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That time again ...

DeejayR

DeejayR

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,389
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
A short progress report as next week I'll be seeing one of the surgery nurses for THAT blood test.
I'm into week 2 of my occasional treat of a Freestyle Libre sensor, which is settling down to a steady 6.1-6.3 by day and somewhat lower at night. These past weeks I have had a cold followed by a throat infection and my BS has rarely gone below 5.9, or above 6.8, except when I deliberately ate a duck stir fry with egg noodles because it was DELICIOUS and scored low 9 for a short time.
I tried the d-i-y blood pressure machine in the surgery recently and either did it wrong or am about to explode due to high pressure. However, my pulse rate was slightly below normal.
Also, my annual retinopathy test has proved negative again :)
I'm expecting my cholesterol level to be high, and have asked for a fasting blood test to find out the triglyceride figure. This goes against the surgery's policy so I will have to persist. Last year the cholesterol figure was 7.1 overall but I continue to avoid statins.
I'm very content with the way I am and grateful to the forum for continued good advice.
 
The next stage has gone very well, and everything I record here is derived from the knowledge and encouragement I've had from this forum.
Firstly, readings from the Libre have dropped steadily over the sensor's fortnight from 6s and 7s to mostly low 5s, with even lower figures during sleep. I put this down to recovery from a cold and throat infection.
The surgery nurse today was friendly and helpful, and knew just enough about diabetes to deal with the paperwork but not enough to contradict anything I said. So I didn't get a lecture for wanting a fasting blood test to show my cholesterol trigs; instead she ticked all the boxes I suggested, and asked me to submit a urine sample next week for good measure.
I haven't shrunk or grown. My BMI is 20.6 and my blood pressure 120/70. All good.
She mentioned a "review" but didn't know what it entails. I felt I could have asked for a massage from Charlene and Marlene from Spaceballs the Movie but I settled for the tingly toe test at a date tba.
Blood results online Tuesday, probably.
 
That's all sounding very good, sirrah.

I've got my own HbA1C & cholesterol results on Tuesday so fingers crossed for us both!
 
I had surprise blood tests recently at a BP clinic appointment which should have included hba1c and cholesterol. I told the doc I didn't want cholesterol done as I wasn't fasted. He said I didn't have to be. I looked at him like this...o_O..and he didn't argue, just unticked the box. They know is should be a fasting test I reckon.

All the best @DeejayR and @GeoffersTaylor
 
Been for my first lot of bloods since diagnosis today so fingers crossed. Not told to fast but did anyway.
 
Results in today ... HbA1C another point down at 44 :) Cholesterol up again at 7.6. Plenty of the good stuff and trigs (at last) 0.74. But lots of the bad stuff too. "They" are after me to take statins again, not least because of my heart condition. Plus there are some other anomolies in the blood count for which I have been summoned by the pharmacist and my GP. Meanwhile I'll just get on with putting up the greenhouse and building compost bins.
Thanks for your kind thoughts and it does work!
 
Glad to read about your A1C and wish you well with Pharma and GP, be interested to hear how it goes.
Hj
 
DeejayR said:
Results in today ... HbA1C another point down at 44 :) Cholesterol up again at 7.6. Plenty of the good stuff and trigs (at last) 0.74. But lots of the bad stuff too. "They" are after me to take statins again, not least because of my heart condition. Plus there are some other anomolies in the blood count for which I have been summoned by the pharmacist and my GP. Meanwhile I'll just get on with putting up the greenhouse and building compost bins.
Thanks for your kind thoughts and it does work!
Click to expand...

DeeJayR, well done on another point trimmed from the HbA1c. I always have lipids that add up to an inconveniently large number, although my breakdowns (aside from the LDL, which I conclude to be the big and fluffy sort). Over about a year, I took my GP through the AndBreathe 2-way Lipid Learning Module. OK, so I discussed stuff with her and left her with various papers and links to YouTube (mainly Professor Sikaris) presentations.

A couple of times ago she was concerned because the number was even more inconveniently large than before. Her suggestion was to refer me to a Lipidologist, to investigate familial hypercholesterolaemia, as everything else was so good. As I was about to leave for one of my 3-4 month trips, we agreed to redo the bloods on my return and do the referral then. Next time, the numbers had reverted to their usual range, so she felt a referral was unnecessary. I was sort of a little bit disappointed, because I was hoping I'd manage to persuade the specialist to test my LDL particle size.

