Grazer said:
Why are you having a GTT out of interest? That's normally done to diagnose diabetes, and your 7.2 HbA1c showed you are, even though diet and weight have reduced it greatly since then - well done on that by the way!
I'm having the GTT partly to see how diabetic I am, but possibly more to remind myself that I am still diabetic, because by all other measurable indicators I don't appear to be. I've had odd blood glucose levels for the past 20 years, highish fasting levels at the doctors and highish GTT results, but my HbA1c results have always been in the normal range until the 7.2 in July last year. This diagnosis was however slightly complicated by another unconnected illness causing me a great deal of emotional stress and possibly pushing my sugars higher.
The reduction in my HbA1c was relatively easy compared with how hard some people on here have had to work. I moderated my diet, cutting out obviously sugary things like sweets and chocolate, and cut back on other carbs. However, I continued (and still continue) to eat moderate amounts of bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, unsweetened cereal and fresh fruit. Within 9 weeks I was at 5.9, a month after that 5.6, and more recently 5.5. A C peptide test done at the same time as the 5.6 test was "normal". I wasn't hugely over weight at diagnosis but I've lost about a stone and a half and I'm now at my ideal weight for my height.
I gave up regular testing at the end of last year, but still have periods of testing to check that nothing has changed. My morning fasting levels are between 4.5 and 5, at two hours after meals I can be anywhere between high 5's and mid 6's, and at 4 hours between 4.8 and 5.8. Even a couple of spectacular falls off the wagon haven't produced the expected disaster. An impromptu sweet of crispy creme doughnut, packet of crisps, bowl of fruit and a carton of orange juice (deliberate as I was testing at the time) had me at 3.9 two hours later (I guess my pancreas went into emergency overdrive) and half a tin of Quality Street (don't ask) peaked me at 6.1 after two hours.
Faced with these kind of results it is very easy to forget that I have a problem and actually quite confusing. It is possible, although unlikely, that I am still only glucose intolerant rather than fully diabetic and that the 7.2 was an aborration caused by severestress. Although this shouldn't make any difference to my diet, which I would consider to be a normal healthy one, it would be useful to have a definitive answer and hopefully the GTT will provide this.
