Hello, everybody. I'm brand new around here, and this place looks great already. As I mentioned in the introductions forum, I'm 25 and in the Army, stationed in Upstate New York. I'm a natural runner. On the Army 2-mile run test, I typically run between 15:15 and 15:35, which is pretty fast for a female. I feel more clear-headed while running than otherwise, and it generally elevates my mood for quite some time after. It's also the ONLY way I can meet weight standards. I never knew all this until I joined up! At my best I was running up to 25 miles a week with a semi-competitive company team. But this place had perfect weather year round, gorgeous ocean scenery, and I had nothing to worry about but school and running. Shangri-La, aka Monterey, CA. I cut most added sugar out of my diet about four years ago, though I still make exceptions for chocolate, and on rare special occasions a small desert. I noticed that I quit having so many headaches after I did this. I've spent more time recently either preparing to deploy or deployed to the sunny Middle East. Suffice it to say the mileage has suffered. We're back in preparing mode again. It's the dead of winter here now, and we still run, but not nearly as much, due to the cold and bad road conditions. I also have to run with my platoon instead of a run team, and our runs are not always fast or long enough for optimal effect. After work is pitch black and I hate treadmills. Hopefully this forum will motivate me to work through all that. As for the diabetes part. It runs in the family, on both sides, quite extensively! I started gaining weight during the deployment. Stress and sleep deprivation, combined with too much available food (in a combat zone, what irony.) Towards the end of my year there, around June, I started BONKING on runs, even fairly slow group runs. And I'd been running about 15 a week, so I wasn't out of shape. I was short of breath, but not out of breath, if that makes any sense. Weak, my legs felt like lead. Dizzy, sometimes I had blurred vision for a few moments. I saw the medics, they said I was just dehydrated. Not possible, I was drinking TONS of water. It's impossible to say whether not I was experiencing the classical "excessive thirst" as it was 85 degrees before sunrise, and 120 or 130 by afternoon, and we were all drinking gallons of it and visiting the port-a-johns every hour or two. The Doc said to eat something before I ran, and that seemed to help. Two other items I learned might mean something: my vision went off by another diopter in each eye since before I left for Iraq. And I had three cavities at my dental screening when I came back. I had not had a cavity since I was 11! Curiouser and Curiouser. I suspected it was diabetes, just due to family history and the fact that I'd gained some weight. Doctor said I was crazy, as I was only 25. This started a long argument. I came back home when the time came, and still had the same symptoms for about two months. Then it started to wane, and by the time I had some lab tests done, FBG was showing normal, and A1C in normal range (5.1.) This was partially because I'd upped my mileage some, and I think it was also due to better climate and lack of stress and plenty of sleep! So Docs think I am fine. And they do not want me to self- monitor... These guys drive me crazy. I am home monitoring anyway. My grandmother does it, and she suggested I do the same. Wasn't very difficult to learn. At three months here's what I've learned: after most meals readings are fine. But Fasting Blood Glucose tends to be around 120, sometimes 130, and on one occasion 154, unless I am running a lot. I have only seen below 100 three times, in three months of monitoring (So it is odd that my A1C is 5.1.) Sometimes numbers take too long to drop after a meal. I might still be at 174 four or five hours later, and even at this relatively okay number I feel like crap (nausea typically ensues after the numbers finally come down) and just want to sleep (which only makes things worse.) If I do an intensive workout, if I've not run in a week, my numbers will spike to 200, and I bonk out and feel as described above: weak, dizzy, short of breath. If I run regularly and always eat something before I run, this doesn't usually happen. So that's the whole long sordid tale. By lab workups I am not diabetic, so I do not have any referrals to specialists. By my own near-constant home monitoring since November I may have some problems. Like I said, running helps even things out and lower the FBG, so I'm happy to have found this board!

Yes, I'm pretty psyched about here. Never had a GTT. I don't test at night as often as I do first thing in the morning, but that's a question I'll look into, I'll have to check my log book. I use a regular daily planner, and try to track what I eat when as well. My physician's assistant won't let me go any further since my A1C is good. Healthcare is free in the Army, but you don't have as many choices as you would privately.

Those fasting nuimbers are not good and 174 after 4-5 hrs is way too high. Tell your doctor, you want the GTT, do not get out of the Military without getting that GTT, and if you have to get it done privately, and then fight like hell to to get the results in your military record.

Training for? Hm, I should see if there is a local race. I ran a few 5 and 10Ks in Kuwait and Iraq, and back in California when I was still in training. That was fun. Maybe I could even do a 10-miler, though the furthest I've ever run was about 8, in not too much over an hour, though I wasn't really timing myself. I need to look into it... My "training partners" come built in. We run as a group three days a week. I can't wait for Daylights Saving time so I can run more after work. As it is I have to pack in as much as I can on weekends, and with the weather lately I have been DEmotivated. Winter sucks. Don't worry, I'm not taking this laying down. I'm getting copies of everything and am about to go over and see if I can someone knowledgeable to review my labwork with me. I come from a long line of Veterans and all have been very vocal about keeping your own records, being persistent, etc. If this is run-of-the-mill pre-diabetes, or even fairly controllable Type II, they'll like let me serve out the year I have left. What would have to be determined is if I can deploy again. Cheerio, glad to have met you all.