Content warning: discussions of A1c, blood sugar, and diabetes management

Stability is often an elusive word. Lol… But in this case, I’ll take it when it comes to diabetes.

Since starting on Tandem’s T:slim pump four months ago, my A1c has dropped 2.6 points. I’ve blogged previously that my diabetes team and I chose to run the pump in exercise mode 24/7 to create a blood sugar buffer which would gradually lower A1c for safety reasons. Still, a 2.6 point drop feels a bit aggressive to me. One can only outsmart the algorithms of these fancy pumps so much, which I ultimately believe is a good thing for someone like me. Being forced to take a leap of faith and trust, to relinquish some control, has immensely helped my health. We are going to try to keep the A1c drop at a slow pace for awhile by continuing exercise mode 24/7 for now. Again, there is no perfect answer to this diabetes conundrum and this is our best shot.

I was curious what pump effects may be shown at my diabetes eye appointment, but thankfully the doctor felt that all looked good and that ultimately the goal of feeling better with a more in-range A1c, achieved gradually through exercise mode, is the ideal course of action in protecting my body for the long term. I share this part of my diabetes story openly here because globally, these concepts are not on the radar as often as I have encountered them based on my geographic area, alone. Decreasing A1c gradually may seem counterintuitive, but such is almost everything with diabetes.

“Stability,” indeed.