still no further on with my gp

Sue,
The trouble is none of us are docs and don't have the information she has. She seems to be being thorough.

Your HbA1c measures the amount of glucose carried by the red blood cells. It is an indication of your glucose levels over the last 2-3months. It doesn't necessarily measure the 'spikes' but if you were at high levels for any length of time this would be reflected in your HbA1c.
Here are the criteria for diagnosing diabetes and glucose intolerance ie pre diabetes
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Our ... diabetes_/

As you can see there are a few situations where the HbA1c isn't appropriate and other tests should be used. (so for example if your symptoms have come on quickly ie not over the last 3 months or if you have certain blood disorders like sickle cell anaemia when the HbA1c is falsely low (you'd know if you had sickle cell though. As it says a few drugs can also cause a rapid rise in glucose levels )

Note that although it says that using the old criteria random levels over 11mmol/l (on 2 occasions) can be used for diagnosis, this is from a venous blood test; not the result of a finger prick from a home meter.

Diabetes insipidus is a totally different condition and only shares the name because they were named in ancient times and the symptoms of both may include excessive thirst and urination.

Hi. It does look like you GP is trying to do a thorough job. If I remember correctly the latest NICE Diabetes Pathway doc does talk about alternatives if the normal HBa1C doesn't 'work'.

Do you know anybody who has diabetes and does home testing? If so ask them to help by testing one of your fingers two hours after eating. They will know what results to expect and if its high you will certainly help your GP.

I have done this for a couple of people and it certainly got them on the road for proper treatment with their GP.

By the way.. hot flushing and head sweats after eating is classed as Gustatory Sweating (diabetic or otherwise) and google will explain a lot better than I can in a reply message box here.

Thanks so much for your help i will ring my doctor tomorrow and try and find out more, my Daughter was type 1 so i feel i know a bit about diabetes and i have taken my blood tests over the last few weeks, 2 hours after my evening meal they range between 10 and 13.5 i have used a new machine and in the past done lots of tests for my Daughter and altered her insulin when needed with the support of the DN. i just feel there is somthing wrong maybe im worrying far to much ??.

Hmm, they do seem a bit high for two hours after an evening meal. But you say your HbA1c was normal? Do you know what it was? I wonder if there's any chance that you've very recently developed diabetes and its been too short a time to properly show up in your hba1c? Is that possible?


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