What's Normal?

For the past 2 days, these have been my numbers:

June 7th:

• 5:29 AM-183
• 8:38 AM-153
• 11:00 AM-137
• 1:08 PM-179
• 3:08 PM-123
• 5:42 PM-120
• 8:09 PM-97
• 9:06 PM-99
• 10:00 PM-92

June 8th:

• 5:25 AM-146
• 8:53 AM-146
• 11:20 AM-131
• 1:25 PM-151
• 3:56 PM-137
• 5:22 PM-134
• 7:13 PM-119
• 9:14 PM-45
• 9:37 PM-85

June 9th (so far):

• 5:33 AM-146
• 8:45 AM-138

Notice something?  Other than the paralyzing low from last night from post-softbal practice which left me drinking juice and scooping some Nutella (yum!), I'v haven't had a large deviation in my numbers.   Disregarding the low last night, my standard deviation from these numbers is 25 mg/dL.  Rising or falling 25 points can easily be done within an hour, 30 minutes, or even 15 minutes.  But I've been on a steady stroll around a mean of 135 mg/dL for the past 2 days.  If my numbers were a bike trail, they would be the "Beginner" path with very few hills and valleys.

But 135 as the mean?  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Sure, it's fairly normal and I wouldn't blink much if I saw that as an individual reading.  However, I haven't been bouncing all over the place.  This average means I'm not that high, and I'm certianly not low.  I would much rather have a smooth trend of 135 than bouncing from 225 to 45 (whose average is 135, also).

Sometimes, I think we get so caught up in the A1c singular number that we don't think about what that number means.  Am I bouncing all over the place from 300 to 50 and I luckily end up around 6.5% for my average?  Aiming for the elusive 100 mg/dL all the time is exhausting, especially since I am trying to simulate an organ that doesn't work anymore with an already compromised immune system.  Considering all the maintenance and effort this disease requires, strolling along at 135 mg/dL is pretty awesome!

As an atmospheric climate person, I look at a lot of datasets, some of them are 30+ years long.  Whenever I see wacky numbers that shoot from really high to really low over a week, I begin to question the validity of that dataset.  A steady line with some hills and valleys centering around an appropriately natural number is more pleasing.

I guess I'm trying to say that even though 135 mg/dL is not an average many medical professionals would consider "normal", I would argue that bouncing from 300 to 50 with a happen-chance average of 100 is less "normal".