Good news and bad news at the doctor - good news is that my blood work
for diabetes is perfect - not even registering as pre-diabetic for the
A1C or fasting. Both those scores improved since last time and they were
pretty good before (fine for fasting, on the borderline of
normal/prediabetic back then).
When I started, I had a fasting of 145 or something like that on December 5th. When they tested again in the beginning of January, they repeated the fasting and gave me the A1C test. In January the fasting blood sugar level was 230 or something like that and my A1C was 8.6. Completely in line with out of control diabetes. He wanted to test me again in 3-4 months when my thyroid was better and I had dropped some weight and started exercising and started a lower carb diet. I came back in 3.5 months and my fasting blood sugar level dropped to 94 and my A1C dropped to 5.8. Fasting blood sugar was out of even the pre-diabetes range and the 5.8 was at the very beginning of being at risk for the pre-diabetes range. This time, 5 months later, my fasting blood sugar was 90 and my A1C was 5.4. Both completely normal and out of any risk range. (A little footnote here, though. I will be talking more about the A1C test and those scores and what they can mean or not mean - maybe tomorrow I'll blog about it.)
Back in December, my cholesterol level was around 236 and my good cholesterol was too low (another sign of diabetes), but he also said that my cholesterol level was probably high due to my thyroid, so that he didn't want to do anything at that time until my thyroid got back in control. More on that in a bit. Anyway, the levels of my cholesterol in May were 190, but my good cholesterol was still a shade too low. This time my cholesterol level was 202, a tiny high, but I've increased the good cholesterol by 20 points in 5 months up to 67. It was 42 in May. Which means the increase in my cholesterol is 100% from good cholesterol as my bad cholesterol actually went down 5 points. The doctor was thrilled because my thyroid is very low again and I still had very good scores on the cholesterol, so he expects it to drop a lot in total number once my thyroid is working properly again.
Blood pressure is fine. A little higher than readings at home, but I had a bad headache and again, with my thyroid not working properly, it could be raising my blood pressure (as it was doing before). Blood pressure was 122/82. (I have been typically getting readings around 110/74 at home).
The bad is that my thyroid is way low again. It should read 3.0 or lower. When I started it was 47 which is very low. Then in January it was 14 and then in May it was 3.1. Now it is 10.4 And it explains a lot of returning symptoms - sluggishness, heart arrhythmia, sleep disturbances, hot flashes, and headaches. These are all things I had before I went into the doctor's office last December, but back then with so many things wrong, I didn't know what was causing what as so much was out of whack - blood sugars, blood pressure and thyroid. Now with just the thyroid out of whack, I now know that it was the thyroid and the thyroid alone that was making me feel so bad. I guess that's the upside to this. If I ever feel these symptoms return again in the future, I'll know to have my thyroid checked out.
And the other bad news is that I have a urinary tract infection. I didn't feel it yet, but it was quite obvious from the lab results that I had one. So, I'm being treated for that now. Does that mean I didn't escape getting sick? Even though I don't feel sick? LOL
And he didnt' even mention my weight. Nurse did and said I was doing a
great job, but doctor didn't. I also decided not to get test strips and
needles for the glucose meter as how I'm eating now is fine for me. I
feel better without all the carbs and the increased fruit and occasional
slice of banana bread isn't hurting me any if my A1C is now 5.4.
Though, after reading a bit, I might change my mind on that, but for now it's all OK as I did get a good feel with my meals with the few tests I took.
So basically, look what exercise, dropping weight and dropping simple carbs from your diet can do? I've completely turned my health around and expect even better results when my thyroid hormone levels are normalized again. I didn't even know it would be possible, but it so can be.
Stats for 10/14/11:
Beginning weight: 255.6 Now: 182.2
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