Type 1: What are your HbA1c test results?

Lillyse

Member
Messages
18
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I haven't been active here for a while, just lurking, but I need to brag about my hbA1c result I got back today! Best ever, 41!!!
Whoopwhoooooooooooop! My doctor was impressed but worried that "you might push yourself to much", which I don't think I do. Finding this forum and the diabetes subreddits has taught me so much.

I got so excited I forgot to push about getting a cgm or fgm. Maybe next year... :rolleyes:

Onwards and downwards! ;)
 
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deszcznocity

Active Member
Messages
44
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Sep 2019: 124 mmol/mol (diagnosed T1DM)
Oct 2019: 93 mmol/mol
Nov 2019: 72 mmol/mol
Jan 2020: 43mmol/mol
Very Low Carb Diet (<30g CHO/day) following Dr Bernstein's solution
 

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Keitho 2

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Sep 2019: 124 mmol/mol (diagnosed T1DM)
Oct 2019: 93 mmol/mol
Nov 2019: 72 mmol/mol
Jan 2020: 43mmol/mol
Very Low Carb Diet (<30g CHO/day) following Dr Bernstein's solution
Wow that is amazing Des. How do you find fitting the diet into your lifestyle? I have read Dr Bernstein's book but cannot fathom the massive change in diet required. My Hba1c is 6.2 up from 5.7 last time and I would really love it to be in the range of low 5's.
 

deszcznocity

Active Member
Messages
44
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Wow that is amazing Des. How do you find fitting the diet into your lifestyle? I have read Dr Bernstein's book but cannot fathom the massive change in diet required. My Hba1c is 6.2 up from 5.7 last time and I would really love it to be in the range of low 5's.

I had to fit my lifestyle around my diet and no cheating.
 

MarkHaZ123

Well-Known Member
Messages
146
My hba1c was 75 in November when I went onto the Dafne course and has come down to 59 since then. Happy it has gone down as it shows I'm doing things better thankfully
 

GedMason

Member
Messages
14
Hello everyone.

New here. Mine was 64 in december. It had come down from 81. Ive been using the freestyle libre sensor since july 2019.

On my results from using the libre its saying my estimated mmol/l is 52 for last 3 months. So hopefully get it into the 50s by time i have my next review in May. Been type 1 diabetic since 1977.

Ged
 

Sgathach

Well-Known Member
Messages
75
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Mine was 108.7 on the 16th of February when I was diagnosed and by 6th March I had already dropped to 86.9.

Hoping to continue downwards quickly :D
 
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holmroad

Member
Messages
12
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.
Unnecessary obesity.
Mine was 35. Lowest it's ever been. Thanks to getting my libre and miao miao got my control even better.

That's very low - would have thought you'd have been getting too many hypos at that low? My consultant was reasonably pleased with me when I was in the HbA1C 40's, but when my Libre stats showed a regular low blood sugar pattern at certain times - has re-adjusted my insulin, such that now at 52 he is much more impressed!
 

Dave P

Well-Known Member
Messages
100
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
That's very low - would have thought you'd have been getting too many hypos at that low? My consultant was reasonably pleased with me when I was in the HbA1C 40's, but when my Libre stats showed a regular low blood sugar pattern at certain times - has re-adjusted my insulin, such that now at 52 he is much more impressed!

Just saying, I wouldn't be happy if mine was 52, that's too high whatever the consultant says.
 

captaindave

Active Member
Messages
28
First HBAC since started injecting Dec 19 ( following 3+ years of misdiagnosis as T2 )

61 -on a downward trajectory do fairly happy with that.

I did attend an appointment with dietician for carb counting advice, but she said i must still be producing some of my own insulin, given that i "only" inject 15 units of Basal daily, so that would make carb counting/insulin dose calculation tricky..
 

Dave P

Well-Known Member
Messages
100
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
she said i must still be producing some of my own insulin, given that i "only" inject 15 units of Basal daily.

I'm not sure she's right about that. I'm taking 12 units daily and yet have no problem counting my carbs and calculating insulin dosages from it.
 

captaindave

Active Member
Messages
28
Yeah thats the trouble - conflicting advice from various professionals.

TBH I am happy to continue on current regime as long as HBAC continues to improve.

I take my 15 units in morning, and 3 units of Rapid IF i am over 9 pre-meal.
 

Dave P

Well-Known Member
Messages
100
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Yeah thats the trouble - conflicting advice from various professionals.

TBH I am happy to continue on current regime as long as HBAC continues to improve.

