Celebrating Non-Diabetic Level A1c Numbers!

In the last 90 days, my average glucose was 118mg/dL. In the last 14 days, my average glucose was 112mg/dL! I am writing about this because this is a HUGE VICTORY for me. As you can see from the chart below, I am officially not just considered “well-controlled”, but am in the non-diabetic level!!! My current A1c for the last 90 days is a 5.5, which is my lowest EVER.

From the time I was diagnosed until I was a junior in college, my A1c used to range anywhere from 8.5-10, which is obviously terrible. However, during my junior year of college I took a nutrition class and began running on the beach, thanks to the fact that I attended the beautiful Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Thankfully, these two simple steps helped lower my A1c to the 7-8 range, which was better than before…but still not great.

How is it that someone can have diabetes for 20+ years and not learn how to control it? This is such an important question and there are many factors that play into why it was so hard for me to control my levels all those years. I could go through and blame all the things stacked against me, but the bottom line is that it was difficult and I didn’t have the support I needed to keep my levels in range. I used an insulin pump and went to the doctor every three months, but that was definitely not enough…especially when my doctors would tell me that I should just take more insulin and that would help improve my A1c.

In all my years with diabetes, it wasn’t until I met my now husband that I can confidently say it takes tough love, discipline, and a will to live a long, happy, and healthy life to get my blood sugars where they should be and keep them that way. This man pictured above saved me from myself, and I will forever be grateful to him for helping me properly manage my diabetes. I remember one of our first dates when he came to Los Angeles to visit and after dinner I asked him if he wanted to get ice cream on our way home…and he said “Well, I don’t want it if you shouldn’t have it.”

He didn’t know much about diabetes then, but at the least…he knew having an ice cream would probably be too much sugar for my body to handle. The crazy thing is, in the 20+ years that I’d been living with diabetes, everyone wanted me to feel normal. The truth is when you are diagnosed with this life altering disease, you are no longer normal and should not follow the same narrative someone with a working pancreas does. I already posted about my three keys to Living on the Run with Type 1, but want to stress again how important it is to:

1) Accept the fact that when you are diagnosed with T1D, your life will drastically change.

2) Find someone or something that is worth living for and commit to living a more disciplined life.

3) Keep your blood sugar in range (whatever that means for you – mine is technically 70-140, but I typically like to stay between 75-105) with minimal peaks and valleys.

That’s all for now. I hope you will comment below if any of this resonates with you.

Thanks for Reading,
Stephanie Sampinos