I had my quarterly blood test yesterday to keep an eye on everything (the list is long; there are many pages of test results). The most important is my HbA1c. Everything else has been within normal ranges since September.
When I was diagnosed last June after a random blood test in May, my HbA1c was 7.5%. That was after nearly a month of getting levels closer to normal with diet and exercise. Most likely, given my average glycemia reading during the day, I was above 8%.
My GP put me on Stagid (aka Metformin) to help bring things down. That’s it. No advice on anything, just take the meds. Of course, I didn’t just do that, I looked into diabetes, read books, read research papers. Melanie and I devised a plan with the aim to reach remission.
After 3 months, my HbA1c was 5% (with the help of Metformin at that point). My GP didn’t trust the results, so decided to keep me on Metformin for another 3 months. I wasn’t happy about that, I wanted off the meds, but ok.
In December, my HbA1c was 5.2%. My GP was surprised and decided to stop Metformin. I was finally medication free.
In March, 3 months later, after a quarter with no medication, my HbA1c is 5.44%. I’m not happy it went up, but that is without any help, through diet and exercise only, and after reintroducing some foods I hadn’t had since last May to see if I could deal with them. We could have been more hardcocre and kept my HbA1c closer to 5% I suspect.
In parallel, the diet allowed me to lose weight as it’s the most important component of reaching remission. My weight went from 122kg in May to 84kg today. I still have a bit to lose to get into the normal range, but I’m close and I’ll reach it in time.
According to the ADA’s definition of remission, I’m there.
