Friday, January 21, 2011

The A1c blues

I've come to terms with the fact that my A1c currently sucks. What's an A1c? It's an average reading of your blood sugar over the last 3 months. It measures what percentage of your hemoglobin is coated in sugar. The higher your A1c, the more at risk you are for long-term health problems. When I was first diagnosed, my A1c was 12.8%. For non-diabetics, I believe the range is 4-5.5%. For diabetics, they say an ideal # is 6-6.5%. Over the first 3 years of being diabetic, I brought it down with each visit to my endo. Eventually, it was under 6% and I remember feeling really proud of myself and on top of my game.

In the last 2 years, it has slowly gone up. Now it's at 8.1%. Not ideal. This is where the disappointment in myself sets in. The guilt. The depression.

My numbers have been so up and down this month that I think I should have enough of a reason for my insurance to cover CGM (continuous glucose monitoring). At this point, I don't care that I have to attach another thing to me if that "thing" is going to help me get back into control.

1 comment:

  1. My daughter recently started wearing a CGM and we really like it. I am loving the information that I am getting from it. It is really helping me to make decisions about her basal and carb-insulin ratios. She was hesitant to have another "site", but she now also feels so much better when she is wearing it.

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