you said about the "honeymoon" period, I didn't know that. I've been on insulin for about a year & 3 months now, and at the moment my glucose levels are getting worse. I'm really trying hard to work on them though, I'm carefully monitoring them. I'm getting great inspiration here from those of you who have reduced your levels.

I'm seeing the diabetic nurse in about a week so I hope things will have improved.

Thanks for all the support. You're right, it can all be a bit demoralising at times.

Jilly19

Iv been diabetic for 8 years now! at first my hba1c was 7 but since then its never been below. My last one done in March was 14 and im desperately trying to half that for my next appointment

Travel is good

Oh dear, that sounds a bit high! Mine was averaging about 10-11 in February, so I know I have to sort it out. Let us know how it goes at your next doctor's appointment. I'm really trying to write down all the results you get at your blood test. It's useful to compare them to see if you are actually reducing the figures.

Good luck to you all at the next appointment, keep healthy!