It's school tomorrow so this sudden splurt of blogging is going to stop and a whole load more homework is bound to be rolling in. Oddly enough having a diabetic dad can actually effect my homework. Ish. The other day I was doing some I.T. homework (not for very long admittedly), when I realised I had been working on the file still attached to the email. Oops. So when I discovered this and saved it onto my account the work I had just been doing disappeared. I called Dad to come and help me, but he was all over the place with his levels and consequently very grumpy. This meant when he was trying (and failing) to find my missing homework, he got a bit frustrated. He started hammering at the keyboard and snapping at me. It was quite scary actually. I sort of wanted to get Mum but I was kind of scared Dad would smash my laptop up. Eventually he gave up and I ended up redoing that bit of the homework. Never mind.
THE CONFESSION
I don't actually understand what diabetes is. Dad tries to explain it, but ends up using confusing words like glucose etc. I always nod and pretend I understand when really what I'm thinking is 'I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about'. Why can't he just say 'I don't have the right stuff in my blood and this stuff substitues it' or something. Adults, honestly.
I am now on a mission to discover what on earth diabetes is.
B
Sunday 27 February 2011
Thursday 24 February 2011
'HbA1c phenomenon' and feeling grumpy
I have an annual review coming up in April. I know this because I called the hospital a while ago to check I was still on their list (I recently transferred back, having been seen at my GPs for a few years).
I also know it because my blood glucose levels have been running stupidly high recently. This seems to happen to me a lot. As soon as I know I'm in the 3 months running up to the test (HbA1c gives an indication of average BG levels over the last 3 months) it all goes to pot. I've come to think of this as 'HbA1c Phenomenon'.
I've been working hard at getting my diabetes under control for around a year now. When I look at monthly average figures during much of that time they are around 6.9 - 7.1 mmol/L. There's a ready reckoner which suggests your HbA1c if you give it an average BG level for 3 months or so, provided the tests include a decent spread of pre- and post-meal results (which mine now are). There are a fair few of these conversion formulae, but the one I use is:
HbA1c = (BG average+2.52)/1.583
Weekly averages recently have been in the mid 8's. I haven't been doing this badly for about 8 months. I was so hoping for a good A1c. Almost as an 'official' affirmation of the work I've been putting in. Secretly I think I was hoping I'd make it into the elusive 5% club (sub-40 in new mmol/mol numbers), but now I think I'll be lucky to match my last one of 7.1%. If I was still pottering along without paying much attention I'd be happy enough with that (as indeed I was), but when you are working much harder at something it's nice to see some sort of results, and a little frustrating to think that you would have seen those results a month or two ago when you didn't have the test scheduled!
In my heart I know that the HbA1c is a pretty poor indicator of control. I've cheated low numbers before by having enough hypos to cancel out all the highs. But it's the badge which defines you as far as the medical profession is concerned. However inaccurate it is, it's still considered the 'gold standard' indicator. I wanted not only to have better control (which I do) but to have a pleasingly low A1c to match.
So I am trying (and largely failing) not to get too grumpy about this. To breathe deeply, take one test at a time and be happy with how far I've come in the last 12 months.
You never know... the test is weighted to the most recent 4 weeks or so. I might still have a chance to knock a bit off if I can keep my head during March.
I also know it because my blood glucose levels have been running stupidly high recently. This seems to happen to me a lot. As soon as I know I'm in the 3 months running up to the test (HbA1c gives an indication of average BG levels over the last 3 months) it all goes to pot. I've come to think of this as 'HbA1c Phenomenon'.
I've been working hard at getting my diabetes under control for around a year now. When I look at monthly average figures during much of that time they are around 6.9 - 7.1 mmol/L. There's a ready reckoner which suggests your HbA1c if you give it an average BG level for 3 months or so, provided the tests include a decent spread of pre- and post-meal results (which mine now are). There are a fair few of these conversion formulae, but the one I use is:
HbA1c = (BG average+2.52)/1.583
Weekly averages recently have been in the mid 8's. I haven't been doing this badly for about 8 months. I was so hoping for a good A1c. Almost as an 'official' affirmation of the work I've been putting in. Secretly I think I was hoping I'd make it into the elusive 5% club (sub-40 in new mmol/mol numbers), but now I think I'll be lucky to match my last one of 7.1%. If I was still pottering along without paying much attention I'd be happy enough with that (as indeed I was), but when you are working much harder at something it's nice to see some sort of results, and a little frustrating to think that you would have seen those results a month or two ago when you didn't have the test scheduled!
In my heart I know that the HbA1c is a pretty poor indicator of control. I've cheated low numbers before by having enough hypos to cancel out all the highs. But it's the badge which defines you as far as the medical profession is concerned. However inaccurate it is, it's still considered the 'gold standard' indicator. I wanted not only to have better control (which I do) but to have a pleasingly low A1c to match.
So I am trying (and largely failing) not to get too grumpy about this. To breathe deeply, take one test at a time and be happy with how far I've come in the last 12 months.
You never know... the test is weighted to the most recent 4 weeks or so. I might still have a chance to knock a bit off if I can keep my head during March.
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