Six point one
That's my new A1C. I had the blood drawn for labs on Monday and actually rode over to the hospital during lunch today to get the results in person – couldn't wait til my doctor's appointment next week to find out.
This is not a terrible number, but it's not great, either. It isn't as good as the last one, which was 5.7. It depends on what chart you look at, but according to MY lab (every lab is a little different), an A1C of 6.1 corresponds to an average blood glucose over the last three months of around 126 mg/dL. The number appears with a little "H" next to it on the lab report, indicating this number is "high." Yeah, I know! I get it! I'm a fat pig and a lazy ass and I'm killing my pancreas with miniature toast triangles and tiny little teaspoonfuls of ice cream.
I may be exaggerating a bit there. Then again, maybe not. Prolonged exposure to blood glucose over about 120 mg/dL destroys the beta cells that produce insulin in the pancreas (not to mention doing damage all throughout the body), so an average of 126* definitely requires taking some action. I'm just hoping it's gone up because I've been slacking off, and not because my pancreas is actually losing its ability to make insulin. I'm not ready to start taking injections yet.
Well, one crisis at a time. Not that this even exactly constitutes a crisis; maybe just a red flag. Or even a yellow one. In any case, the plan for now is to knuckle back down and see if I can get it back into the low 5's again by the end of the year when I can re-test.
* People on a forum I post to have assured me this is not necessarily as bad as it sounds – a brief but very high spike after eating something particularly carby can skew your average somewhat, etc. Still, I'm willing to forego the occasional hash browns and greasy-spoon breakfast if it means I get to keep my feet when I'm old.
This is not a terrible number, but it's not great, either. It isn't as good as the last one, which was 5.7. It depends on what chart you look at, but according to MY lab (every lab is a little different), an A1C of 6.1 corresponds to an average blood glucose over the last three months of around 126 mg/dL. The number appears with a little "H" next to it on the lab report, indicating this number is "high." Yeah, I know! I get it! I'm a fat pig and a lazy ass and I'm killing my pancreas with miniature toast triangles and tiny little teaspoonfuls of ice cream.
I may be exaggerating a bit there. Then again, maybe not. Prolonged exposure to blood glucose over about 120 mg/dL destroys the beta cells that produce insulin in the pancreas (not to mention doing damage all throughout the body), so an average of 126* definitely requires taking some action. I'm just hoping it's gone up because I've been slacking off, and not because my pancreas is actually losing its ability to make insulin. I'm not ready to start taking injections yet.
Well, one crisis at a time. Not that this even exactly constitutes a crisis; maybe just a red flag. Or even a yellow one. In any case, the plan for now is to knuckle back down and see if I can get it back into the low 5's again by the end of the year when I can re-test.
* People on a forum I post to have assured me this is not necessarily as bad as it sounds – a brief but very high spike after eating something particularly carby can skew your average somewhat, etc. Still, I'm willing to forego the occasional hash browns and greasy-spoon breakfast if it means I get to keep my feet when I'm old.
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