[audiogatorjim]

I bought a Bayer A1C test kit yesterday at Walgreens. It was $30 and has two tests included. It is was to use; I was happy to see my reading was 5.5!
I am getting some lab work done soon so I can verify it's accuracy.

I am still having lots of issues with blurred vision; presumably due to low blood sugar. As I have read here, some foods like peanut butter are slow to raise your blood sugar. I think by the time it gets low, it is not easy to raise quickly. The glucose tablets seem to help a bit. Missing or delaying a meal seems to be critical to me and drives my sugar down. So, I have to watch that.

 

[Shanny]

Drink a glass of orange juice, Jim - or a cup of regular soda. That's the quickest way to treat a low.

 

[jwags]

Congrats on the HbA1c. I just bought one at CVS. It was on sale for $24.99 and I had a $10 coupon from Bayer that came with my free USB meter. I haven't used it yet, but hopefully this week. I hope my results are as good as yours. Shanny gave you good advice on the hypos. You want some fast acting glucose. I think the rule is 15 carbs, then test in 15 minutes to see if you are up to 80, if not another 15 carbs. Those little mini candy bars are a quick source of glucose. I think each one is 10-15 carbs. I usually keep some in the freezer.

 

[audiogatorjim]

Thanks Jwags! I'll get the hang of this, one day.

Congrats on the HbA1c. I just bought one at CVS. It was on sale for $24.99 and I had a $10 coupon from Bayer that came with my free USB meter. I haven't used it yet, but hopefully this week. I hope my results are as good as yours. Shanny gave you good advice on the hypos. You want some fast acting glucose. I think the rule is 15 carbs, then test in 15 minutes to see if you are up to 80, if not another 15 carbs. Those little mini candy bars are a quick source of glucose. I think each one is 10-15 carbs. I usually keep some in the freezer.

...............

 

[moon]

Missing or delaying a meal seems to be critical to me and drives my sugar down. So, I have to watch that.

I'm still trying to understand why sometimes not eating drives sugar down and sometimes up. When it goes up I know it's the liver dump, what's the reason when it goes down?

 

[breezeonby]

I bought a Bayer A1C test kit yesterday at Walgreens. It was $30 and has two tests included. It is was to use; I was happy to see my reading was 5.5!
I am getting some lab work done soon so I can verify it's accuracy.

I am still having lots of issues with blurred vision; presumably due to low blood sugar. As I have read here, some foods like peanut butter are slow to raise your blood sugar. I think by the time it gets low, it is not easy to raise quickly. The glucose tablets seem to help a bit. Missing or delaying a meal seems to be critical to me and drives my sugar down. So, I have to watch that.

Jim, I just want to caution you that every single one of my Bayer A1C test were at least 25% lower than a real lab A1C, I stopped using them for this reason. Most of my blurred vision has been from high blood sugar. If you are sensitive to missing or delaying meals, try and not miss any meals or carry the glucose tabs. I started using the gel, it brings my blood sugar up very quickly.

 

[jwags]

I'm still trying to understand why sometimes not eating drives sugar down and sometimes up. When it goes up I know it's the liver dump, what's the reason when it goes down?

I think some diabetics have a signaling problem and sometime when we don't eat our pancreas produces glucagon because it thinks we are hungry. The glucagon then signals liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose. In a normal person this happens if we go really low, but in many diabetics it happens when we are much higher, so it gives us glucose when we don't need it. I find sometimes by eating it will actually jumpstart the pancreas to produce some insulin. Many times my after meal numbers are lower than my before meal numbers.