[jakesfnm]

What happened? Have any of you had a significant discrepancy between your averages at home and your A1C test? I don't know whether I should get a new meter or what. My meter (since I've been low carb - faithfully) hasn't gone above 126. I've tested often and always after a new food. Two hours after eating, it's usually 103-116. Four hours later it's often in the 80's. Overnight is always below 100. A Biosafe A1C had me at 4.9 just over a month ago! I haven't changed diet or activity level or anything else. An A1C at a local lab a couple of weeks ago was 5.9. My home tests have stayed the same. I know I can go high. After the A1C tests, I decided to try an experiment - bagel plus more breakfast - shot to 178 nearly 2 hours later, but I was down to 91 4 hrs. later. I won't do that again, but that was after all A1C testing. I wanted to increase my carbs slightly - for energy, but now I'm too scared. Any insight? Advice?

[shutterbug]

Jakes,
Do you take random readings throughout the day?
A1c is like an average taken from a 24 hr monitor. If you only do fasting, 2 hr pp and some random readings, there is a good chance that your meter avg is not close to a1c.

My 14 day avg is 103 and 30 day avg is 98. But my a1c (came last Tuesday) came back as 5.7 (which is an avg of 126). So your a1c avg is going to be a little higher than the meter (unless you do a lot of readings throughout the day).

[fgummett]

I have also read that not only can home meters be off by 20% but that there can also be a variability between A1c tests at different labs.

[jakesfnm]

Appreciate the insight. I've done lots of random testing - in first few months - not recently. The only time I haven't tested are week days while working. I test when I get home and it's almost always in the 80s (I don't eat much lunch - no time). I wonder if it goes up during stress, during night etc. Is there a random time I should look at? I just tested 45 minutes after a typical meal and it was 97. I don't take any meds, but am pretty active now and have lost 25 lbs. Thanks.

[homeschoolmom]

Let me start by saying that I am very new to all of this - so take my advice with a grain of salt. I noticed that you mentioned testing your blood sugar at 2 hours after you eat. You might want to try testing at one hour when it "peaks". Your high a1c might be the result of high peaks you are unaware of at the 2 hour reading. I thought my blood sugar was doing fine until I decided to check it at one hour (it was 188 after dinner one night!!) I thought my a1c of 5.3 should be under 5 until I realized how high I was going at one hour.

[thelitov]

I usually get my fasting readings Saturday morning, but two Saturday ago, I ran out of lancets, so I had my breakfast - cup of rice some leftover beef stew - and had my reading checked at this drugstore outside our village 2 hours later. I was 122. So I must've been within normal range before my breakfast. Sunday morning following, with supply of lancets, I tested at home and I was 140, fasting. Worried I immediately tested again on a different finger this time and it was 130. No big feast the day before. Was a good boy but I was testing high. So I don't take my meter readings at home as real accurate - just plus or minus 10. I'd rely more on my blood readings at the lab which happens every three months before i see my endo.

[xMenace]

Your data suggests the A1C was off, but we can have hidden highs. Have you tested at 2am, 4am, and 6am? A 5.9 is still great, so keep doing what you are doing and hopefully the next comes out out better,

[morrisma]

Originally Posted by thelitov

I usually get my fasting readings Saturday morning, but two Saturday ago, I ran out of lancets...

Just a note to thelitov: Most of us could not imagine running out of lancets. I have been testing for almost 20 years and have used less than 100 lancets. They really don't need to be replaced after each use.
Mike

[Ronin]

Jakesfnm, et al.,

Testing is a subject of lots of debate in the diabetic community. The reality is that the “numbers” are all relative. Unfortunately, those of us with medical conditions get fixated on “the numbers.” Short of setting up a certified laboratory in our homes where we can perform tightly controlled medical tests, we will never have absolute values. Add to that, the fact that we have bodies that are dynamic – test now and get one reading, wait a few minutes and test again and get another reading because: something you ate just got digested and the carbs are now in your blood stream, or your liver dumped glucose into your blood stream, or your pancreas secreted insulin into your system and everything changes and it is never static.

I know the frustration all too well. We all go through a period where you feel good and are doing the “right things” and then we get a bad test result and we feel as though all is lost. We’re on a roller-coaster of emotion all based on what number appears on your meter or shows up in the mail.

Eventually, we all learn the wisdom of the almost inane phrase: “it is what it is.” It is a number that indicates what our BG levels were at a particular time and place. Yes, it is an indication of the degree of success of whatever regimen we have put upon ourselves at that time. The first response to a “bad” result is usually “why me” when the better response is “what should I do now?” The answer is obvious, if we are in the “normal range” for who we are and what we are doing at the moment, nothing is required except to record the number and move on. If the number is outside that range then we should examine the potential causes and take action accordingly.

[Pixi]

I'll risk a dumb question here folks:

It's probably an old newbie one at that, but, is it possible to get an idea of ones A1C from your home meter using the A1C converter on the Blood Sugar 101 site for example?

A1c/Average Blood Glucose Conversion Using the ADAG Formula

OR, it is only really measurable at a lab? I am probably misunderstanding a lot at this point...

I wondered if I entered my average for 7, 14 or 30 days etc. (as is stored on the home meter) would say, the 30 day figure, converted, give me any tangible indication of my A1C?

My home meter is very accurate according to Diabetes Australia who just checked it. Cheerz.

[Ronin]

Hi Pixie!

The HbA1c test is a totally different test from the one that you get from your monitor.

What the HbA1c test measures is the amount of glyciation of your red blood cells (glucose sticking to the red blood cells). In theory this will give you a 90 average. The caveat is that the vast majority of your red blood cells are four to six weeks old, so this test is really a weighted average, skewed to the previous month/six weeks.

The value of this test is that it looks at the broader picture of your glucose management. You cannot test often enough using a home meter to see all the variations in your BG levels.

This particular thread began with a differenece between a home test A1c kit and the lab that Jakes MD used. Of course, those two tests were about a month apart. (FWIW: The test kit is from Biosafe, which is available through Amazon.com) I test this monthly on the first of each month (just finished doing my June test a few minutes ago).

There are probably similar services in Austrailia, but I am not familiar with them.