Numbers part II

Late last week I got my “real” lab results back from my doctor:

A1C: 5.4
Cholesterol:
hdl: 109
ldl: 79
total: 205

The doctor called my HDL “superlative” and says he’s never seen that high in a patient, ever. Thanks pecans, almonds and fish! I was a little suprised by the A1C but I think it just goes to show how much good all this walking is doing me.

It’s Numbers Time!

My latest round of labs arrived in the mail today from my Stanford Self-Management program 6-month check-in. Before I spill them, though, I have to confess that I accidentally left the little card that you drop your blood on out to dry for way longer than I was supposed to… about eight hours longer. Therefore I’m not very sure about the accuracy of these numbers, particularly the A1C, which came in at a surprising 5.2, which according to this chart puts my average blood sugars around 108 mg/dl.

On the cholesterol front, my HDL came in at 91 mg/dl, which is fine, but my LDL was a slightly disturbing 132 mg/dl, far above the target 100mg/dl or lower. My total cholesterol was 235 mg/dl, which is well above the target of 200 mg/dl or lower. I’m not freaking yet, though, because Thursday I finally took my fasting butt to a Quest Diagnostics for the large round of tests that my doctor ordered when I saw him well over a month ago. So sometime in the next week or should have a second set of numbers to compare these with and will then either keep on keeping on or make some adjustments.

Speaking of cholesterol, this New York Times article from August, Looking Past Blood Sugars to Survive with Diabetes, is a great read and raises a good question - are cholesterol levels that are OK for non-diabetics really OK for us diabetics?