I have written, on many occasions, how an A1C should be used as a gauge in our children’s diabetes tool box (or for yourself if you live with it every day 🙁 sorry). I have constantly stated that it is a gauge to be watched and adjusted but not to live by the results and beat yourself up (or your children) because it is too high according to your Doc.
It’s not a number to be beat up over. That said; the opposite should be true as well. Now I know there are those who might feel that ‘any’ chance to celebrate something in this world of diabetes is worth celebrating but I ask you to side with caution on being too excited at a reading that makes you happy. Remember, this is a marathon and not a sprint.
To celebrate and get so extremely excited over a ‘good’ A1C is something I have cautioned as much as I have stated that one should not beat themselves up over when it is a ‘bad’ A1C. As sure as I am sitting here, that A1C will be high again. And if you have been so overly excited at ‘THAT GOOD’ number, and your child witnesses ALL OF THIS, it will only be THAT MUCH MORE they will fall when they feel like they failed because the A1C went high again. And it will be high again. And they will feel like they failed. You will fail like you failed. And THAT they did not. And THAT you did not.
Again, it’s about balance (as the late Dr. Richard Rubin taught all of us). I have always found the A1C to be a ‘conversational gauge’ with our kids. No matter the number, take the opportunity to discuss with your child why the number is what it is and what needs to be done to maintain (we hope) the number or to change it accordingly. Use the A1C result as a discussion whether ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (notice every time I put those words in quotes—it is for a reason).
And yes…..they look online more than you think. So hooping it up and being overly dramatic with a number shared online, will be seen. DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND me for one second; with two kids living with this disease I’m as happy as the next person when an A1C of 6.2 is returned. But my reaction is usually the same, “Why do you think the number was where it was?”
If I’m not going to beat up myself–OR MY KIDS–for a high A1C–I’m not going to jump up and down when it is perfect (perfect?) either. Anything else will send a mixed signal when the number is not where we would all like it to be……..and that is no one’s fault—–that is diabetes. Not their fault they have it, not their fault what it does. A1C is a gauge—nothing more, nothing less.
Food for thought.
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