Calling All Type 2’s

[Listlad]

I remember telling my GP at the time that I felt like **** most of the time as well. That's when he started to test me for diabetes.

Well that’s how I was beginning to feel. Exactly that. I have to say I feel a lot better now, since reducing the carbs and upping the fats. Definitely. And only in a matter of a month or so.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

Well that’s how I was beginning to feel. Exactly that. I have to say I feel a lot better now, since reducing the carbs and upping the fats. Definitely. And only in a matter of a month or so.

I managed to stay borderline for best part of twenty years before I got promoted to T2. I have drunk litres of that glucose drink over the years at the pathology shop at the private hospital down the road a bit.

 

[milesrf]

Not much warning that I now recognize, except that a few weeks before I was diagnosed, most of the inside of my toilet bowl became covered with a black coating, probably mold.

 

[Brunneria]

Not much warning that I now recognize, except that a few weeks before I was diagnosed, most of the inside of my toilet bowl became covered with a black coating, probably mold.

 

[Stephen Lewis]

I had no symptoms but agreed to take part in a study to see the effects of statins when combined with Metformin. The initial tests indicated that I was pre-diabetic - A1c about 6.5. For the next 12 years my medication gradually increased and my A1cs also increased never getting below 7.0. Last February I was put on insulin when my glucose levels increased after an operation. My insulin doses increased over the next 5 months and my blood glucose levels rarely came down below 7.0 and my A1cs went higher. Last July I started on a low carb diet. I have stopped the insulin, my Metformin is back to 10 years ago and my latest A1c was 6.9 compared to 9.5 12 months before on insulin. Who has gained from the last 13 years? The big drug companies! Who controls the medical professionals with supposedly scientific research? The big drug companies. I realize we are not all the same and that I am just controlling my symptoms not getting a cure but I would rather achieve this through diet than drugs and needles.

 

[Thomas the Tank]

Calling all Type 2 people.

Looking back in time with the benefit of hindsight what diabetic symptoms that you had that were not aware of the significance of just before or at the point of diagnosis do you now say,

“Well yes, I now know that the conditions had been going on for a few years or more but had absolutely no idea that they were down to high blood sugars?”

How far back can you go where the earliest symptoms are recognisable to you now?

That's an interesting point. I did not have any symptoms before or even since that I can recognise as significant to T2. I 'discovered' that I was diabetic by accident and asked my GP to confirm.

 

[Bogie]

Not much warning that I now recognize, except that a few weeks before I was diagnosed, most of the inside of my toilet bowl became covered with a black coating, probably mold.

That is fairly common with Diabetics ... well, I don't know about being "covered with black" but many really don't take heed and just think the toilet bowl is dirty. It is from excess glucose/sugar in your urine. About 5 years ago I noticed that my toilet was getting these black specs and getting worse and thought it was from a dirty toilet - despite cleaning it often. We have 2 full bathrooms in our home - one for my wife and one for me I noticed that her's did not get these black marks but mine did. I mentioned it to my doctor and he told me what it was from. That is when he started testing for glucose. Drinking that "syrup" for a glucose tolerance curve was not pleasant, but that and subsequent tests showed elevated readings and a comment about being pre-diabetic.

To elaborate further for "Listlad" and the original post for research, I was 65 at the time and really cannot think of any other stand-out warning signs before that, except for .....

Diabetes is an inherited genetic gift from my mother's side of the family, traced back a few generations. She is now 93 and has been a T2 on insulin for about 15 years. Earlier generations, my Mom's father, grandfather, and great grandfather, died at a young age (50s) from Diabetes. Diabetes recognition and treatment were not the same many years ago and longevity was not common for Diabetics. So, for me, a closer look at my maternal family tree would have been a warning of things to come. I have a younger sister also with T2, and another sister pre-diabetic. 2 brothers and a 3rd sister (all younger than myself) seem to be OK, so far. We have 2 daughters and a son, in their 40s, and 3 grandsons. Hopefully, the family curse has no been passed to them.

Did my younger years with a "sweet tooth" exacerbate the final outcome of landing up with T2? I was never overweight except for a just over a year before T2 diagnosis when I had an urge to eat a lot and shot up to 205 lbs (14.6 stone) but 6 feet tall - before I was always tall, slim, and light-weight. Now steady around 160 lbs (11.4 stone) thanks to a better diet and oral meds (Jardiance).

So while I obviously had the propensity for Diabetes, it never stood out like a sore thumb. Maybe my doctors, over the years, really didn't think that showing a little high (in the "normal" range) was anything to be concerned about.

