I’m a bad, bad person and don’t track my blood sugar with a device. I just rely on my A1Cs which have been good.
You’ve never hit higher than 145? I bump up to the 250s - 260s fairly often. I was over 300+ when I got diagnosed. I don’t seem to feel it.
I should say that I’m only on Lantis insulin - one shot at night of a long-acting insulin that stays in my system all day. I don’t take any with meals. I may need to start doing that someday, but for now, my A1C levels are great, so my doctor said not to worry about it. That’s also why not eating works for me - that slow-acting insulin is always there, doing its job. Slowly.
Well, I did today. My breakfast sent me to 145 so, because I’m curious, I tested 1 hr post-snack at 159. I’m about to wash my hands and test 2 hours post-snack.
I don’t know what the deal is with my numbers today.
Two hours post-snack (2 carbs): 117
I just read back through the gestational diabetes thread I started during my last pregnancy and the numbers reported by diabetics in that thread are way, way higher than anything I’ve ever seen, too.
I physically can feel numbers over, say, 130. Yesterday I had dinner with my parents and was at 132 2 hours later and felt like shit: sort of queasy, a little sweaty, with a bit of a “swimmy” feeling in my head. It was GROSS and I honestly expected way, way higher numbers when I tested then.
The biggest problem for me though is feeling like an utter failure if I wind up outside my given parameters (over 120 2 hours PP or when my AM fasting is over 95 (and it almost always is, but never a lot; I think the highest I’ve had is 109)). And I shouldn’t, damn it, because even 145 isn’t that bad and I know I can fix it by not having the extra 1/4 c of cereal.
It’s still frustrating though.
Numbers I wouldn’t even blink at. You’re supposed to be below 160(?) within 2 hours of a meal when you’re NOT diabetic.
Got my A1C checked again today. 6.2 Doc is happy, I’m happy.
Strangely, those ice cream drumsticks don’t seem to touch me. I had a big lunch of Godfather’s pizza just after 11am, and had vanilla drumstick about 30 minutes ago. Just tested at 118 (3 hours post meal). Hell, it was 126 this morning when I got up, having fasted 13 hours since my last meal.
I’m not really understanding their guidelines for me at all. WebMD says under 100 fasting and under 140 2 hrs PP is the expectation in non-diabetics. I was told they wanted me under 95 fast and 120 PP.
There’s certainly some variation from person to person, too. Whenever I’ve gotten the low blood sugar shakes, I’ve tested in the high 70s. I know for most people that would on the low side of normal - certainly not low enough to cause a reaction.
Yeah, 890 was rough. I was basically unresponsive, though I could hear what was going on around me. I can go pretty high (around 600) before I really feel bad, but I have been very brittle since developing it. My A1C was 15.7 at one point, but that was because the doctor was trying to treat my type1 with diet and pills…uggg!
Numbers I’ve seen around tend to vary a lot., but the American Diabetes Association says;
"What Does Tight Control Mean?
Tight control means getting as close to a normal (nondiabetic) blood glucose level as you safely can. Ideally, this means levels between 70 and 130 mg/dl before meals, and less than 180 two hours after starting a meal, with a glycated hemoglobin (A1C) level less than 7 percent. The target number for glycated hemoglobin will vary depending on the type of test your doctor’s laboratory uses."
So my A1C was tested at 6.2 earlier today, meaning my average over the last 3 months was about 129. And this is considered well under control (I do take both Januvia and Metformin to achieve this, but I don’t worry all that much about my diet other than some very basic changes I made initially).
My last doctor said 60-100 fasting and under 160 within 2 hours after a meal would be considered normal.
Also note above, they said “as you safely can”.
I had an OB appointment just a while ago and asked my doctor to rationalize my BG expectations vs. that of the WebMD recommendations. He said the goal of true diabetics is to minimize the long term effects of diabetes whereas somebody with gestational diabetes has a much shorter time period to work in to minimize unwanted effects. You guys can handle higher numbers over a short period and still achieve good overall results. Since I only have a short period, my expectations are more strict and that makes since.
