• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

My Diabetes Journey This Year

silasdamien

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hello everyone,

I have been a T2 diabetic for the past 8 years and did not control it well. It changed this year. On 26/3/2018 my HBA1C was 12.2% and the doctors wanted to start me on insulin. I disagreed and told them to give me another 3 months. They then put me on 1 each of gliclazide and metformin (500mg) in the morning 2 each for lunch and 1 each for dinner. I still had high blood glucose reading with the medication in the high 11s (> 200) before meal.

On the 18/04/2018 I stopped eating rice (a staple in asia) and carbs. That was before I started reading on low carb diet. This was a response out of frustration. Soon after I started going into hypo levels. My bg at bedtime was low 4s (< 90) , wake up was between 5-6 (90-110). Because of medication did not face problems with dawn phenomenon. Seldom checked postprandial. But checked before meals and was in the low 5s. Many times went hypo in the evening.

On 07/05/2018 I reduced the medications and right now am on 1 metformin (500mg) after lunch. My bg now was between 5-6.5 mostly high 5s and low 6s (100-120) and 2 hours postprandial was below 7.8.
On the 24/5/2018 Went for my HBA1C test. My follow up with the doctors was on the 25/6/2018. I started getting the dawn phenomenon where my wake up is normal and slowly go up to 6.8-7.2 (122-130) and start going down by 11.30am

From 25/5/2018 till todate I am on intermittent fasting basically 18 hours of no eating and 6 hours eating window. In between I have also fasted for 24 hours, 36 hours, 48 hours. During this period I started checking 1 hour postprandial and 2 hour postprandial and its between 6.5-7.8 and very seldom above 7.8. I am also taking 1/2 teaspoon of ceylon cinnamon and this help me to control my dawn phenomenon. Rarely goes above 6 (108) now.

I am also going for daily rapid 1 hour walks.

Today my HBA1c results came in and my result was 8.1%. I am unhappy with my result as I think I made a lot of progress.

All of my other markers improved.
Weight down to 69 kg from 75 kg.
Waist down to 93 inches from 107 inches (In fact need to buy myself new pants)
Chlosterol is within range.

I am frustrated with my HBA1C results.
 
Your kidding me right. You deserve a huge pat on the back. Sure it has taken a while to find your way, but now you have.

You are on the right track and you need to keep going just as you are.

Have you got the mySugr app. After about a week of entering data it will give you an estimated HbA1c. It is a great motivator.

Don't be upset about the HbA1c number, have a party!
 
Hi @silasdamien and welcome to the forum. You have made great progress with your HbA1c and weight - well done!
But I hope your waist measurement is in centimetres not inches?! :)
 
Well done, great progress.

As I am not a doctor I can not advise you on medication, but I expect you would benifit from the heightest metformin dose you can take without getting site effects. Remember metformin has no risk of hypos and you should increase the dose slowly, ask your GP for advice about it.

There are more modern drugs, but they need a doctor that understands them, I expect if your doctor did, they would have tried them before saying inslin.

Resistance training and HIIT have been proven to give good results when combined with a low carb diet.

What are you eating and drinking on a topical day?
 
Hi @silasdamien and welcome to the forum. You have made great progress with your HbA1c and weight - well done!
But I hope your waist measurement is in centimetres not inches?! :)

LOL yes in cm.

Well done, great progress.

As I am not a doctor I can not advise you on medication, but I expect you would benifit from the heightest metformin dose you can take without getting site effects. Remember metformin has no risk of hypos and you should increase the dose slowly, ask your GP for advice about it.

There are more modern drugs, but they need a doctor that understands them, I expect if your doctor did, they would have tried them before saying inslin.

Resistance training and HIIT have been proven to give good results when combined with a low carb diet.

What are you eating and drinking on a topical day?

My personal goal is to get off all medication if possible. I drink warm water. My regular meal is 3 diff types of vegetables and a portion of fish or meat. I divide my plate to 4 diff potions. I take my lunch at 12.00 pm and dinner at 5.00p.m.

I have not heard about HIIT and Resistance trainig will check it out.
 
A quick reminder here that HBA1C results are an average of over 3 months.

If I’ve read this correctly, you stopped eating rice and carbs on 18/04, then had your next HBA1C on 24/5, after more or less six weeks of much lower carbs. So, that 3-month average of 8.1% would still include 6 weeks of the much higher carbs and readings of before 18/04?

I think that HBA1C is a great result including that!
 
You have done really well . As others have said you hba1c is an average so if you say have an average turnover of blood cells which can be about 12 weeks and you had 5.4 weeks ( 18/4 to 25/5 ) at reduced bs and you had about 3 weeks with the higher medication and the balance of 3 weeks ( that is the weeks before you started to use carb and before the higher medication ) @ 12.2 % then as your hbA1c was 8.1 % then by deduction your hbA1c in the 5.4 weeks would be around about 5.6% which would be great . Obviously there are are a lot of unknowns such as when you had increased medication this would have brought your down bs I guesstimated that was about 9% based on your comment that you were showing 11 at that time.Nevertheless I think you can be reasonably certain that you are going in the right direction and you are having a positive impact on your blood sugar.
Hope this helps and makes you feel happier with your result
 
You have done really well . As others have said you hba1c is an average so if you say have an average turnover of blood cells which can be about 12 weeks and you had 5.4 weeks ( 18/4 to 25/5 ) at reduced bs and you had about 3 weeks with the higher medication and the balance of 3 weeks ( that is the weeks before you started to use carb and before the higher medication ) @ 12.2 % then as your hbA1c was 8.1 % then by deduction your hbA1c in the 5.4 weeks would be around about 5.6% which would be great . Obviously there are are a lot of unknowns such as when you had increased medication this would have brought your down bs I guesstimated that was about 9% based on your comment that you were showing 11 at that time.Nevertheless I think you can be reasonably certain that you are going in the right direction and you are having a positive impact on your blood sugar.
Hope this helps and makes you feel happier with your result

The more recent weeks have a lot larger effect on a A1c, I have hard it claimed that the last 4 weeks is responsible for about half of the result.
 
Back
Top