Okay........ ya'll, we do need to be care with insulin dependent vs not insulin dependent, and Type I vs. Type II. Type I, aka deficient, is nearly always insulin dependent. I was diagnosed in my 30's with diabetes, but not with an official Type I or Type II diagnosis, as I really didn't fit easily into the categories. Empirically, I rather strongly suspect that I'm a Type I, deficient, based on the fact that I do lose weight rather easily, especially with long periods of physical activity. In my early 20s, I had a nasty throat infection and more or less had to just tough it out as a broke college student, and ignored the warning signs that showed up over the next 10 years. I went 15 years with oral meds, diet, and not enough exercise before I finally started on insulin. Type II, aka, resistant, can also become insulin dependent when their insulin requirements simply outpace what their pancreas can deliver. I have a good friend (I actually diagnosed him as a Type II and said get your *** to Urgent Care NOW!) who finally started on insulin a couple of years ago. He is drastically overweight, and just can't seem to shake it.
I get a lab A1c twice annually, don't think insurance will spring for quarterly. Yes, there are home A1c kits...... and the accuracy is far from decent, something like +/- 15-20%. Yeah, indicators for sure, but it's the lab results that I'm really interested in. I took one a week ago, I tend to take them every 2-3 months just to keep on top of things and it showed 5.4. That's rather low, my August lab result was 6.4, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't been pushing the insulin & exercise THAT hard (I'm suspecting a sampling error.)