That fails to explain why my expectations are so much lower than what is considered normal for a non-diabetic, though. I have another appointment with the educator on the 30th so we’ll see what she has to say.
The good news is he checked my food diary/BG diary and said absolutely he would not support any kind of insulin recommendation at all from the educator, who has already threatened me with insulin once because of my <110 fasting BG despite the fact that my post-meal numbers are almost entirely fine (and where they’re not it’s because of something I did, which is a fixable without insulin; I like cake though) and all the randoms I’ve done have been fine.
Seriously, if that person ‘threatened’ you with something you didn’t want over something like that, I’d tell them to get fucked and find another doctor.
I have gone so far as to tell my (previous) doctor(s); “‘We’ are not going to do anything of the kind. This is my body and my life, and I am the ultimate decision maker on what I will and will not do. So X is off the table and I will not discuss it with you further. If that doesn’t work for you, then it would probably be best if I find another doctor who is willing to work with me.”
Oh, that’s not from the doctor, it was from the educator who called to check up on my numbers the other day as a follow up (I only got my meter on the 9th) and it really was sort of “threatening.” It was weird, not like guidance or teaching or advice or anything. She sounded kind of like I do when I get pissed at my kids, i.e., if you don’t X I’ll do Y. That kind of “threatening.”
I don’t like her very much.
Yowzers. Do you now have a protocol planned for when you’re feeling gut-sick? Along the lines of “if food is disrupted, test slightly more often and adjust insulin very carefully” or something?
That strikes me as being the sort of thing worth planning for in advance. As an asthmatic, we’re strongly advised to have plans like that for asthma flares.
As a side note: 20+ years ago I shared an office with a fellow who had been diagnosed as Type I as a kid. He was involved in a long-term study documenting the effects of very tight control over blood sugar levels. He was very informative about the disease in general - mentioned that one of his terrors was that someone would find him unconscious, see his insulin pen, and try to “help” him by giving him some insulin.
He pointed out that hypOglycemia from too much insulin would kill him a lot faster than hypERglycemia from not enough, and said that if someone ever finds a diabetic “in a state”, try offering them sugar and if that didn’t help, then call 911.
I thought anything below 180-200 two hours PP was considered normal.
Is pre-diabetes considered dangerous in and of itself? After a while it seems like people would just be putting themselves at risk of medication side effects and hypoglycemia in exchange for a miniscule reduced risk of diabetic complications.
Well, if you’re pre-diabetic, you still have a working pancreas, so I’m assuming the treatment is to eat right and exercise. The diabetic diet is really just a healthy diet, unless you listen to the low-carb people. I don’t know what the medication for it would be, but I’d rather risk a medication side effect in order to get a miniscule reduced risk of going blind, impotent, onto dialysis and having to have my feet cut off before dying of cancer or heart disease anyway.
Mama Zappa,yes I do check more often now when I am not feeling well. It scared me enough that I don’t want to ever go through that again. I always felt that I could handle it when I went to high, that I knew how to bring it down. That taught me that very quickly you can get to the point of not being able to help yourself anymore.
Your friend is right about hypoglycemia generally being more urgent. I have always feared that more than hyperglycemia, now I just fear both. My friends and family have all been told that if I am unresponsive, to give me sugar, not insulin, and then call 911. ****
But again, what are the health risks? I would assume the risks of pre-diabetes itself are minor, but if you don’t get it under control it’ll progress to full blown type II within a decate. The risk of mild diabetes are worse than pre-diabetes, and the worse the disease the worse the effects.
I read a book once where a physician was talking about the negative effects of having uber strict standards for lipids, blood pressure, glucose, etc. One situation he had was when someone had mild diabetes, so he got metformin. He ended up passing out while driving a car due to low blood sugar. So there are risks to medical care too.
One I hear every so often: “But I thought you were diabetic. Why the heck do you have chocolate in your bag/desk?”
Well, 1> I can still eat dark chocolate in moderation, and 2> If my blood sugar drops too low, I need something RIGHT NOW.