Can you be misdiagnosed with Diabetes?

[rusty ol ranger]

I know yall arnt Dr's...well...except for maybe @RonD

Anyways, i went in for a DOT physical in august. They always have you piss in a cup to check sugar. Never had an issue before.

I guess mine was off the charts. He passed me but only for 3 months.

So i went to my dr the next day, he ordered tests and i went walgreens and bought an A1C tester. Came back 11.1.

Lab results said 10.9

So after 2 months of metformin, giving up pop, and eating much healthier then i was (mostly) its down to 6.2 per the walgreens tester

My question is can A1C drop that fast? Or was something abnormal going on? I had zero symptoms of anything. Still dont. Except i have much more energy now.

Its type 2 if it matters. Either way just wondering if anyone else has been through this and if such a drop is possible in 2 months if something was acyually wrong

 

[franklin2]

Yes, the diet and the medicine you were taking can make it drop dramatically and fairly quickly. Keep on with what you are doing and you should be good to go. I am borderline diabetic according to their numbers, my Dr is watching it. What puts them on alert also is your family history. My Dad is fully diabetic, my mom is somewhat but not as bad as my Dad. So you can inherit the tendency to have it, nothing you can do about it except be more careful than a person with no family history.

My Dad also has high blood pressure, guess what, I have it too. I take medicine which controls it fairly well, but since I have it, I have to get tested for my CDL health card every year instead of every 2 years like everyone else.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Yes, the diet and the medicine you were taking can make it drop dramatically and fairly quickly. Keep on with what you are doing and you should be good to go. I am borderline diabetic according to their numbers, my Dr is watching it. What puts them on alert also is your family history. My Dad is fully diabetic, my mom is somewhat but not as bad as my Dad. So you can inherit the tendency to have it, nothing you can do about it except be more careful than a person with no family history.

My Dad also has high blood pressure, guess what, I have it too. I take medicine which controls it fairly well, but since I have it, I have to get tested for my CDL health card every year instead of every 2 years like everyone else.

I have no family history of it as far as i know.

Plus side my cholestrol was "excellent" and everything else i passed with flying colors lol.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Ideally such a life-changing diagnosis should be confirmed by multiple tests over a period of time, because, yes, mistakes and bad (incorrect) results can happen with one test. But medical insurance companies often don't want to pay for repeated tests.

Will say that regular soda is essentially liquid candy. Not only is it loaded with sugar, but it has as many calories as beer. Both have ~150 calories in a 12–ounce can. A switch to diet soda would probably help you a lot if you don't want to drink plain water. Looks as if I just killed any chance of getting Coca-Cola as a site sponsor.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Ideally such a life-changing diagnosis should be confirmed by multiple tests over a period of time, because, yes, mistakes and bad (incorrect) results can happen with one test. But medical insurance companies often don't want to pay for repeated tests.

Will say that regular soda is essentially liquid candy. Not only is it loaded with sugar, but it has as many calories as beer. Both have ~150 calories in a 12–ounce can. A switch to diet soda would probably help you a lot if you don't want to drink plain water. Looks as if I just killed any chance of getting Coca-Cola as a site sponsor.

Ive been drinking iced tea mostly. I use to drink 2 or 3 20oz of pepsi at work and then probably 4 or 5 cans at home lol.

Plus i was pry eating 500+ carbs a day. I try to limit myself to 100-150 now

 

[racsan]

I think you could be misdiagnosed with anything, 2 years ago I was told I had c.o.p.d., last year I was told no, I had asthma. Who knows what I will hear the next time.

 

[franklin2]

Water is the best thing to drink. You can have a occasional soda or sweet tea. I personally stay away from the diet drinks. Some of that sweetener they use can upset my stomach after awhile and some of it makes my bones ache like I have arthritis. Stop drinking it and it all goes away. Go to the Dr and I am sure he would give you some sort of pill for it when all you have to do is stop drinking that stuff.

 

[pjtoledo]

my A1C went down several points after meds and diet changes. losing some belly fat helped too.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Ive been drinking iced tea mostly. I use to drink 2 or 3 20oz of pepsi at work and then probably 4 or 5 cans at home lol.

Plus i was pry eating 500+ carbs a day. I try to limit myself to 100-150 now

A couple efi swaps would reduce the carb count too...

 

[Snoranger]

A couple efi swaps would reduce the carb count too...

We need to get rid of carbs altogether.

 

[Roert42]

Just remember, there is a sandwich in every can of beer.


I love sandwiches.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Just remember, there is a sandwich in every can of beer.


