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Feeling disappointed

Hedonista

Well-Known Member
My HbA1C has been going down, from 46 three years ago, to 39 last year. This year, it's 42. I've continued to eat low carb, continued to exercise, and continued to lose weight (I lose about a stone or so each year). So I feel despondent that it's gone up.

I'm also really irritated that I only know the result because I rang and asked for it - the receptionist just said airily 'Oh, it's come back normal, no further action required'. If I'm at the upper limit of so called 'normal readings', I think that requires action!
 


be proud it is a very good result anyway, it is hard to keep ones numbers that low... mine is only real low because I am low calories as well...

please don´t be too perfectionistic so you can´t really enjoy a pretty good number... be proud and remember it is just a fine-tuning competition with yourself...
actually the people in the clinique at the GP don´t know how much hard Work is behind such numbers if they are not diabetics themselves..
 
you could add intermittent fasting to your strategy as well, like not eating from like 19 o´clock till next day like 11 o´clock
or take a day or two a week where you only eat like 500 calories the whole day in one meal
 
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I wouldn't worry too much if you get a slight blip. Mine has been 33, 37 and 34. I put it down to not being able to control what I eat properly when I go on holiday. Having said that, this was a stupid response from the receptionist. Of course you need to know. And it's likely that the guideline levels are too high anyway.
 
dbr10 said:
Having said that, this was a stupid response from the receptionist. Of course you need to know. And it's likely that the guideline levels are too high anyway.
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If one has done a medical exam has all the rights to know the results.
Especially if the result are borderline and are worse compared to the exam made before: because if there is a drift is probably because a problem is arising and corrective action could be done.

There aren't bad results, of course!
 
The NHS waits for the patient to get worse before taking corrective action.
 
Don't be despondent. Regard it as a blip and as an incentive to keep doing as you are doing. Also, like with our meters, HbA1c has an allowable error rate (could be 6% from memory) and much depends on your own haemoglobin situation in the period before your test, plus any periods of unusual stress..
 
Don't look upon it as a competition but that you are doing the best that you can @Hedonista. Give yourself a pat on the back and remember that there are things beyond your control that can affect the HBA1c.
 
@Hedonista
Well done for keeping to that level, in spite of it moving by a couple of points. I wonder if the machines the labs use for these tests may have a small discrepancy between them, in the same way our glucometers will have. A blood sample, tested on the same machine twice, but with separate test strips, can be slightly different - and that's 'normal' and acceptable so why not the machines in the labs???

As for getting your results, as far as I know, the receptionists are not allowed to give out the numbers although, on occasions, when pushed, might do. I always, now, phone up to check my results are back and then ask if I can have a print out, which they are able to do. Then I pop down to the surgery to collect the print out - all the info/results, with the normal ranges, are there in black and white, for you to take home and study, or do whatever you feel appropriate. That way, there is no problem with the receptionist getting numbers wrong etc.

Keep up the good work
 

Yes, there is an error rate and it seems to be plus or minus 6%
 
Thanks everyone for you encouraging words. I have been ill with a virus for a few weeks, and on steroids, none of which has helped my resilience! I'm terrible at coping with restriction, so if I plan a 500 calorie day I usually panic and eat 1000 calories for breakfast. But it comes naturally to me to fast for brief periods so I think structuring that into my week might work better for me. I'll relax and enjoy Christmas (there's that low carb cheesecake to make, plus flax seed crackers with plenty of cheese!) and rally again in the New Year. I lurk on here a lot and get lots of encouragement just by reading other peoples' posts, so thank you again for your responses xx
 
Iit's a shame you're down about your results. All the effort you've put in, you should celebrate the success you've had with your weight loss and previous results. Fluctuations I our readings can happen if you've had stress in your life or other hormone changes. All sorts of things could be the cause of your rise.
What you are doing though is giving your body the best chance of staying diabetes free. So keep going. It's still all good!!
 
Whitelinen64 said:
I'm prediabetic and I'm doing OK at the moment. I got myself a meter and test regularly. I spend a fair bit of time oh here reading with this being my first post. I've learned a lot from here and I just want to thank everyone x
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What a lovely Avatar. Obviously a happy time. Keep reading. I think we have a fantastic club. It certainly keeps me going,
 
I had a blood test shortly before Christmas and when I called at the surgery of my south London gp, the receptionist was able to give me a printout on the spot with the results. Happily just OK.
 
Hedonista said:
Thanks everyone for you encouraging words. I have been ill with a virus for a few weeks, and on steroids...
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Well there's your probable reason for a higher level then! There are some things that we just can't control and illness and affects of medication/treatment are some of them. When you're better and off the steroids you should soon come back down again.

Robbity
 
Hi I've recently been diagnosed with pre-diabetics and I'm pretty confused.... dr only told me to lose weight and eat less carbs.... I have one of those prick test machines but not quite such what the number should read and when I should be checking my blood.... help please....
 


If you read my post "Analysing xmas", you can see that for me changes in a daily diet can have a very big effect on daily average blood sugar which then feeds into Hba1C. if your Hba1C is stable, then just a few days of being a bit slacker than usual would be quite enough to account for a change of three points. A couple of days of fasting would also probably reverse it quite quickly too!
 
@Sim7 Wow! What an enlightened Dr.
I assume you are in the UK and your meter read in mmol/l
If you go mad you can have sore fingers and no test strips
The times to check are
On waking (FBG=Fasting Blood Glucose)
Before each meal
and 2 hours after first bite of a meal

BUT I would just pick one or two to start. I would suggest a test before you main meal of the day and again 2 hours later. Dont get hung up on the actual number, but you should check the difference between the two. If there is a rise of >2 mmol then there is something on the plate that is pushing your Blood Sugars too high, modify the meal next time and test again, hint the usual suspects are starchy carbs, such as potato, rice, pasta, bread

We are all different, and have differing levels of tolerance towards a particular food. So it is a case of trial and error.
After a few weeks download the data from your meter to a spreadsheet, again dont get too concerned about individual readings, but look for a trend - preferably downwards

HTH
 
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