parenthetic (diabetic)

Thursday, March 01, 2007 | 16 comment(s)

I got my A1c result back.

7.1

No change since November.

It makes NO sense.

Doc says it's because the standard deviations of my blood sugars are too high.
"Once you get your standard deviations down around 30, you'll be in the 6s!"

Never mind the fact that I have lowered both my average readings and my standard deviations since November.

My Stats

November Stats
days	mg/dl	# tests	tests/day	S.D.
7	149	89	12.7	62
14	149	182	13.0	62
30	143	402	13.4	60
60	155	799	13.3	67
90	154	1,229	13.7	68

February Stats
days	mg/dl	# tests	tests/day	S.D.
7	136	88	12.6	57
14	132	202	14.4	56
30	130	436	14.5	51
60	139	859	14.3	61
90	137	1,335	14.8	60

She also likened my A1c to getting pregnant.
"As soon as you stop trying so hard... yadda, yadda, bullshit."

Diligent Effort + No Results = Extremely Demoralized.

I went through the holidays (and then some) completely abstaining from sweets, and for what?

Nothing.
Zero.
Zilch.
Nada.

This sucks.

There's a half gallon of ice cream in my freezer calling my name...

16 Comment(s):

Minnesota Nice said...: Oh man Kevin...........damndamndamn I hate it when effort is not rewarded. And, when the meter average does not seem in sync with the AlC you want to throw up your hands and walk away.
What flavor is that ice cream?
Johnboy said...: Kevin,
That really does suck, man. You've worked really hard.

I haven't kept up with everything, but could you be going high at somet time you aren't really capturing with your readings? When do you test?

I don't buy the standard deviation argument. I have seen too many people with highly variable levels that have low A1c levels.

Keep testing. Keep trying. I know you feel like giving in for a bit, and maybe you should allow yourself a little moping, but come back and try again.

Peace,
J.B.
cc said...: that sucks. feeling similarly here. my endo appointment is tomorrow. and i feel like i have put forth all the effort i am capable of. but i have no hope. i already am pretty sure that my a1c is going to be higher than last time, based on meter averages. of course, there is always the standard deviation that can come in my favor... although i doubt it.

unrewarded efforts. sucks tons.
sorry. don't give up!
Chrissie in Belgium said...: I KNOW you are frustrated! How about a good scream!!!!! Kevin getting the standard of deviation down is the HARD part b/c that means you have balance and that is so dam difficult.But look man your HbA1c is not BAD. Seee it that way and keep trying!
Kevin said...: MN: Nothing fancy -- Breyer's Vanilla, but it was GOOD.

JB: I don't really have a pattern of testing -- kinda all over the map. Certainly a good number of 1 hr and 2 hr post-prandials in there, though. I mean, I'm testing 12+ times/day. The only mildy plausible explanation is that I've been having more lows, and I usually test at least twice during a low, so I could be biasing my averages downward. Still hard to believe, though (Theoretically, I should be able to figure this out - I may have to dig into my blood sugar reading data in a serious way).

cass: I hope your endo appointment went well today.

Chrissie: Thanks, I know it's a decent reading. I'm just setting the bar high for myself and frustrated that the effort didn't pay off.
Bernard said...: Kevin

Sorry to hear this. Have you tried increasing your amount of exercise any? I know that you've been working really hard on watching your intake, I just wonder if some gentle exercise would reduce the excursions a little.

I hope you get a much better result next time.
Lyrehca said...: Please. Relaxing when there's a medical reason for infertility is a waste of time. That's why IUIs and IVF procedures were invented.

How much lower are your meter averages? Do they correspond to an A1c of 7.1, which is something like an average of 150, I believe? If your averages are much lower, maybe have another A1c done at a different lab, just to see if there's a change. And frankly, if you eat a gallon of ice cream, try to keep it lower fat and bolus a ton. You may gain weight from the ice cream, but it's the same thing a nondiabetic body would do, pump out a ton of insulin.

Sorry things weren't better, but I wouldn't stand for the doc's blithe explanation.
Anonymous said...: The two "BS"s...too often I feel like saying bullshit when I see my bloodsugar (or A1c).

You should still be proud of your awesome willpower in resisting sweets for so long despite the frustrating results.

I don't know much about statistics, but maybe you're an outlier of the reference range, where your A1c doesn't completely match up with your averages?
jill. said...: Kevin .. that's just frustrating! I don't have too much to add to other people's comments, but you should still be stoked about achieving lower meter averages.

You've been tested for hemoglobinopathies right?

I hope you enjoyed the ice cream! You certainly deserve it after all of that willpower! (I just had cookies and they weren't a reward from abstaining from sweets for any amount of time, I couldn't do it.)
Sarah said...: I don’t even know what to say. My averages are routinely higher than the 130’s, well NEVER in the 130’s (140’s – 160’s), and I routinely run my a1c’s in the 6’s. The only difference I can think of is when I test low, I don’t do 15 minute checks, but every time I test high I test again, to make sure I don’t over correct for the high. Plus I haven’t had good luck with accuracy when I’m higher with the Ultra Smart. I say for now disregard the a1c you got back (hard as that is), take a couple days breather with some fabulous sweets, and get back on your bandwagon. The lowered averages show progress, even if your a1c hasn’t caught up yet. I know you will get the results you want.
Kelsey said...: How frustrating!

I don't really account for the standard deviation thing... what's that all about?

You're doing yourself a lot of good with avoiding sweets and all the hard work you're putting in. It might just take awhile for the numbers to reflect it!
Kerri. said...: Oh Kevin, what a pain in the ass. I'm so sorry that your efforts haven't yielded a lower A1c - yet. That's the key word, though. It will click, damnit.

Now where's the spoon??
Scott K. Johnson said...: Well holy what the fuck eh?

I guess you don't have to be so diligent in resisting sweets if you don't want to - at least that is one way to look at it.

Maybe it has nothing to do with the sweets, and there is some other area that is the culprit. All you can do is keep trying things until you figure out what it the key for you.

So - I guess I don't see it as a total loss. If it means you can enjoy a chocolate covered fortune cookie without feeling guilty, then that is not all bad.
Anonymous said...: I used to never get A1C's below 7, no matter how closely I watched my control. Then one year I started exercising regularly (40 minutes a day, 5 days a week), and by my next A1c my number was 6.2. The next few A1C's were all in the 5's and 6's. I still had variability in my BG readings, nothing terribly different I think from pre-exercise. But for some reason the act of exercising had a profound affect on my numbers.

For the past year, I stopped exercising regularly (work got the best of me), and my A1C's jumped straight up. Again, the variability of my BGs didn't seem to be that much different. I'm finally back to exercising regularly, will let you know if my numbers drop down again for my next A1C.

The point of all this is exercise seemed to succeed where everything else failed--it was like a magic bullet that brought all my numbers into check.
Kevin said...: Roshan: Thanks for that info. Sounds similar to what Bernard was saying. Admittedly, I haven't been exercising all that much over the winter.

Perhaps exercise has something to do with hemoglobin turnover or how "sticky" the glucose is to them.

Whenever spring decides to show up, I've got big plans for getting back to biking to work on a regular basis. Hopefully that will show up in my next A1c (if I can manage to keep everything else in check too!).
Nic said...: I'm so sorry, Kevin! That is demoralizing. Ice cream was made for moments like this.

parenthetic (diabetic)

BULLSHIT

Thursday, March 01, 2007 | 16 comment(s)

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