Update - Numbers on the way down!

Congrats,@RFSMarch,

Brilliant results. You are just three months in, your six-month results are bound to be even better. Be proud of your achievements and go celebrate. You earned it.

Congratulations @RFSMarch that is excellent news, a brilliant HbA1c drop and a big relief on the cholesterol front.
Well done.

Congrats @RFSMarch! Wonderful, wonderful results. All your hard work paid off and you managed it with your hectic schedule! That in itself is a great achievement!

That is a brilliant achievement, and what you are doing it clearly making a massive difference.
Well done!

Well done. Hard work all worth it.

How do you know about your bp? Do you measure your own or just take it at the surgery? I ask because I have an awful case of white coat syndrome ( ironic really because I was a reg nurse). Have been given hypertensives. But started testing at home and its really low a lot of the time.
It didnt even occur to me that I had this problem.

And again, bravo!

RFSMarch said:

I measure my own ... and hahah yes that's EXACTLY why I take it at home. I don't know why but the second I walk through that surgery threshold it is a nightmare!!! But at home I can sit quietly for 5 minutes and feel a lot more relaxed - I calibrated it with the nurse when I first got it ... there must be some guideline as to how often I should do it

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I do mine every couple of months at home and then just tell whoever I happen to see at the surgery what the reading was.. they note that in my records and seem quite happy...

I was asked to keep a note for a week and then drop the readings into the nurse. Never heard back.

Well done on your numbers. It is still early days so improvement is ongoing, keep up the good work.

RFSMarch said:

there must be some guideline as to how often I should do it

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i've been monitoring mine at home for years, as mine always go up in a clinic - and it can vary dramatically. i've had it read 190/90 in the clinic, and next day at home it was 128/78 - and i've had my monitor checked and calibrated. so i only do it every few months now - to be honest, mine can swing around so much that i don't really see the point of doing it too much, plus if i do and it's up, i start to get obsessive and worry about it, which doesn't help things at all! i was on antihypertensives for a few years, but i found that they had no effect when my bp went high - even taking double my dose didn't bring it down noticeably. i took myself off to a&e in prestatyn a few years ago, as i was walking offa's dyke path and it went insanely high - 210/95. they did an ecg, and i was told that it showed absolutely no sign of chronic hypertension - i stopped the tablets gradually myself over about xis months, and i haven't noticed any appreciable difference in my bp with or without them. it's been pretty good over the last year or so, 130/76-ish, though i occasionally get slightly higher ones. and if i do decide to see what it's doing, i still disregard the first reading, because there's a dim bit of my brain that always goes, 'ohmigod, what if it's really high?' just before i take it - so guess what happens ......

RFSMarch said:

I do it when I am not on an early shift... so most days are fine. I just will take in a big folder full of facts and figures for the GP next week. Honestly I don't care now if he disses the Libre as unnecessary. I think for my job it is VERY necessary... and as long as I can afford to self-fund, I will.

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If you fund your Libre then it really isn't up to the GP to dismiss it. Mind you my DN said of course after a awhile you won't need to use one anymore. I actually enjoy seeing what effects different things have on my BS. Having a tooth out raised it, and this morning it was reassuring to me when I had a hypo type moment and I could see that my liver had responded so could carry on my Qi Gong class. But enough of this.

Well done on your results. What an improvement.

another thought about blood pressure - i was once with a young friend who was in labour, and her partner kept reminding her to relax her face - apparently it's really hard to stay tense if your face is relaxed. i've tried it and it seems to work - and i've experimented when i'm measuring my bp - being aware of relaxing my face makes a difference to the readings i get.

Those are great results after just 3 months. Well done !