My HbA1c is now 6.3, so a downward trend after diagnosis and taking better care of myself through diet.

Hope that helps in your research "Listlad" and an explanation for "milesrf" about your post reply/question.

We may all have T2 Diabetes but our body's combination lock can be complex.

 

[Stephen Lewis]

That's an interesting point. I did not have any symptoms before or even since that I can recognise as significant to T2. I 'discovered' that I was diabetic by accident and asked my GP to confirm.

RU Thomas the Tank that I went to school with 55 years ago? Lewis School Pengam?

 

[FrancisK]

Calling all Type 2 people.

Looking back in time with the benefit of hindsight what diabetic symptoms that you had that were not aware of the significance of just before or at the point of diagnosis do you now say,

“Well yes, I now know that the conditions had been going on for a few years or more but had absolutely no idea that they were down to high blood sugars?”

How far back can you go where the earliest symptoms are recognisable to you now?

Calling all Type 2 people.

Looking back in time with the benefit of hindsight what diabetic symptoms that you had that were not aware of the significance of just before or at the point of diagnosis do you now say,

“Well yes, I now know that the conditions had been going on for a few years or more but had absolutely no idea that they were down to high blood sugars?”

How far back can you go where the earliest symptoms are recognisable to you now?

What a very perceptive question!

I was diagnosed T2 at 63. Looking back, I would say that symptoms were present and easily visible in retrospect from my early 40s! Also, the habits that led to those symptoms were also well established and visible.

Food for thought! A message perhaps to health educators everywhere? Thanks.

 

[tom_r_orr]

I was diagnosed about 10 years ago, told over the phone that one of my annual blood tests was 0.1 over the limit which since then has labeled me type 2 diabetic. I had zero symptoms and was going the gym 5 times a week and was in reasonable shape.

A few years later, looking and feeling pretty good, I started to have shoulder pains when starting off my gym workout, which passed after a few minutes. I ignored this until one day i mentioned it to the gym owner who suggested I talk to my GP 'just in case'. This led to being treated for Angina, and bout 8 years ago I had 3 angioplasty (stent) procedures at Edinburgh Royal. After this I felt even better but still had zero symptoms of diabetes, other than being extorted for raised insurance premiums, which angered me more than little, thinking 'what diabetes?'

Then I retired in 2012 at age 57 and moved to volunteer in Cambodia. I have zero regrets about this move though I am now convinced the lifestyle change is what started to bring out at least one of the standard symptoms of Type 2. I ballooned from 75 to 95 Kg over a 3 year period, and was eating and drinking out every day (Cambodia is CHEAP!).

The crux came when the top of my left foot started to permanently tingle after about 4 years of over-eating in restaurants and drinking many cheap beers. So 2 years ago I made a serious attempt to beat T2D and am on track with still the neuropathy as really my only symptom i have or have ever had. Am living in Thailand now and it's been easy to eat LCHF here, so I am back down to 75 Kg and all bloods, not just glucose related, are in the 'normal' range. I ditched Metformin and Statins and my levels are still normal.

However I still have the neuropathy, now in both feet/legs but am told this is reversible but it always takes a very long time. Fortunately I am a very patient man.

Do I regret not taking the diagnosis more seriously? Only a little. I have had a fantastic life so far and intend for it to carry on as long as possible. Even as I fight my sugar addiction today (carbs are history now) my main goal in life is to be happy. I can honestly say even through many non-medical ups and downs that I have never felt depressed. I learned the adage You Only Live Once a very long time ago. Diabetes will never stop me enjoying life.

As a post script I take my GF's father to a monthly diabetes clinic in the local hospital. Seeing so many amputees waiting in line is VERY sobering and helps with the motivation. It's a huge problem here: you've never seen so many small people put away so much white rice every day.

 

[Listlad]

I managed to stay borderline for best part of twenty years before I got promoted to T2. I have drunk litres of that glucose drink over the years at the pathology shop at the private hospital down the road a bit.

Promoted to T2 LOL.

 

[Listlad]

I was diagnosed about 10 years ago, told over the phone that one of my annual blood tests was 0.1 over the limit which since then has labeled me type 2 diabetic. I had zero symptoms and was going the gym 5 times a week and was in reasonable shape.

