Can a bleeding ulcer cure diabetes!?

Just the other day one of my patients thought that her diabetes had been "cured" after being in hospital with a bleeding stomach ulcer.  When she came out of the hospital her HbA1c, which had previously been in the 8.0 -9.0 percent range, came back at 4.9 percent!  She was delighted until I explained the reason.  She had lost several pints of blood from her bleeding ulcer and so was quite unwell with severe anemia when she was admitted to hospital.  In order to treat her she had been treated with a transfusion of several pints of blood.  That blood had been donated by one or more non-diabetic individuals.  When this was mixed with her own blood the average amount of HbA1c dropped right into the normal range because the transfused blood had very little glucose attached to it.  Over the next 10 to 12 weeks I'm afraid that my patient's HbA1c will rise back up to the 8-0 percent range as glucose gets attached to her own hemoglobin and to the hemoglobin from the transfused blood.

To understand more about HbA1c look at page 83 in The Diabetes Answer Book or check out this post:

What is glycosylated hemoglobin (or hemoglobin A1c, HbA1c)?

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/morediabetesanswers/2010/01/what-is-glycosylated-hemoglobin-or-hemoglobin-a1c-hba1c.html

Comments

[diabetes]

So does that mean it can cure diabetes?

Sam

[Sana Glassburn]

Question:

How do you know how much incilun your body is actually making?
How do you know how much glucose is actually getting to your muscles.