I have LADA, I was even older than you when diagnosed at 53, and yes it was a shock! I had left my symptoms rather too long and was extemely thin by the time I visited the doctor with very high BS and ketones. He sent me straight to hospital, where I was immediately put on an insulin pump to bring my levels down. After further tests they told me I had LADA. Even after 4 years, I still sometimes can't quite believe they haven't got it all wrong and occasionally have the fantasy that I could stop the insulin and control it with diet and exercise :wink:
I spent a lot of time researching when I got home. I was surprised to find how common LADA actually is. I have read of people in their 70s being diagnosed with it. It is possible that 10% of the people with adult onset diabetes, not immediately needing insulin have LADA, thats a lot of people (many misdiagnosed as type 2) and far more than those who develop type 1 as a child or young person.
Diagnosis can be done by the presence of one or more types of islet antibodies but these tests are not always done. Recently there have been attempts to distinguish it from type 2 by other criteria.
'One study reported a probability of LADA of 0.99 with one or two out of the following five clinical features:
age at onset <50 years;
acute symptoms;
BMI<25kg/m2;
a history of autoimmune disease;
a family history positive for diabetes mellitus.
The other study reported a probability of LADA of zero with none of the following clinical features and of 0.32 with one out of three:
fasting blood glucose≥15mmol/l and/or HbA1c≥10%;
10% reduction in body weight in the previous 3 months;
BMI<25kg/m2.'
(
Easily obtainable clinical features increase the diagnostic accuracy for latent autoimmune diabetes in adults: An evidence-based report. Lutgens et al Dec 2008)
For myself I fulfilled two of the first, five and all of the last three and though since diagnosis a cousin developed LADA so that now makes 3 out of 5.
A good introductory site about LADA is
http://www.locallada.swan.ac.uk/what.html
I'm afraid I can't help much with your insulin since I used a basal bolus regime from the start. This is where you inject long lasting insulin once (or sometimes twice) a day and a short acting one with meals. I must say I'm grateful for this since It enables you to be much more flexible about food and mealtimes than with a mixed insulin.