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First time testing blood

PamJHS

PamJHS

Active Member
I bit the bullet and did a test first thing this morning, before eating or drinking, following instruction video carefully.

My numbers from my last GP blood test - which triggered my diagnosis as prediabetic/on the cusp of T2 were HBa1c 48, which the doc said was the equivalent of 6.5 on my monitor.

Test came out at 9.1 - a lot higher - and I feel a bit alarmed!

[ETA: So I guess my question is, is this 'normal'?]
 
PamJHS said:
I bit the bullet and did a test first thing this morning, before eating or drinking, following instruction video carefully.

My numbers from my last GP blood test - which triggered my diagnosis as prediabetic/on the cusp of T2 were HBa1c 48, which the doc said was the equivalent of 6.5 on my monitor.

Test came out at 9.1 - a lot higher - and I feel a bit alarmed!

[ETA: So I guess my question is, is this 'normal'?]
Click to expand...
Fasting bloodsugars are usually higher due to dawn phenomenon: Your liver dumping glucose to get you energy to start the day. It's the last one to come down, and even after 3 years, I'll still see the occasional peak in the morning. Breathe, you're only just starting out! During the day bloodsugars will fluctuate, so it'll come down most likely. If it was continuously high, your HbA1c would've been loads worse.
 
PamJHS said:
My numbers from my last GP blood test - which triggered my diagnosis as prediabetic/on the cusp of T2 were HBa1c 48, which the doc said was the equivalent of 6.5 on my monitor.
Click to expand...
Your doc isn't quite correct, he/she was either looking at the wrong conversion value or just didn't know any better.
An HbA1c of 48 mmol/mol is the same as an HbA1c of 6.5% in the old school range - which does not mean your average was 6.5mmol/L, in fact with an HbA1c of 48 your average was 7.7mmol/L or 7.8mmol/L (depending which convertor you use):
There is a conversion tool here :https://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-units-converter.html
The 48 is in the 'IFCC - mmol/mol' scale/range.
Your meter will be measuring in mmol/L (that's the scale the UK uses for blood glucose meters)
 
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A fasting number of 9 on your meter is high. Non-diabetics would be below 6.0 (below 5.5 actually). As others mentioned the numbers on meters should not be confused with HbA1C.

At the same time I don’t think you should be alarmed. Measuring daily at fasting is a good idea and if you are consistently above 6.0 do seek medical advice
 
PamJHS said:
I bit the bullet and did a test first thing this morning, before eating or drinking, following instruction video carefully.

My numbers from my last GP blood test - which triggered my diagnosis as prediabetic/on the cusp of T2 were HBa1c 48, which the doc said was the equivalent of 6.5 on my monitor.

Test came out at 9.1 - a lot higher - and I feel a bit alarmed!

[ETA: So I guess my question is, is this 'normal'?]
Click to expand...

Well done @PamJHS on biting that bullet.

pretty informative what goes on inside us as the foods we eat react/impact on us in so many ways.

at least you can now SEE the foods to avoid, (if you keep some sort of record of the food intake )
so then the next time you can alter the meal, and see if the BG is lower.
that's the first step to lowering the BG in the long term.

As others say the Morning fasting scores are the last to lower.

Mine stepped down over a few months from the high end 9
through 3 months down to the 5/low6's.

So effectively you've drawn a line in the sand from which to measure your progress.
some days you'll win and do a little dance,
some days you'll lose and go back to the drawing board,
BUT it will all help you stay on track DAY by DAY, rather then finding out 3 months from now..so WIN/WIN.

*Link to a thread for posting in you daily FBG, a bit more chat then others, so an interesting read, that fleshes out the individual, a little less sterile then just numbers posted up, imho

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/th...ng-blood-glucose-full-on-chat.163627/page-187
 
@Rokaab is correct. Your average blood sugars as per the meter units is 7.7 and is not 6.5.
Also, your HbA1c of 48 actually puts you in the diabetic range rather than the pre-diabetic range, although only just. 48 and over is diabetic.

For the time being it is best to concentrate on testing before and after meals rather than the fasting level. The fasting level becomes more important later on. Have you done any more tests since?
 
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