I am a diabetic with Type 2 diabetes. I was first diagnosed more than 25 years ago and over the course of time, I have moved from controlling diabetes with diet, then to pills, and now finally with pills and insulin.
Every quarter, I dread the A1C test that my family doctor orders up. It can track your blood glucose levels for 90 days. The test tells me how well I have been managing my diabetes in the previous three months (you can’t cheat on the test unless you have someone else provide the blood sample).
And then you wait for the results.
Mentally, you already know what the results are going to be. You know especially so if you have been taking your blood sugar levels on a daily or multiple time a day regularity. Now if you are not taking those daily readings, you most likely are to be surprised by the A1C test results.
The A1C test often is the first test that identifies whether someone will become a diabetic. It can give the patient the heads up if they are pre-diabetic or diabetic, and can assist the doctor in determining whether a regimen of diet, or pills, or insulin are needed. One step often leads to the next.
The first recommendation I received was for a lifestyle change, including losing weight and a regular exercise program. I have followed neither of those programs well. It just seems too easy to skip the exercise program.
My wife monitors my diet closely. Pies, cakes, cookies, and other sweets seldom make an appearance in our household. She has learned that pasta, pizza, and rice can cause a spike in my blood sugars and don’t appear on the table with any regularity.
Salads have become a mainstay of our lunches, along with a piece of fruit. We eat lots of greens and often starchy vegetables end up being substitutes for potatoes.
And yet often times I find myself ready to cheat on my diet. And the end result often is a lecture from either the staff at Valley Diabetes or my physician, who remind me that I’m not being careful enough handling my illness.
If I have not followed my diet properly, I will skip testing my blood sugars because I don’t want to see the results on my meter. I then can try to assume that everything is OK.
And in the Christmas season, with all the extra-special baking and rich meals, it is really easy to imagine that it is not affecting you. I have tried that and then the A1C results are posted and reality strikes.
I’m at the stage that I’m now immune to pain from pricking my fingers four times a day to get a reading. I am immune to any pain of delivering four doses of insulin a day into my body.
And trying to monitor my blood sugars closely, I’m frequently surprised at my readings going from hypoglycemic to a high level in less than 60 minutes. I understand why it happens. I just wished that I was better a judging how physical I was going to be in the periods between tests.
It is a lifetime disease–one that I am reminded of multiple times a day.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
