September 1, 2011 A1C

Well gang, tomorrow is another one of those judgment days.

You know, those quarterly appointments when you go to your Endocrinologist and get your A1C checked to see how you've been doing with your blood sugar readings over the last three months.

You always wonder if you've done enough with your monitoring, diet and exercise to lower your A1C to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Type 1 recommended number of below 7%.

The following list is my last five A1C's by date and the corresponding average blood glucose number.

• 4-19-2010 7.3% and 165
• 7-21-2010 7.5% and 172
• 10-11-2010 7.2% and 162
• 3-3-2011 7.5% and 172
• 6-1-2011 7.4% and 168

I could give you a longer history with my A1C's, but you get the picture of where I've been for roughly the last year and a half while attempting to gain better control of it.

Kind of like life, the last year and a half of Diabetic control has had its ups and downs. Fortunately for me, the peaks and valleys with these A1C's have been moderate to say the least in comparison to A1C's of years gone by. But over that time period I've recently become more vigilant with attempting to lower my A1C to the ADA recommended level of below 7.0%. One of the main reasons for my vigilance has been the Diabetic Online Community (DOC). Reading and following what so many of you go through each and every day has inspired me to do a better job with taking better care of myself. I know I've never been in this battle of control alone, but it sure makes it easier to read a blog or a tweet and say "Yes, I've been there and I can do this too!!" Another reason for my vigilance has been my family. As you get older with this disease, and I'm now one month shy of a full 26 years with Type 1, it becomes increasingly difficult to get out of bed or up from the couch to exercise or put the fork down when something mouth watering appears before you on the breakfast, lunch or dinner table. But I want to be around a lot longer for my family whether they want me or not!! I say that jokingly despite how it may read!!

So what have I done in the past 92 days since my last A1C? Well, I've exercised on 68 of those 92 days or roughly 73.91% of the time. I've also put the fork down at large meals and I've done better with making choices of eating healthier meals and or snacks which at the end of the day has always been my great undoing. Not surprisingly, I've lost nearly 10 pounds of just hanging around weight. And on top of all that I've monitored more often which should result in a better A1C tomorrow right?

Time will tell. But I do have a lot of people in the DOC to thank for pushing me and I have my loving family to thank for their never ending support.

Tomorrow will give me a number I can work on for the next three months!!