New to Diabetes

[Andy_B]

Hi all I am new to diabetes and have a lot to take in about it my last test was 51 I have to go on the 14th off this month for a blood test can anybody tell me is that low or high I have not got a test kit so I do not know what is good or bad for me.

 

[CathyB]

Hi Andy, welcome 🙂 how are you managing your diabetes? Are you planning on getting your own testing kit? It really is essential to work out what foods work for you or not. Codefree is the most reasonable priced at around £12 with 50 strips for around £7. 51 isn’t too bad but the important factor is not letting it climb any higher!

 

[Ralph-YK]

Hello Andy and welcome to the forum from a fellow T2.
There are a couple of tests that relate to blood glucose levels. One is a HbA1c (blood taken from the arm and it goes off to a lab). The other is a finger prick test, drop of blood on a test strip in a machine there and them.
They test different things. The HbA1c is an average over 8 - 12 weeks. I'm guessing the 51 is that. In that scale the ranges are:
30(?) to 41 - "Normal"
42 to 47 - Prediabetic
48 and above gets you a diagnoses of diabetes (even if it goes down below 48, you're still a diabetic)
There are several people on here who were diagnosed with a HbA1c of 100 or more. 51 still counts as high. However, as you're a newly diagnosed, it would be high.
To confuse things, there is an old scale used for the HbA1c, which some people still quote. 48 = 6.5 in that. The old scale looks the same as the numbers you get from the finger prick test. They're different though.

Self testing/finger prick test tells you what your blood glucose level is at that moment.

 

[Andy_B]

Thanks Cathy and Ralph for your advice I will get a test kit then I will know what lvl my blood is I have been reading about it so much to take in I will have to start some sort of exercise it will do me good as im a little over weight once again thank you