A few years later, looking and feeling pretty good, I started to have shoulder pains when starting off my gym workout, which passed after a few minutes. I ignored this until one day i mentioned it to the gym owner who suggested I talk to my GP 'just in case'. This led to being treated for Angina, and bout 8 years ago I had 3 angioplasty (stent) procedures at Edinburgh Royal. After this I felt even better but still had zero symptoms of diabetes, other than being extorted for raised insurance premiums, which angered me more than little, thinking 'what diabetes?'

Then I retired in 2012 at age 57 and moved to volunteer in Cambodia. I have zero regrets about this move though I am now convinced the lifestyle change is what started to bring out at least one of the standard symptoms of Type 2. I ballooned from 75 to 95 Kg over a 3 year period, and was eating and drinking out every day (Cambodia is CHEAP!).

The crux came when the top of my left foot started to permanently tingle after about 4 years of over-eating in restaurants and drinking many cheap beers. So 2 years ago I made a serious attempt to beat T2D and am on track with still the neuropathy as really my only symptom i have or have ever had. Am living in Thailand now and it's been easy to eat LCHF here, so I am back down to 75 Kg and all bloods, not just glucose related, are in the 'normal' range. I ditched Metformin and Statins and my levels are still normal.

However I still have the neuropathy, now in both feet/legs but am told this is reversible but it always takes a very long time. Fortunately I am a very patient man.

Do I regret not taking the diagnosis more seriously? Only a little. I have had a fantastic life so far and intend for it to carry on as long as possible. Even as I fight my sugar addiction today (carbs are history now) my main goal in life is to be happy. I can honestly say even through many non-medical ups and downs that I have never felt depressed. I learned the adage You Only Live Once a very long time ago. Diabetes will never stop me enjoying life.

As a post script I take my GF's father to a monthly diabetes clinic in the local hospital. Seeing so many amputees waiting in line is VERY sobering and helps with the motivation. It's a huge problem here: you've never seen so many small people put away so much white rice every day.

For me an interesting post, Tom. My wife is from SE Asia and we buy white rice by the 10kg sack full here. So I understand where you are coming from.

I notice your reference to lifestyle changes and some mirror my own. I was 79 kg in 2011 and over 100 in 2018.

 

[Listlad]

What a very perceptive question!

I was diagnosed T2 at 63. Looking back, I would say that symptoms were present and easily visible in retrospect from my early 40s! Also, the habits that led to those symptoms were also well established and visible.

Food for thought! A message perhaps to health educators everywhere? Thanks.

Thanks for the appreciation.

Yes, and food for thought for our children and children’s children.

 

[Listlad]

That is fairly common with Diabetics ... well, I don't know about being "covered with black" but many really don't take heed and just think the toilet bowl is dirty. It is from excess glucose/sugar in your urine. About 5 years ago I noticed that my toilet was getting these black specs and getting worse and thought it was from a dirty toilet - despite cleaning it often. We have 2 full bathrooms in our home - one for my wife and one for me I noticed that her's did not get these black marks but mine did. I mentioned it to my doctor and he told me what it was from. That is when he started testing for glucose. Drinking that "syrup" for a glucose tolerance curve was not pleasant, but that and subsequent tests showed elevated readings and a comment about being pre-diabetic.

To elaborate further for "Listlad" and the original post for research, I was 65 at the time and really cannot think of any other stand-out warning signs before that, except for .....

Diabetes is an inherited genetic gift from my mother's side of the family, traced back a few generations. She is now 93 and has been a T2 on insulin for about 15 years. Earlier generations, my Mom's father, grandfather, and great grandfather, died at a young age (50s) from Diabetes. Diabetes recognition and treatment were not the same many years ago and longevity was not common for Diabetics. So, for me, a closer look at my maternal family tree would have been a warning of things to come. I have a younger sister also with T2, and another sister pre-diabetic. 2 brothers and a 3rd sister (all younger than myself) seem to be OK, so far. We have 2 daughters and a son, in their 40s, and 3 grandsons. Hopefully, the family curse has no been passed to them.

Did my younger years with a "sweet tooth" exacerbate the final outcome of landing up with T2? I was never overweight except for a just over a year before T2 diagnosis when I had an urge to eat a lot and shot up to 205 lbs (14.6 stone) but 6 feet tall - before I was always tall, slim, and light-weight. Now steady around 160 lbs (11.4 stone) thanks to a better diet and oral meds (Jardiance).

So while I obviously had the propensity for Diabetes, it never stood out like a sore thumb. Maybe my doctors, over the years, really didn't think that showing a little high (in the "normal" range) was anything to be concerned about.