I take my 15 units in morning, and 3 units of Rapid IF i am over 9 pre-meal.

Here's my unsolicited advice then, for what it's worth. And I don't want to scare you, but then again I do want to scare you, if you catch my meaning, because your hba1c is very high and to have blood sugars at those levels for sustained periods is probably doing you damage which will lead to complications down the line. They scare the hell out of me which is why I make a real effort to keep my blood sugars under control as much as possible. I aim for keeping them under control at all times, and if I occasionally get it wrong (as we all do) then hopefully it won't be consequential.

If you are over 9 pre-meal which is already too high, you are probably going well into double figures for a few hours. I can't say whether 3 units is enough because it depends how many carbs you're eating. For me, I have one unit of novorapid per 10g carbs but your ratio may be higher or lower than that. You can figure it out yourself through trial and error by testing and keeping records of your dosages, your carb intake and your pre and post meal readings. But you can't just take a set amount of rapid insulin per meal, it needs to be tailored each time based on what your pre-meal reading is, and what you're eating.

Your hba1c points to an average blood sugar of 9.7 so you are probably spending several hours a day in double figures, routinely.

I would urgently get this under control and you do have it in your own hands to start on that today. Don't wait for a medical professional to explain it to you, or give you permission to save your health. Their advice is not always clear enough, or even correct.

That's my advice.
 
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captaindave

Active Member
Messages
28
Thanks for the advice - it is appreciated.

Its not often i am over 9 pre-meal, when i am working i have the opposite problem, going under 4 around noon.

My levels are partly a result of the mis-diagnosis, in the last 2/3 months before injecting i was on max metformin and max glicazide and struggling to control levels which is why i resorted to actions like just eating an apple thru an 8 hour working day...
 

Dave P

Well-Known Member
Messages
100
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
If you are going below 4 it could be because your basal is too high. Of course, working (especially if physical) will tend to make your level drop more than usual, so if you were taking rapid insulin during that time you would need a bit less of it.

I take my basal before I go to bed because I want to make sure it's working overnight when I can't check my levels and take remedial action manually. If you take it in the morning then it might not be fully working overnight, because although it lasts 24 hours in theory, in practice it can 'run out' before then.

The first thing to do is make sure your fasting level is on track, ie. below 7.8 but preferably more like 5-5.5 at most. Mine is usually between 4 and 5. I wouldn't encourage someone just beginning to fine tune their numbers, to aim to be too perfect because you do want to avoid, or at least minimise, hypos (going too low) as they can be potentially dangerous of course. So make smallish adjustments to begin with. But you must take into account what you're eating and adjust your rapid insulin accordingly.

For example in my case, needing 1 unit of novorapid per 10g carbs:

If before a meal my blood sugar was 5, and I was to eat 50g of carbs, I would take 5 units. For me, I would take this about 15-20 minutes before eating, because for me, that works better than taking it when I eat. They call that pre-bolusing. This is not the same for everyone so you would find this out by trial and error. I would then expect my blood sugar to be back down to around 5, within 2-3 hours. Sometimes less. It depends on what you've eaten and your level of physical activity etc. but it would get you there or thereabouts and that's all that matters, it doesn't have to be absolutely exact and perfect every time.

Now say my blood sugar before eating was 7. I would add a correction dose of 2 units so I would take 7 units for the 50g carbs.

Likewise if my blood sugar was only 4, I would take less insulin, so say only 4 units for the 50g. I personally always aim to keep my blood sugars around 5. Sometimes they will go into the 4s, that's fine, it's a very good and safe level, but aiming for 5 gives a margin of error.

This is all pretty simple really and I think most diabetics should be able to get the hang of doing this, but sadly, it seems rather a lot of type 1s have bad control, which worries me because it needn't be that way.

The other thing I do is always check my level before I go to bed, which will be 2-3 hours after I last ate anything. I will then always take remedial action as necessary, to make sure my level is going to work well for me overnight. If it is 7 or above, I will take a bit of rapid insulin to lower it. If it happened to be say 4, I might eat one biscuit (10g carbs) to raise it to 5.

I think some people probably don't do as much as I do, and leave things to chance. With diabetes I don't think that's a good policy.
 

KesLouise

Well-Known Member
Messages
85
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Little bit of good news - my last HbA1c about 2 weeks ago was 49. It was over 100 in July thank you insulin
 
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captaindave

Active Member
Messages
28
DaveP - I drive for a living ( courier ) and the DVLA recommendation is to not go below 5, so my main focus while working is not to get too low rather than worry too much about straying higher.
 
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