[Wendys8861]

Hi all. I was recently diagnosed about 3 weeks ago. Since then I have been faithfully watching my food and carb intake, I've begun exercising 30-45 minutes per day, in addition to walking on my lunch break and have managed to lose 5 lbs. I test 6-10 times a day right now since I am trying to see if there are any patterns, etc. developing. When I was diagnosed, my A1c was 6.3.

Thus far my readings have all been pretty darn good...I test in the morning when I wake up, before lunch, 1 hr. and 2 hrs. after lunch, before dinner, 1 hr and 2 hrs after dinner and before bedtime. I also test whenever I am unsure about new foods and how my body will react to them.

Here's my question...for the last 21 days, my average has been 96 and I've never had any readings higher than 124 (my diagnosis day). I won't be taking another A1c until February, but I'm wondering if my meter readings will be a fairly close indicator (give or take) of my future A1C results or if I might be missing something. I'm just so concerned that my A1C results in February are going to come back higher, despite all of my good readings and all of my effort. I'm worried that I may be missing spikes even though I'm testing faithfully.

Any thoughts that might help ease my mind? I finally get to see my endo on Dec. 16 so maybe I should ask her that question, but I figured the best advice will come from fellow diabetics!

Thanks, all!

 

[Shanny]

Hi Wendy . . . I'm looking for a conversion tool you can bookmark & keep checking, but I haven't found it yet . . . I think your 96 average converts roughly to an A1c of about 5. Somebody please correct me if this is wrong!

 

[Wendys8861]

Hi Wendy . . . I'm looking for a conversion tool you can bookmark & keep checking, but I haven't found it yet . . . I think your 96 average converts roughly to an A1c of about 5. Somebody please correct me if this is wrong!

Thank you. I know there is one, I have used it before to check what a different numbers converts to. I'm hoping that it stays around that number, but who knows what is going to happen! I just wanted to know if meter readings were going to be somewhere in the ballpark!

I'll bring my log book and my meter(s) with me to my endo appointment, I expect she'll want to see them. Should I expect her to do another A1C or will she use the one my PCP used? Also, I hope she gets my file from my PCP so she can document that I've lost some weight! I want at least a little recognition! : )

Thanks everybody! You are all so friendly and helpful. I'm starting to get the hang of things after being sent out into the mad world with no information other than "control it with diet and exercise".

 

[Shanny]

Whenever you have labs done, be sure to take your meter along & test at the same time as they draw blood . . . I check my meter accuracy this way & it's been only a coupla points apart from the lab results.

 

[Vytautas]

Try thinking of your BS in mmol/l. To get this messurement you need to divide mg/dl by 18 (you get a rough number).

Ussually the avarage in mmol/l is a rather good indication to your BG. However the difference rises quickly. For example if you average a 10mmol/l (yah it's a lot, but just as an example) then you should be arround 8 on your A1c. But if your A1c then that would mean you average arround 20 and above

 

[RobertIA]

Hopefully this is the chart you are looking for: Printable Diabetes Chart- Convert HbA1c to estimated Average Glucose(eAG) .

Even then do not rely on it to be the average you will see from the A1c results. This is bacause the HbA1c is an average of glucated blood glucose for about the last three months. This does not account for the variances as some glycated red cells die quickly and others have longer lives. Therefore if in the second month most of the red blood cells with high levels of have died off then the most recent month will influence the A1c test the most.

A much easier explanation to follow is put forth by Tom Ross on his web site at Not Medicated Yet: Your Non-Depressing Guide to Type 2 Diabetes. . You will need to scroll down to his post on Friday, November 19, 2010 as his blog is not set up to be able to take you directly to the discussion.

Hope this gives you a better idea about the A1c test.

 

[Vytautas]

Ah, one more thing: if your BS varies a lot (if you go from hypo to hyper and back quickly) it will influence your A1c as well. Strong fluctuations will make your A1c higher.

For example if you have a constant of 180 your A1c will actually be better then if you have it arround 100 before eating and arround 2-3 hours after you have 280 then you use insulin or other medicine to get down to 100 again. So if your BS changes like that often your A1c will reflect this

 

[BadThad]

Ah, one more thing: if your BS varies a lot (if you go from hypo to hyper and back quickly) it will influence your A1c as well. Strong fluctuations will make your A1c higher.

For example if you have a constant of 180 your A1c will actually be better then if you have it arround 100 before eating and arround 2-3 hours after you have 280 then you use insulin or other medicine to get down to 100 again. So if your BS changes like that often your A1c will reflect this

Good info....thanks for that!