Obtaining a 6.0 A1c

[glashalful]

I finally brought my A1c down, and I had to brag! Was 11 and 12 before the pump, in the 8's after the pump, but got it to 7.3 today! They tell me .4 more and I can be considered "controlled"! The only way I was able to do it was by managing my numbers and understanding how to make adjustments on my own. If I don't watch it daily and make adjustments when it becomes apparent they are needed, then no improvement is made. But I finally decided it's not my doctor's disease, it's MY disease, and I need to be the one who manages it! I'll get that extra .4 with my new software -- it shows me graphs layered on top of each other for each day which makes patterns and trends incredibly obvious and, therefore, easy to adjust. I'm using Diabetes Pilot, but I'm sure there are others out there just as good, I just never found them. It was incredibly helpful to have those charts at the doctor's today -- helped me understand adjustments better, and for them to show me what was going on. Without that, it's just a guessing game.

I would be interested to hear from all you 6.0 people -- how do you do it? 12 sticks per day? Awesome software? Pump mastery? Exercise? Diet? (Two out of those five for me -- not so good, eh?)

I want a 6.0 next time, but I'll take that 7.3!!:D

[LancetChick]

If I don't watch it daily and make adjustments when it becomes apparent they are needed, then no improvement is made. But I finally decided it's not my doctor's disease, it's MY disease, and I need to be the one who manages it!

I think that puts it in a nutshell very nicely. I was fortunate at diagnosis to have a young doctor who had no prior experience with diabetes, so I took over from the get-go out of necessity, using MDI as needed because I didn't know any better. Years later, MDI was found to be a breakthrough in the treatment of diabetes (ho ho ho). I test roughly 15x a day, and log my results, along with food and insulin. Sometimes I get tired of logging, but it allows me to see things I wouldn't otherwise notice. And when my blood sugar is behaving well, testing so often seems ridiculous, but then I'll catch an upward or downward turn before it turns into a hypo or a high, making it well worth the 15 minutes of total effort it takes in a day (I get some highs and lows anyway, just nowhere near as many).

[Cyborg]

I would be interested to hear from all you 6.0 people -- how do you do it? 12 sticks per day? Awesome software? Pump mastery? Exercise? Diet? (Two out of those five for me -- not so good, eh?)

I want a 6.0 next time, but I'll take that 7.3!!:D


Congratulations on the a1c. I got down to a 5.8 my last visit. I get my next a1c next week. For me, accurate carb counting, a fine tuned pump, a mostly low carb diet, temp basals, and careful timing of my boluses has helped tremendously.

[Keezheekoni]

For me, at 5.7 currently, it was fine tuning of my pump mostly. I don't low-carb because I refuse to go without my mocha frap everyday. I worked really hard at finding out what my optimal I:C ratios are, as well as my basals.

I think that also testing my bg upwards of 14 times a day helps too because I can correct when I need to, and am on top of my numbers.

I don't have a software that I use to chart anything. I really don't rely on charts to show me where I am. I just look at my trends in the history on my pump.

[KritterMom]

Awesome! Congratulations! Mine was usually in the high 7's before I started pumping. Now it's down to 6.4, so thats a little bit better. Keep up the good work!