Not sure if anyone is aware but....

[catgalla]

I took my son who is 6 years old for his 3 month appointment with his diabetes nurse educator and they don't have to draw blood anymore to get your a1c reading. They just finger stick you and you can get the results in 6 minutes. I'm sure many of you are aware of this but this is the first I've heard of this. I just saw my endo a couple of months ago and I had blood drawn. Is this something new??

[JediSkipdogg]

Nope. I've been doing it that way for about 3-4 years. It's a fingerstick that just requires a larger sample of blood and takes 8 minutes. I love it that way and don't miss the blood draws for it one bit.

[gettingby]

My endo doesn't do this but I sure wish he would. I hate waiting !!!!

[Cyborg]

No one ever offered it to me!!

[JediSkipdogg]

Here's the one my doc uses.....she has two in her office so she can run two patients simultaneously.


http://www.pointofcaretest.com/images/hba1c.1.jpg

HbA1c Testing (http://www.pointofcaretest.com/hba1c.htm)

[Eyessack]

Perhaps the reason that many people haven't been offered this is because getting blood drawn gives more important information besides hba1c. I'm just guessing.

[JediSkipdogg]

Perhaps the reason that many people haven't been offered this is because getting blood drawn gives more important information besides hba1c. I'm just guessing.

Actually, no...well...

When I use to have the blood drawn A1C I would have one vial drawn which was enough to do fingersticks for a month, and the ONLY thing they ran on it was an A1C. The rest of the blood was discarded and no other tests were done with it. Basically, a huge waste in my opinion. At least with this machine it only takes about 2 uL (I really have no idea how much) of blood and is no more painful than a standard home BG check.

[xMenace]

Wait another 10 or 15 years kev. I get a whole shopping list done once a year and usually all the cholesterols the other times.

[JediSkipdogg]

Wait another 10 or 15 years kev. I get a whole shopping list done once a year and usually all the cholesterols the other times.

I get all that done every May. Then every 3-4 months with my other doctor's appointments I get the A1C. There's no point in doing a cholestrol, lipid profile, etc. every 4 months.

[Jules49]

They do the lepid tests on me every 3 months. Have been told that some are done every 6 weeks. I get at least a 2 page report everytime I go. Had by pass surgery almost 11 years ago so they do watch me. Think the older you get they more they check.

[Funnygrl]

My endo does this. He uses the same machine Jedi's does. I find it reads about a percent lower than the lab. It's definitely convenient, but I hate the false lows. I'd rather have a more realistic idea of how I am doing. I get a real lab done once a year for other important stuff.

[HollyB]

The paediatric clinic here has one, but apparently they couldn't afford to get two, so the adults still have to have blood drawn every time. Aaron gets a big blood workup annually, but they do his A1c right on the spot. It's way better that way!

[sofaraway]

when i went to the childrens clinic the A1c was taken with fingerstick blood, then we had to take it up stairs to the lab and they would phone the result through before you went into the doc.

[Glycem]

My general doc has one of these small blood testers for A1C in his office. He used it on me before, but within a couple days my endo had blood work done. I can't remember exactly what the numbers where but it was something to the effect of the small machine reading at 7.5 and the blood work in lab read at 6.3. So, personally, I don't trust that small meter for accurate A1C's.