Earlier in the week I had my endocrinologist appointment. Before heading there, I uploaded my BG readings from my meters to Diasend. (Dr. K likes looking at actual readings as opposed to Dexcom trend data. That job is for my CDE.) (And I heart Diasend by the way!) Printing out results from the past 30 days confirmed my already existing suspicions that I’ve been encountering a few too many high BG than I’d like. And as usual with me, there were no obvious patterns but more random, various times of day or night when they have been occurring. With my print outs tucked inside my bag, on my way to the office, my nerves grew. Although my average BG from the meters reflected 143 mg/dL, which I know isn’t terrible, I knew the high BGs would elevate my A1c. And I got really nervous that my A1c was going to be the highest it’s been in a while.

Nope. The same as 3 months ago. I’m currently holding steady at 7.2. For once I was very happy with that number. Last time I was satisfied. This time, actually happy. That it wasn’t higher of course. For the life of me I cannot figure out how the A1c works. Most of the time I anticipate lower than the results I get. This time I expected higher. And I was still wrong. When I was growing up I had my share of high A1c results. 9’s, 10’s, even higher. Those were a result of control standards not as tight (in the first years of my diabetes life) and later, not controlling it like I should. However in the past few years that I have been putting a lot of effort into my diabetes “management”, my A1c has always seemed to fail me at giving a precise picture of what my BG is actually doing. I know not to rely completely on BG readings to give the whole picture. There are many hours in between that can have BG swings. But in the past 3 years since I’ve been using the Dexcom system, knowing what my BG is 24/7, it still doesn’t always tie into my A1c. It wouldn’t bother me so much except for the fact that so much weight is put on this test. Every person in the medical field wants to know what a diabetic’s A1c is. My endo and CDE assess my management success with this number. The ADA and AACE predict how this number will affect my chances of complications. I’m all for managing BG as best as can be – obviously I want to be healthy now and for years to come. But this stupid test not only gives me anxiety every 3 months, it doesn’t even make sense. At least for me.

image credit: sodahead.com