If your practice is becoming persistent, maybe ask for a referral, such was suggested to me?

Have you run your results through this utility? http://www.hughcalc.org/chol-si.php (My GP thought it was brilliant. :) )
 
@AndBreathe Thank you, yes, I've been practising how to pronounce familial hypercholesterolaemia. I've never had enough data before to use the calculator, but this time I have, so here goes ...

Your Total Cholesterol of 7.60 is HIGH RISK
Your LDL of 5.08 is VERY HIGH RISK
Your HDL of 2.18 is OPTIMAL
Your Triglyceride level of 0.74 is NORMAL
RATIOS:
Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 3.49 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) IDEAL
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.429 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) IDEAL
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 0.777 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL
So does five greens beat two reds?
 
DeejayR said:
@AndBreathe Thank you, yes, I've been practising how to pronounce familial hypercholesterolaemia. I've never had enough data before to use the calculator, but this time I have, so here goes ...

Your Total Cholesterol of 7.60 is HIGH RISK
Your LDL of 5.08 is VERY HIGH RISK
Your HDL of 2.18 is OPTIMAL
Your Triglyceride level of 0.74 is NORMAL
RATIOS:
Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 3.49 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) IDEAL
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.429 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) IDEAL
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 0.777 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL
So does five greens beat two reds?
Click to expand...

Well, the total is pretty meaningless, and on the basis of the others being normal, or better, I'd be pressing for the particle size test.

Bye the way, is routinely referred to as FH when discussing lipids. That might help a bit. :)

Fingers crossed for you.
 
The pharmacist gave me a generous 20 minutes and put the case for re-starting statins, principally because of my atrial fibrillation and only secondarily because of my cholesterol levels. She agreed that there is room for interpretation, and promised to see if the practice will bear the cost of a test for LDL particle size. Can't say fairer than that. They also want me to swap from low-dose aspirin as an anti-coagulant to warfarin or one of the newer drugs (which I will). Next week I have to see my GP to decide why I have too many lymphocytes. Search me, guv.
Thank you for your patience and advice.
 
There's a lot of things for a soul to take it and near impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to our misfunctioning bodies. Glad to read the practice will go for a lipid profile, hope it helps. Wish you well.
Hj
 
DeejayR said:
The pharmacist gave me a generous 20 minutes and put the case for re-starting statins, principally because of my atrial fibrillation and only secondarily because of my cholesterol levels. She agreed that there is room for interpretation, and promised to see if the practice will bear the cost of a test for LDL particle size. Can't say fairer than that. They also want me to swap from low-dose aspirin as an anti-coagulant to warfarin or one of the newer drugs (which I will). Next week I have to see my GP to decide why I have too many lymphocytes. Search me, guv.
Thank you for your patience and advice.
Click to expand...
@DeejayR hope all goes well. Do they think that statins will help with AF as they keep on to my husband to take statins and he also has AF which is being controlled with beta-blockers.
 
@Daphne917 According to the NHS guidelines the combination of AF and high cholesterol apparently gives me at age 76 a 50% chance of a heart attack in the next 10 years, compared with 24% for a normal person, and I have the heart of a normal 85-year-old (I hope s/he doesn't want it back). These arbitrary figures are pretty meaningless but they do ensure that to your average overworked GP statins are a no-brainer, and this is what many of us have chosen to argue against.
Sorry, I can't advise in your husband's case since my AF has always been written up as an afterthought since it's so difficult to measure. All I know is I've had some sort of arrhythmia since I was little, it wasn't discovered until I was about 10, and these days I can count three different heartbeat patterns from time to time, but never within reach of a stethoscope or monitoring kit.
This is meandering a bit from the point at the start of my thread but for many of us our wellbeing becomes a balancing act as we try to arrange priorities, pursue different paths or give up and take the **** pills.
 
@DeejayR we're sounding remarkably alike, T2, high lipids and some sort of arrhythmia. Sometimes it's like a racing train and then at other times missing one beat in ten. Doc at hospital said I have an enlarged heart and that was that. Am on perindolperl, which my GP says is good from my kidneys!!
Back to your first para.... difficult to say if a 50% is that different for 24% in the great scheme of things..


Dillinger had some interesting numbers in another thread.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/thr...ts-all-in-the-mind.120291/page-3#post-1457103
 
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