Thanks everyone for their advice...right now I have no clue how to proceed and your info has been a big help.
My disclaimer applies. That being that its only my opinion, and what I have learned, since I have spent a lot of time reading and listening to what others have gone through, plus my own personal experience. I believe that mine was caught early, and so far, is not so bad, as my initial A1c test was 6.8, and my second one, three months later, is 5.5 without any meds, so I have not suffered all the high numbers that others have. All I know is, like I said before, you won't die this month because of it, so work it through, ask all you want, and put a plan into action. Don't panic. Monitor the results. If they are not to your satisfaction, alter them until you find what works for you. Maybe meds are necessary, maybe diet and exercise will get you where you need to be. Only you can determine if you are up to the task or not.
Personally, I hate medications. Usually, they solve one problem, and create four others. I have a suspiciuon that my diabetes was brought out by other medications that were foisted on me for a variety of reasons that are too boring to bring up here. My daughter got meds for a thyroid condition that made her "women stuff" unbearable, but a quick check of the side effects, showed that those meds will destroy her liver. Another daughter has Chron's disease and the meds for that have ruined her health and life more than the Chron's ever could. Pick your poison. They both went herbal and are doing okay.
Your doctor was not correct to call you a diabetic based on one blood reading. There are technical rules that must be followed, because being diabetic goes beyond being sick, it affects your health and life insurance, and can cause problems getting certain jobs. A faulty diagnosis can haunt you the rest of our life, and may be grounds for legal action.
The ADA lists their standards for testing. He should have followed them. You need an A1c test, which is simple and can even be done at home with a Walgreen's or other pharmacy kit, and you need a fasting glucose tolerance test.
This test sends you to the lab, usually in the AM, not having eaten since the previous dinner time, and no breakfast that day. You get a reading taken, and then they give you a glucose cocktail which I believe is 75 grams of glucose. An hour later, they test your glucose, and two hours later, they do it again.
Here is what my test results specified for readings.
First, your fasting number should be 70-105 (we speak slightly different language in those numbers <g>) Mine was 124
You drink the cocktail, and an hour later, you should be within 85-140, mine was 246
Two hours later, you should be 70-125, and I was only down to 222, so I failed miserably.
Numbers higher than those specs, indicate likely diabetes.
The A1c test is a bit different, in that it checks your average glucose level for the last three months. You cannot monitor your levels 24/7 so this test is able to find that level and report it. Your result should be no higher than 5.7.
These tests, and I think there is another one that could take one of their places, are the indicators that allow the doctor to declare you a diabetic. Without them, he has no reason to anything more than a suspicion, which should lead him to administer these lab tests.
Numbers may vary depending on who you ask, but these are the ones that came back with my lab work. I failed them both :-(
Frankly, imo, you need to have these tests done, to help you with your mindset. Most want to deny they are diabetic. The tests put that to rest.
Turns out my mom, who passed away recently, had a meter, and was tested randomly by my sister, and she rang up 200's on more than one occasion, to which my sister and her doctor both said "oh, that is because she eats a lot of Milky Ways" Baloney. If you hit 200, you are pretty much a diabetic. If you hit it more than a few times, you have problems that need to be addressed. Mom was so old, it didn't matter, cause she would never have done the exercise or diet necessary, so they just lied about it to each other, and never told her. But it would have been nice, if they had told her children so they could watch out, and perhaps make adjustments to fend it off.
A normal person will have fasting morning numbers in the 70-80 range, and never exceed 140, even after Thanksgiving dinner. The healthy pancreas can pump out all the insulin you body needs to cope with whatever you eat so you could never get to 200, even if all you ate was Milky Ways
(Oh how I miss those.......)
Anyway, you need those tests. You can do it on your own with your own cocktail and testing by drinking 75 carbs of soda, and you can do the A1c test with the pharmacy kit.
Frankly, depending on your condition, if you can get your numbers to start coming down on your own, with diet and exercise, you only need the doctor to help you get the testing supplies if you have insurance. Beyond that, I think -most- doctors are ignorant of how to control diabetes.
Go to bloodsugar101.com and find a ton of great info and links, and keep asking questions. There are no dumb questions, just people who think it makes them dumb, because there is something they don't know. Who among us, knows everything?
John
