A1C

My A1C is 14.5.   I cant get it to come down. I'm on a tone of insulin and it does not work. I have high sugar of450 to 540 all the time. my wife is a RN and says  i should be in the hospital. I have great blood work and am Heath for the most part. they say i cant have surgery tell my A1C is down to 7-9. i don't know what to do. Any Ideas.

Noel, 

I  don't have much to suggest but I didn't want you to go unanswered.  You might want to talk to your Dr. about Byetta.  It is an injected medication but is not insulin.  I am on it and it helped me to loose some weight and my blood sugar is in control.  I don't know if it can be used with insulin but I bet you could find out with a little internet research.

Good luck and I hope you are able to acheive the A1C necessary to have your surgery.

Janis

When I began my WLS journey , A1C was around 13..... my endocrinologist upped the insulin for a brief period to keep the daily readings around 150.... I think it was arounf 90 units per day.  Wasn't fun, but I was ready for surgery.

Post op, the diabetes did not correct itself.  I was still on oral meds and after time, was put back on insulin and another injection called viktoza.   My MDs just kept giving me more meds.

My diabetes was always out of control and always had 'head hunger'.  Thanks to a chance appt with a chiropractor/health coach, I learned of how the coffe/decaf and artificial sweetners can render some folks insulin resistant.   I simply stopped all coffe and decaf and ALLL ARTIFICIAL SWEETNERS. for a week.  then two, then three ....     Once I stopped the decaf and splenda, my blood sugars began to come down;  my medications were reduced and after 6 weeks, the insulin was put away.  Iwas off all medications.

Good luck!

I knew it!  I have been maintaining my blood sugars for about 4 days, with less and less insulin, when I added some sugar free products into my diet.  My sugars went sky high again.  I think I would rather eat real sugar (i.e. in the raw or Stevia) than put any more chemicals into my body again.  You confirmed what I already suspected.  Thanks.

You can do it!  Three months ago mine was at 11.2 and as of yesterday it's now down to 8.5.  In May, after completing all my pre-op my surgeon sprung it on me that she wouldn't do surgery until I had it under control around an 8.  Needless to say the next day I was in my PCP's office asking for any help he could offer.  He put me on sliding scale injections, two types of insulin, that would help me get it down and in that two months time I thought some of my fingers would fall off from checking my blood so often.  But, by making me learn what I was putting into my body he also helped me understand that yes, I can control  my sugar numbers and part of my downfall was my own stupidity for not listening.  I tried Byetta last year and it never did anything for me.  I saw no actual fluctuation in my numbers and they certainly didn't go down.  It's hard work on our end, but oh so worth it.  Today my surgeon cleared me for surgery and even told me she already had approval from BCBS to go ahead and set my date.  Can't wait to hear back from her this week and get this started!

Hang in there, Like I said above...YOU CAN DO IT!
Nelda

I know its been a while since you posted, but I was wondering if you have had any luck in getting your glucose under tighter control? Have you thought about an insulin pump? The constant stream of insulin in your body via the pump might give you the ability to control things better. It might be worth asking your doctor about Byetta or Symlin as well (as someone mentioned above). I believe they work by slowing the digestion of food so you don't have after meal spikes.
Please be careful-- I don't want to come off as lecturing you, but a 14.5 A1c is very dangerous (I'm sure you know this though). Wishing you the best of luck.

My A1C is currently about a 10 and my surgeon says I need to be at least an 8 to get scheduled.  Along with being on Starlix and Januvia I have currently cut out ALL carbs and refined sugar.  It is hard, plus I'm a vegetarian so I've always eaten alot of beans, but now need to limit myself to very little only a couple times a week. 

I'm avoiding all styles of pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, etc... just to get my numbers down, and then of course after surgery and in due time I will slowly try and work these things back in.

I'm sticking with just proteins and veggies.  I keep nuts on my desk at work and try to do a protein shake (low sugar, low carb) for both breakfast and lunch.

Good luck to you, but I would definitley keep a food journal and go over it with your nutritionist.