Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A1C, easy as 1-2-3, simple as do-re-mi....

So here I am, awaiting the results of this week's blood sugar test (fasting), and the A1C hemoglobin test which measures the history of sugar in your red blood cells over a three to four month period. Fascinating. It's insane knowing that the oldest blood cells currently represented in this test are probably emblazoned with logos from McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts. The newer ones, thankfully, are bearing the blue-green swirl of Weight Watchers. Sadly, however, the well-behaved blood cells are outnumbered three to one.

I shudder to think what the A1C will reveal about my pre-scare eating habits. As if the guilty history of every cheeseburger and french fry will be written for medical professionals to divine in letters of sugar. Compared with my virtuous, self-righteous little month-old red blood cells, the old ones are probably like depraved winos with a criminal record and a chip on their shoulder. Come to think of it, that's pretty much how I was eating.


The test is probably back by now; I had it Monday morning. I'd like to think that if it was really bad, like "you need to go on insulin NOW' bad, I'd have heard from my doctor already. So I'm hoping that no news is good news, that the results will wait until Monday morning. And of course, I really hope that I've made a month-old dent in the last blood sugar number. Which revealed itself in a non-fasting test, after I'd had a Coke.


Carb fact of the day: Something that I thought was healthy apparently isn't: those baked Lay's chips have 44 grams of carbs per serving (compared with, say, Smartfood popcorn at 9 grams of carbs per snack bag). Apparently, I am only supposed to have 30 grams of carbs per meal in order to keep things of a diabetic nature under control. Here's the thing: Smartfood is 3 points on Weight Watchers; baked Lay's are 2. I can't believe this freaking label-reading and carb counting is my life now. And all I really want is a cheeseburger.

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