Reading my own HbA1c trend over four years

Started 13 January 2025 · 18 replies · 195 hearts · read 2.3k times

PetuaKampala, UG · 13 January 2025

1.5 years ago

Something I have been sitting with: Reading my own HbA1c trend over four years Not looking for advice so much as other people's experience.

Some background first, because it matters for the question.

I have had this diagnosis a long time and none of the general guidance quite fits, which is why I am asking here rather than in the wider circles.

I have two clinicians who each manage half of me and neither of them has seen the whole picture, which is how I ended up asking a support community.

I have brought this up at two appointments and been reassured both times without anybody actually looking at it, which is why I want to go in better prepared.

To be precise about it, since I have put it in the title: four years. I counted rather than guessed, because a guess would have been kinder to me.

Thanks all. This circle is the only place I have found where I do not have to explain the background first.

LilPreston, UK

I found the framing difficult at first. It sounded like a warning rather than information, and it took me a while to hear it as the second thing.

NorahDerry, NI

Reading Lil, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

My GP was matter-of-fact and offered a structured programme, which I nearly turned down and which turned out to be the most useful thing on offer.

JunoBrighton, UK

Gently disagreeing with Lil, or rather adding the other half of it.

What I would say is find out exactly which test it was and what the figure means, because I spent two months worrying about the wrong thing.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

I want to slow this down. Several people here have the same diagnosis and quite different pictures, which is ordinary and is why the specifics change the answer.

HattieExeter, UK

Juno has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

I asked for a recheck at six months rather than waiting a year, and it was granted immediately, and it kept me focused in a way an annual review would not have.

TarnKeswick, UK

The thing I resented was how much of the advice assumed I had never tried anything. I had tried everything, for decades, which is how I got here.

LinnetKendal, UK

What worked practically was walking after eating rather than anything I changed about the eating. Twenty minutes, most days, and the effect was visible.

BlySheffield, UK

Mine moved back within the ordinary range over about a year, and my nurse was clear that the habits mattered more than the number itself.

13me too 1

KeeleyBlackpool, UK

The structured programme was six months of a group meeting and it was much better than I expected. Practical, unpatronising, and free.

BelCroydon, UK

#10

I would gently say that a single result is not a diagnosis, and mine was rechecked before anything was decided, which I found reassuring.

JuniperMachynlleth, UK

#11

Coming back to what Keeley wrote further up, because it is the bit I keep thinking about.

The bit I got wrong was treating it as an emergency for a fortnight and then forgetting about it for four months. Steady attention beat intense attention.

MaisieScarborough, UK

#12

My nurse asked what I thought I could sustain rather than what I thought I should do, and that question produced a much more honest plan.

GillyWorcester, UK

#13

I found the family history conversation useful and slightly upsetting. It explained a great deal and it also meant talking to relatives about things we do not discuss.

MarnieAyr, UK

#14

What helped was having something to measure that was not a body. Steps, sleep hours, a walk after dinner. All of those were things I could actually influence.

13me too 2

TobySwindon, UK

#15

Mine has stayed steady for two years without dropping further, and my GP is entirely content with that, and it took me a while to be content with it too.

BrodyDunfermline, UK

#16

This is the honest version, and the honest version is harder to write.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

#17

Adding a marker: the practical sentences about appointments are the ones I would want a newcomer to find, and they are almost never the ones at the top of a thread.

AshSunderland, UK

#18

What I underestimated was how much better I would feel from the changes independently of any number. That turned out to be the durable motivation.