A1C,See?

One of the numbers that anyone with diabetes -- or as the woman who writes DiabetesMine (a very good blog) puts it, 'betes -- learns is their A1C level. That stands for Hemoglobin A1c, and it's a measure of what percentage of your blood has glucose in it. The measurement covers about the three months prior to when the test is taken. Opinions vary, but the reading for someone without 'betes tends to be in the low four percent range. For someone with it, various people say it ought to be around 6.5; certainly, no more than seven.

Last time I got the test, it was 5.9, which I thought was pretty good. I was therefore astonished when the person giving me the results said that the result might actually be too low, because it meant that I was forcing my blood sugar numbers low enough to have the danger of going hypoglycemic -- which, if you go low enough, can actually lead to being in a coma. I've had that happen on occasion -- the hypo, not the coma -- and it's a disorienting experience. Once or twice, its felt as if I've run my head against a wall -- in fact, the time that I fell and fractured my shoulder, I think now that I was actually hypoglycemic -- the feeling was of dizziness, being only generally sure of where I was, that kind of thing. So, I can understand why you'd want to watch out for that. But to be told that a reading of 5.9 was bad -- well, that was disappointing. I expected praise, not finger-waving.

Of course, then again, I wonder why they're not asking me for a number in the low fours, too. I'm glad about that, at least.