I love sandwiches.

I refer to them as barley burgers...

 

[97RangerXLT]

A1C is a pretty good indicator of your longterm blood sugars. It basically is a three month average, as the blood cells live about 3 months. So you kicked a huge sugar food (carbs) to the curb and lowered your instant blood sugar with medicine for 2 months. So yeah i can see the A1C dropping pretty quick.

Be careful. As you get older your pancreas will put out less insulin and will make your A1C climb again. Keep monitoring it daily. You should have a waking (after 8 hours of no food/drink) blood sugar beteen 90 and 110. With 100 being optimal andan hour after eating you should not be over 180.

AJ

 

[rusty ol ranger]

A1C is a pretty good indicator of your longterm blood sugars. It basically is a three month average, as the blood cells live about 3 months. So you kicked a huge sugar food (carbs) to the curb and lowered your instant blood sugar with medicine for 2 months. So yeah i can see the A1C dropping pretty quick.

Be careful. As you get older your pancreas will put out less insulin and will make your A1C climb again. Keep monitoring it daily. You should have a waking (after 8 hours of no food/drink) blood sugar beteen 90 and 110. With 100 being optimal andan hour after eating you should not be over 180.

AJ

I dont check mine day to day. I probably should, but i know id get obsessed with it and my fingers would look like hamburger.

 

[JohnnyO]

I know yall arnt Dr's...well...except for maybe @RonD

Anyways, i went in for a DOT physical in august. They always have you piss in a cup to check sugar. Never had an issue before.

I guess mine was off the charts. He passed me but only for 3 months.

So i went to my dr the next day, he ordered tests and i went walgreens and bought an A1C tester. Came back 11.1.

Lab results said 10.9

So after 2 months of metformin, giving up pop, and eating much healthier then i was (mostly) its down to 6.2 per the walgreens tester

My question is can A1C drop that fast? Or was something abnormal going on? I had zero symptoms of anything. Still dont. Except i have much more energy now.

Its type 2 if it matters. Either way just wondering if anyone else has been through this and if such a drop is possible in 2 months if something was acyually wrong

Sorry for weighing in so late but I don't check into this end of the board very often.
I was diagnosed with Type 2 about this time 7 years ago. A few folks in my family had it so it wasn't a big surprise.
Fasting blood sugar was 450, A1C was 15.3.
Doctor looks at the blood work says, "Howya feel?"
"Okay"
"Not dizzy or anything?"
"No."
"Amazing. Most people with these numbers would be in the hospital. Your blood sugar is near lethal. The only reason you're upright is because you're in the gym every day."
Doctor tells me to see a podiatrist. The main podiatrist in my county happens to be my cousin.
"Jon, what's your A1C?"
"15.3."
Cuz takes his glasses off, says "That's the highest I've ever heard."

Change in diet, Metformin, and insulin, also wife and I went to a diabetic diet class at the local hospital. Within two weeks my blood sugar was normal and in three months my next A1C was less than 8.
I didn't really have a bad diet, never been a sweets and dessert eater or drink a lot, but I just ate a lot of everything because I could. Always been thin, never been overweight in my life.
I liked weighing 195 and bench pressing 305 but that stuff is gone now. I dropped about 25 pounds with the changes in diet and more cardio. I'm Italian and had to adjust to having 1/3 cup of pasta as a side dish and not a whole plate plus garlic bread. Eating half of a large pizza was no problem. Now I think eggplant parmesean is great, I can load up and it doesn't affect me at all.

Read the labels on everything and try to keep your total carbs to 80 to 100 grams a day preferably spaced out evenly. Basically I was told to eat all the meat and vegetables I want but be careful with the bread, potatoes, and pasta. Fast food for me at McDonald's is a double hamburger (two burgers but smaller bun than a quarter pounder), small fry, and a Diet Coke.

The other thing for Type 2's, and this is counter-intuitive, is that if your blood sugar drops too low then your liver says "hey, sugar is too low", and pumps out more but our pancreas isn't strong enough to offset it, so if our sugar gets too low then it goes too high. Keep a couple low-cal protein bars in your pocket for a mid morning and mid afternoon snack.

It might be difficult to do being a truck driver but you MUST get to the gym 4 to 6 days a week. Full body workouts plus some cardio, try to get to a half hour on a treadmill or elliptical. If you can't do that, then jog and work up to a couple miles a day. I recently had someone tell me that lifting weights will drop your blood sugar more than cardio.

The Reli-On brand lancets and test strips at Walmart are by far the least costly.

Anything I can help with, let me know.