Type 1 diagnosed Type 2

jay2506

Member
Messages
21
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi All

I've recently changed consultants (after 11 years). He was shocked that I have been diagnosed type two and said I was classic type 1.

I was dianosed originally as having gestational diabetes and, when it didn't go after my baby was delivered, Type 2. I've been treated over the years with diet originally then an increasing dose of various drugs (metformin, sitagliptin and gliclazide) ending up on insulin. New doctor guessed it was type one diagnosed in pregnancy and sent bloods off for two tests, one was an antibody test and another one was looking for some enzyme marker which is present in type 1s. Negative for the antibodies (which he expected after such a long time) but strong positive for the other one. His secretary says it's conclusive that I'm type one and not type two as diagnosed originally.

My HbA1c has never been awful (but never great either - highest around 9 lowest while pregrant was 6 from memory).

My question is what are the implications of this misdiagnosis? Does it make any difference to me? does the fact I managed as long as I did without insulin that it was a slow onset type 1? Is there such a thing?!

I was a bit upset to be honest and I don't really understand why. Feels more real now.

sorry for rambling - just feeling confused. I was under the impression that these are different diseases which should be approached differently and I'm worried that I should have been doing something for a decade that I havent!!

jayne
 

Daibell

Master
Messages
12,642
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. In some ways I've been thru the same history but not yet on insulin. There are as many flavours of diabetes as there are people so it's not simple. They all share the same common theme of being unable to process glucose properly. The treatment is similar in many ways but progression to insulin can be much faster with the 'T1' group. So, I suspect you haven't missed out other than having sugars a bit higher than NICE would recommend but without some of the drawbacks of taking some insulin. At least your current GP has given you the right tests so you will now know where you are.
 

AndrewG

Member
Messages
5
Dislikes
Hypo's
Same with me,initial diagnosis was Type II due to my age even though showed all the classic symptoms of Type I. Shortly afterwards (3 months) changed GP and health authority and immediately put on insulin regime.
It then took another 17 years, and only after enquiring about a pump, did I see a new consultant who then reassigned me as Type I as according to him I had always been Type I based on my symptoms at the time of my initial diagnosis.
 

jay2506

Member
Messages
21
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
thanks fot your replies both. think i just need to get on with it now and not worry about the past!
 

TT17

Well-Known Member
Messages
62
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
It's slightly different for me but I was diagnosed type 2 at 13 so was put on metformin and that worked my hba1c was good and the low carb diet. Then around August in the summer holidays I started getting 8s and then it kept going up and up. Then I did dofe expedition with average bloods of 16!!! Then on Wednesday after I was admitted into hospital and they re did the antibody test ( the first one came back negative) and finally came back saying I was type one mean while I'd started on lantus and then novorapid then I stated carb counting and now have a pump. I don't know any other people of my age who have Been type 2 and type one before 15
 

phoenix

Expert
Messages
5,671
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Diabetes comes in a number of varieties , onsets.
One Scandinavian study found that in a group of women with gestational diabetes that went on to develop permanent diabetes within 6 years, half were eventually diagnosed as T1 and half T2.
LADA is the acronym for Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults for slow developing type .
Here's a UK site with info about it.
http://www.locallada.swan.ac.uk/
And slow developing T1 diabetes also seems to occur in some children.
Although LADA is considered to be confined to adulthood, Lohmann et al. (9) recently introduced the term “LADY-like” (latent autoimmune diabetes in the young) based on two children diagnosed with islet antibodies without insulin dependency, who later showed slowly progressive β-cell failure. A similar observation in a Turkish case (15) gave birth to another eponym: LADC (latent autoimmune diabetes in children)
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/co ... 2/S68.full