I went to the doctor on Tuesday:
- I’ve been coughing up phlegm since Saturday.
- My knee has been bothering me, so I put my case to the Doc for that knee replacement surgery that was recommended 4 years ago.
- My diabetes medicine is almost finished so it’s time for more blood tests.
Antibiotics were the obvious fix for the phlegm issue.
Doc agrees it’s time for surgery so he’s scheduling some up-to-date xrays and arranging a referral to a specialist.
He wrote me a prescription for the next 3 months, and got his nurse to take some blood tests. She said that if necessary she would get in touch with me when the results come back, but if I don’t hear from her that means everything is OK. I heard from her. She rang me the next day and said that my doctor would like to see me ASAP. She explained that my blood sugar levels were a bit high and the doctor would like to speak to me about them. I asked how high they were, she replied “62.”
Now, I know that I’ve been a bit “naughty” of late as far as foods go, so I wasn’t expecting miraculous “sugarfree” results, but considering I was diagnosed as diabetic because of a 9.5% blood reading, my most recent reading was 7.5% and our target is to get between 4 and 6%, I was almost floored by a reading of 62. I thought that most people were comatose by the time they got anywhere near 40%.
I was hesitant to share this news with Mandi. She was both unimpressed and worried, and was anxious for me to see the doctor so we could find out what was happening. I saw him the next morning. He voiced his concerns about not having gained control of my blood sugar levels and I confessed that I’d had 2 or 3 weeks of “indulging” in treats to offset the stress and discomfort of my knee. He seemed to think that would explain it, but I still thought 62 was extreeeeemely high. That’s he when he explained that the scale has changed!!! My current reading is 62 mmol/mol. My previous reading was 7.5% which equates to 58 mmol/mol. He showed me the comparitive scale and I could see that 58 and 62 were actually either side of 7.5%. Using % only, my readings would have been rounded to 7.5 and 7.8, by using mmol/mol they can more easily identify subtle changes.
So whilst my blood sugar levels are still a concerrn, they’re not critical as I thought they were and I feel that I am more able to control them especially considering how “indulgent” I have been lately. That said, last nights cocoa rice was indulgent, but certainly not as excessive as I have been lately and tomorrows Fathers Day treat will be my last for a while. I’ve got 3 months of meds then I’m back to the doctor to show him how much I’ve improved. My target is to get down to between 20 and 42 mmol/mol. If I can be in the mid or low 40’s by then I’ll be happy that I’m heading in the right direction.
mmol/mol = milli moles per mole, conversion chart/diabeteschart