My HbA1c is now 6.3, so a downward trend after diagnosis and taking better care of myself through diet.

Hope that helps in your research "Listlad" and an explanation for "milesrf" about your post reply/question.

We may all have T2 Diabetes but our body's combination lock can be complex.

Great post. Thanks.

Hopefully I will have staved off or postponed the onset of T2.

But lessons learned should surely help our kids or grand kids in the future.

 

[Janet.h]

Promoted to T2 LOL.

T2 for about 10 years now.
No specific symptoms although I had extreme hunger in the morning after I had eaten a full meal previous night. Also low sugar symptoms.
My chances of becoming diabetic were high. Not significantly overweight although since lost 2st. Diabetic during pregnancy, needing insulin for 6 weeks first time as had only put on 6 pounds. Mother, grandmother and both sisters diabetic. Had yearly blood tests, nothing, then after surgeries and serious chest infections my blood sugars shot up. On metformin and recently added sitagliptin. Other medications do not help. My older sister has tried just about everything bar insulin and nothing seems to work. Younger on insulin.
Brother refuses to ask for tests.

 

[Listlad]

T2 for about 10 years now.
No specific symptoms although I had extreme hunger in the morning after I had eaten a full meal previous night. Also low sugar symptoms.
My chances of becoming diabetic were high. Not significantly overweight although since lost 2st. Diabetic during pregnancy, needing insulin for 6 weeks first time as had only put on 6 pounds. Mother, grandmother and both sisters diabetic. Had yearly blood tests, nothing, then after surgeries and serious chest infections my blood sugars shot up. On metformin and recently added sitagliptin. Other medications do not help. My older sister has tried just about everything bar insulin and nothing seems to work. Younger on insulin.
Brother refuses to ask for tests.

“Brother refuses to ask for tests “. I don’t know how I am going to get my wife to do that.

You are not the first to mention hunger after meals. The strange thing is that I think I have been like that all my life. It has always been dismissed as me being a “pig”

 

[tom_r_orr]

For me an interesting post, Tom. My wife is from SE Asia and we buy white rice by the 10kg sack full here. So I understand where you are coming from.

I notice your reference to lifestyle changes and some mirror my own. I was 79 kg in 2011 and over 100 in 2018.

Thanks for your input it’s a global problem and probably a separate post but I resent so much being told to eat pasta and rice !

 

[Listlad]

Thanks for your input it’s a global problem and probably a separate post but I resent so much being told to eat pasta and rice !

No need to apologise on the drift in content. And totally relevant IMHO.

 

[britishpub]

How far back can you go where the earliest symptoms are recognisable to you now?

My GP found raised glucose in my urine at a routine medical in 2008. I then underwent an OGTT and passed.

I had another medical in 2012, where a different doctor found the same thing, and I underwent another OGTT and passed again. My BP was also measured at 193/103 so I was put on Amlodopine.

After this I had routine annual checks on my BP, and a blood test in 2013, but no mention was made of a raised HbA1c.

Early in 2015 I started feeling dreadful, was drinking and urinating loads. After consulting Doctor Google I deduced I might have T2D (the good Doctor sent me to this site at the same time)

I bought an Accuchek monitor and tested my blood one Sunday morning before breakfast and it was 17.4, I did the same thing the following Sunday and it was 16.3.

My annual BP monitoring appointment was the following week, so asked for a blood test to be taken as I thought I had T2D.

The rest is history.

BTW @Listlad how do you manage to get a HbA1c done so frequently when you are not "officially" diagnosed? I find it difficult enough to persuade my surgery to do one even though I am.

 

[Listlad]

BTW @Listlad how do you manage to get a HbA1c done so frequently when you are not "officially" diagnosed? I find it difficult enough to persuade my surgery to do one even though I am.

The initial ones were down to the high readings taken for blood pressure concerns at the time. Note the 49.

I discovered we are entitled to a blood test annually. I think that’s what I was told. Also my history seems to have a bearing.

Whilst @Brunneria assures me there is no such thing as being diagnosed as Pre-diabetic, my GP has at least taken my prevailing condition seriously. The other factor is my blood pressure which is high so maybe there is reason there.

I have to say that in January when I was discussing my conditions with my GP, we first talked about the blood pressure issues but then he turned round and said “ but I am more worried about your diabetes” ( with an HbA1 c at the time of 41 ) so credit where credit is due. Perhaps he fuelled my concern for my diabetic condition which doesn’t necessarily seem to count much in some quarters.