Diabetes Cured?

Every time I see a new doctor or go in for a medical procedure, I’m asked. “Are you diabetic?” I always answer yes, but it’s under control. Most type 2 diabetes is caused by food/sugar intake, so if you’ve changed your diet and all your labs are good, are you “cured” or is diabetes a life-long chronic disease?

It’s kind of hard to read but here is my blood sugar readings for the past few months. My glucose meter sends the readings to my iPhone for storage and analysis. Most of the readings are from when I wake up and are below 100 mg/dL. Some of the higher readings are from cardiac rehab, which is usually after I eat breakfast. ADA (American Diabetes Association) says fasting blood sugar should be 80-130 mg/dL for diabetics and <180 mg/dL for 1-2 hours after meals.

Here are some Hemoglobin A1C results:

The big gap is from when I was on peritoneal dialysis. I think the clinic ran labs for A1C but the results are not in the St. Joseph patient portal. The 5.0% reading from January is probably due to not eating very much post-surgery. From the ADA website, “the goal for most adults with diabetes is an A1C that is less than 7%.”