It kind of slowly dawned on me it could well be diabetes over a period of about three months when I was eating masses, but losing weight, and also had for thrush for the first and only time in my life.
In the last bit of that time, I'd been putting the tired/sleepy/drinking loads down to working hard, end of term, very hot weather.
It came to a "You've got to sort this - now!" when I put on a T-shirt which had been tight on me the previous year, but completely swamped me that year. So, I was marched off to our workplace nurses, (who'd already suspected this) who presented me with the meter to test - I was 18.4 pre-lunch.
GPs nurses were a bit unbelieving when I marched in, announced I was sure I had diabetes and what did I have to do to get diagnosed? They took blood just to keep me quiet, though they did acknowledge I'd lost a lot of weight since I'd registered there 5 years previously. It all went a bit more chaotic the next day when the Hba1c came back at 144, which was immediately repeated as they thought it was wrong, for a 140. (I only discovered that 18 months ago! I knew about the 140, though.)
GP 1 told me T2 and on being told a parent had been diagnosed T1 in his 60s told me I must have misheard as "Adults don't get T1". GP 2, 3 days later, told me it was all my own fault for being obese (I'd lost 4 stone pre-T2 diagnosis and went on to lose another 5 stone). Luckily, I had to move practice that week, as I was also moving house - if I'd not tried on that T-shirt, this would've been picked up on the New Patient check, I guess.
Type 2 I remained, as an official diagnosis, until walking 8 - 10 miles a day, diet and meds, which had worked really well, stopped working 18 months ago.
GP 3 then told me I had to expect things to get progressively worse, plus I couldn't be doing enough with diet and exercise.
Luckily for me, Splendid GP turned up, believed everything I'd been saying repeatedly for three years about not trying to lose weight, about eating only what I was saying I was eating, and started digging into my history much further and deeper. Then referred me to the hospital earlier than he should've done, as he'd decided I'd had enough at the point the Hba1c was spiralling into treble figures again. I now refuse to see any other GP.
Clinic was where the LADA diagnosis came from.