Manipulating My A1C and Looking Beyond That Number
As my endo read through the medical chart at a recent appointment, I sat there anxiously waiting for him to tell me my latest A1C. He scanned the notes and rattled off bits of information about prescriptions, before getting to the meat and potatoes (so to speak) of our visit. If you were a fly on the wall at that moment, you would have seen me all jittery, leaning forward in the chair waiting for the words to emerge. After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke: Your A1C is 7.7% My heart sank. While not really much different than my previous result, it was a 10th of a percentage point higher than last time at 7.6. Sure, it was only a tiny change, but in my head a screaming voice of judgement shouted: " Your A1C went up! " I was beyond bummed, especially because I've been putting in a lot of effort over the past few months to do better. Apparently, this A1C was telling me that I was in fact doing worse than before, even if just a little bit. Then I began to doubt... was th...