All the readings you mentioned I have no idea what they mean.
No problem. See if I can help.
First thing to understand is that T2 diabetes is not an on/off thing. It is a variable feast. Its all about how your body handles glucose in your blood. If all is working well it is kept within bounds and all is well. When things go awry, your body has a problem with controlling blood glucose and in particular it allows it to go higher than is healthy. By unhealthy I mean that the higher your blood glucose, the greater the risk of getting the nasty complications that come from prolonged, uncontrolled, high blood glucose levels.
So, how does your GP decide whether you have a problem that needs some action to correct? This is not as straightforward as you might think. Measuring blood glucose is quite easy, lots of us are doing it. Trouble is it goes up and down like the proverbial fiddlers elbow and trying to make sense of the overall position is not easy. Fortunately, you can get an averaged out reading by measuring your HbA1c. This is done in the lab on a sample of blood taken from a vein in the arm. The number you get gives an indication of where you are on the diabetes scale, what needs to be done to get things under control and how urgently you need to act.
The number given by this test varies from 30 to over 150. Low values mean you are normal and very high values mean you are likely to finish up being stretchered into A&E. The question is, at what HbA1c value do you need to take some action to reduce the risk of short term problems from getting into the dangerously high zone or to cut back the risk of developing problems in the long term.
There are two values of HbA1c that are used in diagnosis. If the value is above 48, then you are given a diagnosis of diabetes and put on a programme to monitor it and to look for early signs of complications. If it is above 42 but below 48, then you are given a diagnosis of at risk of diabetes because there is a good chance that it will go up if nothing is done. If the value is below 42, then you are considered normal. Most get the first indication of diabetes with a reading in the 50's although some on here have been well up in the red zone on diagnosis - 155 is the current forum record I think.
You are just over the border so your HbA1c will be around 50. Watching how this value changes with time will give a good indication of how well controlled is your diabetes. From what you say, I'm guessing that your value has been in the 40's for a few years but has crept up over 48 last time it was checked.
If I've got that right, then what it is telling you that now is the time to make some simple changes to get it back down again. No big drama but if you leave it and it creeps higher then you are increasing the risk of complications and also making it harder to get it back down again.
