stupid question (please bear with me!)

[Pitzi]

Ok, say you always keep your BG's in a normal range or lowish. never above lets say 7mmol. Why would you need to take an A1c test?

[Penny]

Ok, say you always keep your BG's in a normal range or lowish. never above lets say 7mmol. Why would you need to take an A1c test?

Not sure about others, but at one time, I was having fasting readings averaging 170. My A1C was 6.4. It turned out I was having a lot of lows that I wasn't catching.

[jenet]

Fingersticks only tell you what your BG is at that point in time - like a snapshot. There's plenty of time inbetween fingersticks to go low and rebound high unless you're testing every 30 minutes. I could never catch my lows until they hooked me up to a CGMS for three days. Every time I tested it looked like I was high, and they kept increasing my Lantus which just made it worse. If your A1C is lower or higher than your daily testing, it's a good clue there's something more going on that isn't being caught with your usual testing routine.

cheers,
j

[Pitzi]

Thanks, thats very helpful :) My last A1c (couple of months back) was 5.2

[kitten]

Thanks, thats very helpful :) My last A1c (couple of months back) was 5.2
That's a great A1c! I wish I could do that!

[am1977]

Seems like you have really good control...wish I could say the same :rolleyes:. Anyway, like others said, testing your blood sugar periodically during the day only tells you what your blood sugar is at that exact moment. An A1c can tell you what your blood sugars run in general- it gives you an average blood sugar reading. Your best option would be to look at your blood sugar readings AND your A1c, that way you are really seeing whether your control could stand improvement or you are on track.

Keep doing what you are doing, obviously it's working :)

[Will]

A1c is the only way I can really do it properly, bloodsugar can change so quickly you would be supprised.