Dexter's Many Talents

There are a lot of things I love about Dexter.

The fact that, at a glance, I can see if I'm climbing or dropping and (try at least) to deal with small blood sugar changes before they become big ones.

The fact that he wakes me up when I'm in a wee spot of trouble before I end up in a big one.

The fact that he teaches me what is going on between finger pricks. Thanks to him I really do see the value of bolusing 20 minutes before I eat instead of waiting until we have put the dinner on the table. I also really do see the effect that sitting all day (in the car or in meetings) has on my blood sugar during the day and during the next night.

Thanks to Dexter, I have fewer lows that I used to have simply because I catch them at 4.5 instead of at 3.5. I also have fewer and less dramatic highs thanks, in part at least, to the fact that I've set him to alarm the minute my blood sugar hits 11.0. I wouldn't normally feel any different at 11.0. Those awful high blood sugar feelings don't usually kick in until I'm 13 or higher. Without Dex I could easily sleep 8 hours with blood sugar numbers in the 12s. Now he wakes me up, I bolus and drop down to a much safer 6-7 for the rest of the night.

All this to say that, after three months of living with him, I was pretty excited to see my latest A1C results.

Would the fact that I have had fewer and less dramatic highs and lows translate into a good looking A1C? Would my A1C go up because I had fewer lows?

Last week I headed to the Diabetes Centre to find out.

My last test came back with an A1C of 6.6 but I was still having too many lows according to the doctor.

Last week's test results?

6.5

And I could, without even a hint of dishonesty, say that I reached that number with fewer lows. Not no lows, but definitely fewer and, when they happened, I usually caught them when they were 3.9 rather than 3.0.

Yet another reason why I have a mighty big crush on Dexter.

He teaches me things, he keeps me safe AND he helps me get an A+ on my tests.