Do I have diabetes or not?

This may have been said before, but wash your hand with soap and water and dry them well before testing. Do not rely on hand sanitizer. The chemicals could not interfere with the test.

Rosserk condolences...

The meters are not accurate....somewhere on this site they specify the ISA requirements which are 20% accuracy....this means if your BS is 5 the meter could read 4 or 6mmol....and non clean hands or sugar on your fingers can influence this reading....perhaps even the hand sanitiser (Who knows)

Your readings should be in this range


so if your monitor is reading 11....12...13 then there is an issue ....full stop.

Whats strange is that your HB1AC is normal....HB1AC measures the amount of glucose that has attached itself to your red blood cells....as your red blood cells die off and are replaced naturally in a 12 week cycle the test tells a lot about how you are managing to control your sugar.....

A bit like the instantaneous MPG in your car and the Avg MPG in your car.

What is confusing is that your "Instant" monitor measurements dont seem to tally with your "average" measurments.

So your meter....
hands clean (weve spoken about)
test strips....in date? purchased from a reliable source? Been kept in their vials? Not been exposed to major temperature fluctuations....from memory below 5deg C and above 30deg C...batteries new???
When you do the prick....do you go relatively deep....is the blood nice and red? or do you get more of a watery pink fluid which may be more plasma laden?

I think you can see why they are not so accurate....soooo many parameters.

Diet and exercise
Low carb is good....if you do it for two days maybe 3 you will see a difference immediately...no need to hunger...simply just cut out all sugar/carbs or anything that can be converted into glucose. Use myfitnesspal app its quite good for counting carbs. I have dropped my 7.2 fasting down to 5.6 simply by eating non insulin inducing/producing food.
Exercise will burn sugar and will remove it from your blood so is good too....however be aware a short intense burst can increase blood sugar as your liver dumps so by all means check directly after exercise, but also an hour later....yesterday I had 6.8 after the gym and 30mins later it was 4.4....fasting in the morning was 5.6 and I had not eaten till after all the blood tests.

Our body is crazy sometimes

HB1AC
as one of the members said....it could be that u are anemic....again discuss with the doc....something does not add up....one meter reading says nothing but if you are constantly having high readings then this should be mirrored in your HB1AC.

Good luck and dont get fobbed off, its your body your health and you make sure the doc and the DN do what you want them to do.

rosserk said:

Thank you Brightside all excellent advice but still doesn't explain normal readings for everyone else except me

I have just done a reading 5.1 off for dinner see what happens after 2 hours

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it may be they pricked harder than you ie a better sample...didnt use the sanitizer....who knows....theres a million and one things....you can prick your left finger and then your right and u will get different readings....

rosserk said:

I had bacon liver sausage tomatoes and onions no chips no bread no sauces. Also I have had Metformin today

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You were 5.1 before and 8.5 at 2 hours after bacon, liver, sausage, toms and onions. That is a rise of 3.4 and indicative that something is wrong. I have never had a rise in the 3's and am a type 2 diabetic. The sausage and onions could have caused a rise, and depending what the portion sizes were. (sausages are made with cereals unless you buy the 97% meat ones, readily available in all supermarkets). Liver and bacon have no carbs. Onions have a few.

I think you should keep a food diary, including portions, of everything in that meal - and how it was cooked. Write your before and after levels alongside. Also, your 3 hour readings. Do this for several days, then take your diary to the GP. Only he can diagnose you. We can't.

You certainly are have all the aspects of T2 but it's the hbA1c that is throwing things out, saying your normal, it's just a thought but I'm not a doctor & maybe completely off track but just maybe for some reason your blood cells die off quickly h thus affecting the hbA1c. As I said just a thought.

Have you considered being tested at a Lloyd's pharmacy? It may indicate whether your monitor is a dud. According to their site, if they suspect you have diabetes, they will refer you to your doctor. This might qualify as the "something else happening" that you need.

Forget the nurse, put all her appalling attitude and comments behind you. Stress doesn't help blood sugar levels, and it is clear from what you write that you are getting stressed about all this. I would believe your doctor and your meter and ask to see a different nurse. The first nurse had no right to overturn a GP's decision. Please go back to your GP and get things sorted out once and for all. You can then make plans as to how you are going to control this disease.

Meat and fish will not have any effect on your BS levels after a meal. (protein can have an effect but not until many hours later, if at all, and fats have no effect). Only carbs and sugar will convert to glucose. You can eat bacon and liver till the cows come home. Sausages, toms and onions have a few carbs, but if you only had 1 sausage it is highly unlikely to have caused a rise of 3.4. (unless you coated the liver in flour????)

rosserk said:

Hi
Thank you it's certainly worth considering. Not sure I want to incur the wrath of the Diabetes nurse though, she was so angry and adamant that I should forget about it and not test again, it's not her organs that are at risk though. I felt so stupid and ashamed and I was only doing what the doctor told me to do. I didn't perscribe the Metformin myself the Doctor did!

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This horrible nurse is not the boss of you. When she gets her own diabetes she can not test herself. You have to do what is best for you. The only way you can get to the bottom of this and give yourself peace of mind is to revisit your doctor.

Too many imponderables here to see the solution. Stress throws a spanner in the works, you may be anaemic, your meal was quite low carb but high in protein which can also end up as glucose, the conflicting advice from your doctor and nurse is destructive. Maybe you can try to do something completely different for a while.
(I put too many garlic granules in the stir-fry :***: otherwise I'd have offered you some.)
Talk tomorrow.

@rosserk

Good advice from some REALLY experienced members. Something odd with all of this so please get that (re) checked

Mike

Rosserk, can you make an appointment to see a doctor as opposed to the nurse? My mother had all the classic symptoms, thirst, going to the toilet, weight loss, eye problems etc. she went to her GP who just told her it was her age. Then "luckily" she accidentally squirted some bleach in her eye and had to go to the eye infirmary, the person she saw had just come back from a diabetic retinopathy course & diagnosed diabetes. He said she must have had it for at least 10 years. They rang her GP and demanded that she saw someone immediately. She went to the surgery and saw the diabetic nurse. She said they had no right in interfering and she had to go and buy a litre of Lucozade, drink it and see what happened. She then did a test with a monitor and it read 28, this was about 2pm and hadn't eaten since 10pm the previous day. I think the diabetic nurse had an attitude because it was making her look like she wasn't doing her job. I think it's the same with you. Try and see a doctor and also tell them about your symptoms as well as showing them your readings.