In the talk I gave the other day at a diabetes educator conference, I shared my most recent A1c result with the audience. I did this after very careful consideration, because I generally don’t share that information.

But I decided that the context and situation was right – the room was full of HCPs who still often use A1c as the way to measure the success of a diabetes treatment or technology. Plus, I knew that there may be a lot of concern about the off-off-off label technology I was using. Surely a way to win over the crowd and point to the value of Loop was to play to my audience and give the crowd what they want.

When I announced my A1c to the room, the audience clapped. That’s right; they broke into spontaneous applause. I responded by asking them to stop – to please not applaud an in-range number.

I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable hearing the applause, because I couldn’t help but feel that if instead I’d declared an A1c out of range, the response would have been the sound of sharp intakes of breath. I know this, because I have spoken about high numbers before, and that is the noise a roomful of HCPs make when I talk about double-digit A1cs.

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the impact of what we are told about many different aspects of diabetes – and the way things are framed – can be long lasting. And as my head is increasingly in the communication around diabetes complication space, I keep coming back to the need to reframe the way we present diabetes.

My newly-diagnosed self wouldn’t have batted an eye lid if I heard of HCPs applauding at an in-range A1c, because that was what I was told was a measure of success, and we applaud success, right? Just as that newly diagnosed me truly believed that someone being accused of failing to care for themselves because they had developed diabetes complications was a fair call.

These were the beliefs that were anchored in my mind as the absolutes of diabetes. But all they managed to do was anchor me to feeling as though I was constantly failing.

It took a long time to overcome those biases that seem to be the lifeblood of the diabetes narrative. I wish it happened sooner. I wish I hadn’t been anchored down for so long. Now I understand that we can acknowledge effort, but not applaud a number. How liberating this is; how much lighter I feel!

More musings on A1c

I don’t need an excuse

Deceptive