3 sons, all with A1cs between 5.7 and 6.5... when to see the doctor?

You answered my question and reassured me! I was finding mixed answers on whether or not illness could account for higher numbers in non-d children. My daughter was diagnosed with another health issue that’s been ongoing since last year, so I was hoping (in a way?) it’s just that causing some blood sugar wackiness; not early t1. She’s also having lows, too.

That IS the way I understood it, but I’ve been talked down off the ledge. It’s not that I’m not still nervous… they’re my sons, and I’ll be nervous until the day I die… but people here helped me put a few things into perspective. All three of them have been enrolled in TrialNet for years. My 5 year old has been in since he was 1… I think. So that’s all very good news. I also understand that a flash a1c in a child is not material for diagnosis. What i’m doing right here is repeating things to make myself feel better… I haven’t thought about this for a month, and it’s all coming back. :smiley: Anyway, there’s a whole lot of good and then there are a few isolated numbers. He’s going in for his annual check up in a week, I will address it all with the doctor, and I’ll DEFINITELY talk to the doc about the things you’ve mentioned. So I appreciate that.

Of course, this is the same doc who told me to test away… which started the whole problem. :smiley: [quote=“Amygirl, post:17, topic:4143”]
Trialnet got him scheduled right away for an OGTT (this is the 2 hour Oral Glucose Tolerance Test). This gave us a much clearer picture of what was going on with him. So they took his fasting baseline number then gave him the high glucose drink then subsequently took readings at 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes to see how the pancreas was able to deal with the carb load. During this testing they also run an A1C, check for antibodies and c-peptide. It is a very thorough test that helped us know what was going on AND gave us a baseline so that if he started to show other signs or symptoms down the road then we could tell if anything was progressing.
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Thank you for this. Yes, I’ll follow up with his doc, but I’ll call TrialNet today to see about this. I really appreciate your passing this along!

Hopefully nothing will come of any of it, but I’ll definitely update either way. And maybe I’ll go hunt them down and get a finger stick… just for good measure. :smiley:

We’ve shared some of the same thoughts then… I was diagnosed at 27 following a pregnancy with gestational diabetes. When I was diagnosed during pregnancy, my numbers were “off the charts”, so I was told. Within a month of delivery, I was started on insulin, and within a year maybe, my a1c was above a 14. I won’t go into detail, but I had been suffering from a couple of bizarre symptoms for a couple of years before pregnancy. I had gone to all kinds of specialists and tried all kinds of treatments. Nothing worked. Then I started insulin, and everything cleared up. I think of my symptoms during childhood and, now knowing these symptoms well, believe I’ve had this since very young. I always thought maybe it was the pregnancy hormones that pushed me over the top. I did develop melanoma during the pregnancy and ended up having brain surgery for an UNRELATED condition, so it definitely shook things up. So this was a very long way of saying, I agree. They say it’s not supposed to happen this way, but it happened this way to me.[quote=“mike_g, post:20, topic:4143”]
If my kids were in that state (possible prediabetes), I think I’d move to a low carb diet for the whole family, in hopes to forestall the (possible) development of full blown diabetes. I’d still run an annual A1C just to keep an eye on it, though. And, maybe they won’t develop diabetes at all.
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Excellent, reasonable approach. Sometimes intermittent panicking while changing nothing is easier, but this is definitely the kind of plan that makes more sense. :smiley: Honestly, we’re working in this direction. It can be tough staying on top of as one kid has Celiac disease and another has a severe milk allergy, but such is life. Water and cardboard fits all special dietary restrictions. :smiley:

Don’t underestimate how creative you could get with ice. :smile:

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And sorry for reopening the topic after a month and starting the worry again. :confounded:

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It wasn’t actually gone. :smiley: so you’ve done nothing worse than give me excellent information and a positive action plan. So THANK you for reopening it after a month and putting me on the right track. :smiley:

IcING maybe. That would be more fun. But that’s not allowed. :frowning:

I feel your pain with dietary issues: my wife’s family has high incidence of gluten issues: Father in law and most of the 8 kids have gluten intolerance symptoms, one is full blown celiac. My wife and probably half of our kids have gluten intolerance (symptom diagnosed) and gluten issues are known to run with T1D (me), so we all avoid gluten as a family - all in it together. Probably been living this way for 8-10 years now. Kids pack lunch every day to school - only way to make it work. My wife and her sister (milk and gluten issues in her family) have gotten very good at cooking gluten free over this time!

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I also sometimes wonder if there are secondary issues with BG processing that are not T1, not T2 and not necessarily a virus. I had to test myself during pregnancy and noticed that I was having a handful of highs and then crashes into the low regime – my son is T1 but my dad is T2, so I wonder if maybeI just have a sluggish response to blood sugar spikes and then my body tends to overcompensate. And I sort of wonder if it could be a precursor to T2 (i.e. years down the line), simply because my pancreas isn’t quite as on top of things as it should be. But it’s certainly not diabetes, or even pre-diabetes as I have an average A1C and it only happened for some meals.

2 posts were split to a new topic: New Topic - Eosinophilic esophagitis

Just wanted to circle back around and drop in an update… I took my 5 year old for blood work for his annual check up, and they ran his a1c. I started this thread because I had done a home a1c on him, and it was a 6.5. I was concerned, obviously. We just got the results, and they were great. His a1c was a 5.0. I was thrilled and, honestly, not all that surprised (now—I was beside myself with worry back then). Now about that effortless drop of 1.5? I’m going to have to try to get some tips…

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Really glad he is doing well!

With that said, sometimes having more information isn’t always better. If only someone could find a way to store and use the energy of a mothers worry, it would power the world.

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This is so true. If only I could remember this between freak outs.

That is really a sweet way to look at it. You just made me proud to be a worrier. :hearts:

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I’m not going to admit to things I’ve done on behalf of my kids due to worry, but this statement is SO true.

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