A1C form ok to **** in 90 days!

[archimeech]

Last A1C was 6.7, the lowest I've ever had. Just today, the doc's office calls me and says that it is now 8.0! And the nurse tells me on the phone, "the doctor would like you to tighten up on your diet." Sometimes this disease just simply sucks. I've been trying really hard and the harder I try the worse it gets. Oh well, enough of my whining, now to get back to working on my numbers...

[Clint]

I did the same thing... and my cholesterol did the same also a few months ago... I changed my diet and was eating BETTER foods and my cholesterol went UP, not down...

I simply hate this disease!

[am1977]

Guys, hang in there. :) I have gone through the same things myself. My A1c shot up to 8.1 last summer probably due to pump issues and, i'm sure, some of it was due to my own doing...i had a hard time getting a hold of my sugar levels and controlling them. I got another A1c over the fall, a little early, and it was back down to 6.6. It just takes a determination and hard work...and I'm sure you will get things back where they should be. Don't give up! :thumbsup:

[duck]

Archimeech, how long was it between readings?

My (continuing) strategy on getting my A1c readings down is based a lot on what my sugars are when I am asleep: My reasoning is the A1c is an average of time, so the longer my sugars are normal, the better my A1c will be. And SLEEP is the longest single thing I do where I am not tempted to eat :D . So I try to not eat or do anything that will affect my sleeping blood sugar levels, I check them before I sleep and immediately upon waking, and if they stay between 80-140, I consider that a success.

I've noted that when I have had my worst A1c readings was when I would eat consistently before going to bed, or when I was consistently waking up high.

(((Please note that I am not as paranoid about overnight hypos since I have gone on the pump years ago)))

[archimeech]

it's been a 20 year roller coaster ride on the "sugar express" for me. Up and down, up and down....
Duck, my last was 6 months ago. Talked to the wife and I think the new job and a change in lunch eating habits is the culprit.

[mg_2204]

Meech, hang in there!

You know, the worse would be an A1C of 8... and you wouldn't care. Diabetes is so frustrating, I totally agree with you. But don't despair. Like you've mentioned, a new job, new eating habits... could be anything. Or as Rzrbks says... depending on the phases of the moon...

Don't give up.

[mark-TN]

Meech-

It doesn't sound like you are giving up. I hope I'm right and that I can offer some support. You have already found one thing to work on so you have a place to start, and that is half the battle. A1c’s going backward worry me so get it going the other way so that I can stop. ;) Take care.

Mark

[MarkMunday]

archimeech,

Hmmm ... 6.7 to 8.0 is a big increase over 3 months. Could you have had a bit too much Christmas? Well, at least you now know that it can be done. There are essentially 3 controllable variables here - the food you eat, the insulin you inject, and the exercise you do. And your control strategy has to embrace all three areas. Here are some ideas that worked for me :

I have reduced my A1c from 8.3 to 6.2 over a six month period. And the most effective tactics have been reducing carbs and changing exercise patterns. I have essentailly halved the carbs and made corresponding reductions in mealtime boluses. This has made managing this balancing act a lot easier.

I had blood tests done yesterday. And I will be interested to see what increasing fats in the diet has done to my lipid profile. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. But, as they say in the classics. The proof of the pudding is in the eating ...

The other thing I did was to stop doing 3 X weekly intensive gym workouts. The intense exercise was causing unmanageable liver dumps. And, because I wasn't exercising every day, my metabolic rate was in a constant state of flux. Which meant that my basal rate always seemed to be either too high or too low. I now walk for 30 minutes every day. And things have settled down enormously.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Mark

:)

[duck]

Wow, Mark, once again you have posted something that I will need to work into my life--I had never thought about intensive exercise and liver dumps...or using less strenuous exercise in lieu to manage my sugars. I'll need to give it some thought...

Meech, get a couple of home test kits and test a couple months in a row--That's what's helped me as well. 6 months is a long time in my opinion. ****, three months is a long time. If I were you (and we both know I am not), I would work on "eating better" and monitoring, and test again in one month--Take that info, make further adjustments if necessary, and test again one month after that. You'll be fine.

[TAutry]

Duck,

While Mark may have found intense exercise to be a problem, you might not. I work out pretty thoroughly and have never had a problem. Of course, I test prior to working out and, if necessary, have a snack beforehand. I also test afterward and have a protein-rich snack. Just as with many other aspects of life with diabetes, it varies from person to person.

Travis

[archimeech]

Mark, it was approximately 6-8 months between tests, as I have just changed Endo's. I actually get much more low impact exercise everyday now. I went from working in suburbia to working downtown. I walk about 25 (really long) city blocks from parking to my office twice a day so I'm averaging at the least 3 miles every day of walking.

Marie, you know, I forgot about the phases of the moon. I distinctly remember waking up the other night while sitting in my back yard, buck-naked and howling up at the moon. That may have something to do with it. Luckily I live in a sub-tropic zone where as you're up there in the temparate zone, and being that African Swallows are non-migratory.... oh wait, that's a different movie. ;)

In all seriousness, thank you all for the help and support. It is definitely a life-long, day by day struggle. Sometimes, you just want to throw you hands up in the air and say, "what the ****?!?"

[MarkMunday]

Duck,

While Mark may have found intense exercise to be a problem, you might not. I work out pretty thoroughly and have never had a problem. Of course, I test prior to working out and, if necessary, have a snack beforehand. I also test afterward and have a protein-rich snack. Just as with many other aspects of life with diabetes, it varies from person to person.

Travis

You are absolutely right about us all responding differently. But walking this tightrope is particularly tricky when you are totally dependent on injected insulin. And, I believe, it becomes increasingly challenging the longer one has been insulin dependent.

After discussing the big increases in blood sugar after gym workouts with the endo, we decided that I must have been running out of insulin during the early morning sessions. The liver responds by releasing glycogen, even if the bsl is reasonably high.

I tried to deal with this by injecting a small amount of Humalog before the workout. It helped, but the exercise accelarated the absorption of insulin dramatically. And I had to deal with hypos. Eating glucose tablets during the workout helped with this. But not knowing where my bsl was all the time wasn't fun. And having breakfast before going to the gym didn't work for me either.

I realised, after some experimentation, just what a difference the type of exercise can make. Resistance training was particularly problematic, in that it caused severe hypos and very high post-exercise blood sugars.

The reason is that anaerobic exercise has to be fuelled exclusively by glucose. You can't burn fat without oxygen. Which is why the rate at which blood glucose is used increases by as much as 30 times when you push those weights. And ensuring an adequate supply of glucose is critical.

Intensive exercise can also cause an adrenalin response. Which, I find, pushes the bsl up to the point where getting it down again is really difficult. This used to happen to me regularly. I tend to push myself to the limit when exercising, and I feel very "unsatisfied" afterwards if I don't do this.

Managing this process became just too hard. My HBA1c had increased to 8.8 and I had to do something about it. Which is why I switched to walking, amongst other things. I still want to get back to resistance training. I have lost some weight and want to put it back on as muscle. And maybe things will be easier now that I am on Lantus. But I want to get the low-carb diet sorted before I start messing with intensive exercise again.

What I have realised from all this is that an understanding of how and why we respond to exercise is very important. It enables you to push all the right buttons, and they are different for all of us.

Cheers,

Mark
:)

[gettingby]

Hang in there Meech !!!!!! :D