Back to the GP

Recently I have been face with the very adulty task of sorting out life and permanent disability insurance which has required me to go for a medical and have a raft of blood tests. The timing lines up with a general, get yourself in order urge. I wanted to address my health (I hadn't really been tracking BGLs and haven't had a 3 monthly A1c done in... years) and fitness and finances. This naturally landed me in the GP's rooms to get a baseline set of bloods done to check the damage. I am seeing a new GP who is very proactive and I get along with well, so it made it a bit less of a pain.

I received results of the tests taken at the beginning of July. My HbA1c (a 3 monthly gauge of average BGLs) was 5.8%... not bad considering a diabetic is diagnosed when they are above 6.5% and often struggle to get below the GP set benchmark of 7% (remember I am completely diet controlled. No medications, and no exercise... I'm cheap and I'm lazy, you see). Well down from my diagnosis A1c of 12.7%

My cholesterol came back at a significantly high 7.7 only a marginal improvement on my initial 8.3. These levels should be below 5.5 (apparently). It has been mentioned to me I have had ridiculously high cholesterol since I was 5 (tested due to a death in the family). I am in the 95th-98th percentile for cholesterol, an achievement worthy of a resume, and an important factor in denying disability insurance, sigh.

While the number were good for my diabetes, the cholesterol wasn't brilliant. I no longer worry as much about cholesterol as there is less and less evidence linking it to heart disease, though I would like it to be in a more normal range. As fate would have it, I needed another set of bloods taken less than three weeks later for the insurance (heartless soulless) people.

Today, I was called back to the GP today for those test results. So, now I have had three-ish weeks of better diet and more regular BGL checking, though I wasn't expecting much change in the numbers in such a short time. Having said that, I have managed to bring my A1c down a smidge further to 5.6% (My goal is < 5%). My cholesterol is down by 10% to 7.0... with no medications, increased bacon and butter diet, and no exercise. Take that establishment!

It a nice win for my pessimistic self.

Coming up next is an appointment with the RPH hyperlipid clinic to see if there is any funky genes cramping my liver's style, though now I think I may be able to get the numbers pretty close to good with a little (gulp) fitness. I refuse to take a statin and will stand by that, unless given verrry compelling reasons to do so (unlikely).

I'd say I'll keep you posted, though since my last post wassss... about 18 months ago, I don't recommend anyone hold their breath.