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Should I be worried about my fasting test?

C

Cazmia

Member
Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask etc, but I have been booked in for a fasting blood glucose test on tuesday morning, and my GP has asked for HbA1C to be tested too (I am not a diabetic yet, but my mother is a T1 for 32 and a half years and my grandmother , my mums mum, is a T2 for 20 years almost), due to me seeing blood glucose results of at the highest, 10.9mmol after a relatively healthy Salad roll (Relatively healthy being a cracked wheat roll, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, a slice of ham and some margarine).

The lowest my sugars have been lately, is 4.8.

My question is, what exactly will the HbA1c show? My gp has also asked for a fasting glucose test (not the glucose tolerance, just a bog standard water from midnight test), but from checking myself, my fasting sugars havent peaked much past 6.2mmol.

I am extremely worried about this, because if it does indeed show that I am diabetic, I dont know how this will react with my Pernicious Anaemia (accompanied with extremely low folates) or the nerve damage that has resulted from this already.
 
HbA1C will show your average blood glucose over the last 6-8 weeks.

Fasting at 6.2mmol/L is, I believe, higher than normal.
Those with less than 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dl) but greater than 6.1 mmol/L (110 mg/dl) will be diagnosed as having impaired fasting glucose, or pre-diabetes.
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You don't say how long after your meal you obtained a reading of 10.9mmol/L

From the FAQ on this site about the glucose tolerance test
People who have IGT or pre-diabetes will have a plasma glucose level of less than 11.0 mmol/L (200 mg/dl) but equal to or greater than 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dl).
Click to expand...

So from the little information you have provided there looks to be a chance that you are pre-diabetic.

You must have some idea, as you seem to be testing prior to your GP appointment.
How long have you been testing?

Again as far as I know it is not usual to have an HbA1C test at first diagnosis, but it may be useful to discriminate between pre and full diabetes.

If you have been (pre)diabetic for a while, having this confirmed by your GP isn't going to suddenly change your ongoing health for the worse - it is a diagnosis which will help you plan your future lifestyle to minimise the effect of diabetes.

Better to know than carry on in ignorance.

Cheers

LGC
 
I'd originally made the first appt with my GP on advice of the Practice Nurse, who I'd mentioned that I kept getting burning sensations in my hands and feet (my feet and lower legs are already affected by Pernicious Anaemia related Neuropathy) and she insisted that I make an appt to get that checked out, which is when my GP ran the initial blood test primarily to check B12 levels, but she also checked stuff like Folates (which were 1.3 and according to GP Very low), liver function, blood glucose etc, which is when she discovered the borderline diabetes as the sugar came back as 6.2mmol.

After getting the blood results, I started randomly testing my sugar each day, sometimes 2 hours after a meal, and quite often before I'd eat, to see if there was some pattern of them going high.

The 10.9mmol result came roughly 2 hours after a meal, I checked the sugar level then because I'd started feeling unwell, and it was accompanied by the most god awful headache too.

When I saw my GP on the 13th of this month, I mentioned that 10.9mmol result to her, and she said that eating a salad roll really shouldnt have impacted my sugars to be that high as most normal people can cope with that, which is why she ordered a fasting test and an HbA1c test.

She now also thinks that a lot of the symptoms Ive had from the PA (the nerve issues, tiredness, headaches, urinary problems etc) could be related to the blood sugars, even though I was experiencing those 2 years ago when the blood sugars were coming back normal on labwork.
 
You seem to be in the prediabetic zone. Your fasting numbers may well go in and out of the normal range at this stage. In fact, fasting numbers can remain 'normal' for years when your post meal blood sugars are higher than normal, but most people would never think to test as they believe that if their fasting test is fine then there's no risk. Better to find out now rather than later.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Possibly time to review your diet and cut back on the processed carbs?

From your introduction thread it looks as though you are already aware of the main issues and the options.

Best of luck.

LGC
 
Cazmia said:
<snip>
I am extremely worried about this, because if it does indeed show that I am diabetic, I dont know how this will react with my Pernicious Anaemia (accompanied with extremely low folates) or the nerve damage that has resulted from this already.
Click to expand...

Hi Cazmia,

I don't know if you are aware of this, but anaemia can affect HBA1c results, and may make them read low.

more information here http://www.ngsp.org/factors.asp
 
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