Huh!

[markd]

Just had my first fasting reading in 5 months that was over 4.9

To be fair, eating a huge chinese buffet meal last night with 3 moderate servings of boiled rice, plus chocolate fudge cake with ice cream to follow *may* have had something to do with this morning's 5.1

Still feeling bloated this morning, so assume food is still being digested and keeping my BG high.

If the weather wasn't so cr*p, I'd go for an extra 10 miles walk later, guess I'll have a go at the weights instead.

I tend to find that my exercise drops off in the winter months and my BG/A1c tends to rise a little as a consequence.

Anyone else find that their BG follows the seasons in this way?

I'm back off to the US in December so can restock on the Bayer A1c Now test kits, as I'll use the last one at month end.

Incidentally, I see that Bayer have been bought by German company Siemens, so I wonder if the test kits will start to be more easily available in the EU.

I trust everyone has a happy and not too carbaholic Halloween...

mark

 

[daisy1]

Hi Mark,
5.1 isn't high - its just very good Fasting readings should be between 4 and 7.

 

[Patch]

Are you SURE you're diabetic???

 

[markd]

Are you SURE you're diabetic???

Well, I *was* back when diagnosed!

I had a routine pre-retirement medical, the 7 months previous one having been 'normal'. Fasting was 7.5 so the doc did a retest a week later at 8.0 (both indicating diabetes). Also had an OGTT on the second occasion and 2hr value was 11 (just fractionally below the diagnostic level).

Since I was badly overweight at the time (BMI of 38 I think, I've mislaid copies of my oldest records) and had gained a lot of that weight recently, my doc suggested going on Met immediately, in parallel with robust lifestyle improvements, holding out the hope that I might be able to tip the clock back, since my loss of glucose control was fairly recent and matched by my weightgain - much of which was belly fat.

Initially, I'd only set a goal of getting my BMI to around 30, thinking I'd get depressed if I set goals that I couldn't reach. Once I got my head around this needing to be a permanent change in lifestyle and not 'going on another bloody diet' I found it got a lot easier as time went on, my BMI is now hovering in the 22 region and I've lost over 9stone, depending on the date I measure from.

I continue to feel so much better, as my weight has slowly reduced, that I'll probably allow my weight to drift down a bit more, get my BMI down to around 21.

I had a terrible time with Met for quite some months initially (which probably helped with weightloss...) and I did change to Glucobay (which I rate very highly indeed*, often called the forgotten diabetes drug) for a while longer. But now my readings are generally OK without meds.

I do occasionally use Glucobay (when I think of it in time) if I'm planning on having a meal with more carbs than usual - unlike Met it can be taken on an as-required basis and doesn't need weeks to take effect; it certainly does kill those post-prandial spikes.

So to finally answer your question (in my usual ramblling roundabout way) I certainly *was* diabetic but having got rid of the 40% of my weight that was flab (well known as a cause of insulin resistance) and developed a bit more muscle, I'm not sure now (fasting is always OK and even passed an OGTT).

And I'm not in any kind of hurry to go back to a sedentary carboholic lifestyle to push my luck and find out!

mark.

* I've often wondered if newly diagnosed T2s would be better put on Glucobay immediately, rather than Met since it starts to work straight away, where Met often needs many weeks before it kicks in.

Apart from the, um, side effects, Met didn't do anything for me for several months, whereas later experience makes me think that Glucobay would have acted immediately to eliminate those damaging post-prandial spikes.

It is more expensive than Met, which may explain it...