- Messages
- 535
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
I was diagnosed T2 on New Years Eve, so just under 6 months ago. I didn't have any symptoms, although I was looking out for them as I had had gestational diabetes 17 years earlier and knew I was at high risk. My HBA1C was 97, which (to me) suggests that it hadn't come on suddenly but had developed over a number of years.
I'm concerned about how long I might have had T2 without knowing. I did ask my GP about 5 years ago if I should have an annual BS check given my gestational diabetes, but she said that was pointless unless I developed symptoms, which I never did - my T2 was picked up in a random blood test as part of a "well woman" check and then confirmed with the HBA1C test.
Luckily all my diabetes checks - feet, kidney, eyes etc have come back clear, and my HBA1C after 3 months had dropped to 49, and hopefully will have dropped further at my next check, but I still worry that I have damaged my body in the period when I didn't know I was diabetic. I did have an operation under GA 3 years ago and had a number of pre-op blood tests, but don't know if they routinely test for sugars in the pre-op tests? If they do, then that would suggest my sugar levels were ok then and that my diabetes developed after that point.
I know that no-one can definitively tell me how long I have had this disease, but it would be interesting to know what sort of damage I might have incurred in the period of not-knowing. I would be relieved f it was only a year rather than, say, 5 years! I also wish I'd insisted that I had an annual BS test for the last few years, so any rise in BS could have been picked up. It seems crazy that the NHS won't do this for someone who is clearly at high risk of developing a disease - prevention is better than cure, isn't it?
I'm concerned about how long I might have had T2 without knowing. I did ask my GP about 5 years ago if I should have an annual BS check given my gestational diabetes, but she said that was pointless unless I developed symptoms, which I never did - my T2 was picked up in a random blood test as part of a "well woman" check and then confirmed with the HBA1C test.
Luckily all my diabetes checks - feet, kidney, eyes etc have come back clear, and my HBA1C after 3 months had dropped to 49, and hopefully will have dropped further at my next check, but I still worry that I have damaged my body in the period when I didn't know I was diabetic. I did have an operation under GA 3 years ago and had a number of pre-op blood tests, but don't know if they routinely test for sugars in the pre-op tests? If they do, then that would suggest my sugar levels were ok then and that my diabetes developed after that point.
I know that no-one can definitively tell me how long I have had this disease, but it would be interesting to know what sort of damage I might have incurred in the period of not-knowing. I would be relieved f it was only a year rather than, say, 5 years! I also wish I'd insisted that I had an annual BS test for the last few years, so any rise in BS could have been picked up. It seems crazy that the NHS won't do this for someone who is clearly at high risk of developing a disease - prevention is better than cure, isn't it?