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Hi everyone...
I guess I will start at the start which is to say that I developed gestational diabetes in 2010 while pregnant with my son. There is no family history of diabetes or gestational diabetes at all and during my pregnancy it was easily controlled with Metformin. Six weeks after I had my son they did a GTT test which was completely normal. Over the course of a few months late last year I started getting terrible headaches especially in the morning, I started getting really really thirsty all the time and by the time I started having to get up 3 or 4 times during the night to pee I suspected the diabetes was back.
I visited my GP and told him that I thought the diabetes had returned. He took one look at me and my info on the screen and didn't believe me. I am 26 years old and my BMI is 23.1 so he basically said I wasn't old enough or fat enough to have developed diabetes but to "put my mind at rest" he used a Ketostick on a urine sample right in front of me and funny enough it went bright purple. He still didn't think I fitted the diabetic profile though and so he called the hospital to speak to an endocrine consultant. The consultant was baffled too and said to give me a testing machine and prescribe me Gliclazide and refer me for blood tests. No other advice whether nutritional or otherwise was given and I was sent home. This was a week before Christmas.
I made changes in my diet and took the Gliclazide as prescribed and I was getting results as high as 14.4 mmol post meal and regardless of the time of day my levels were always between 9 and 14 mmol and I felt like rubbish so when those tablets ran out I called my GP and asked to be put on to Metformin as it worked when I was pregnant and the Gliclazide were clearly not helping me. They agreed and prescribed Metformin 500mg twice a day which I have been on ever since. My post meal levels are now usually between 7 and 8.5 mmol which is still slightly high but a massive improvement on the Gliclazide performance. The diabetic nurse had me down as Type 2 diabetic and told me to keep taking the Metformin and only test 2 or 3 times a week.
I then went to the diabetic hospital last week (for the first time since diagnosed) to meet with the consultant about my blood results. When I got there he told me he was baffled. He said that I WAS producing insulin and that the normal levels were 360 - 1400 and i was falling in at 395 so I was right at the bottom end of the scale but it supported type 2 diabetes as there was some insulin production. He then said that my GAD62 result was FOUR TIMES the normal level which indicated type 1 diabetes as my islet (Beta) cells were potentially being destroyed. He then said that the fact the Metformin was controlling the BG also supported type 2 aswell and that one third of type 2 diabetics do have the high GAD62 result. He also said I was on a rather low dose of Metformin again supporting type 2. Then he eventually told me he doesn't know what is going on as I seem to have what they call type 1.5 diabetes and so I have to go back in three months for repeat blood tests to basically see if the rest of my Beta cells are destroyed or not and if they are I will need insulin.
I left the hospital more confused then when I started and the thought of having to take insulin fills me with dread. I hate injections to the point where I even hate having to prick my finger for the BG tests. I honestly don' t think I could cope with having to inject insulin for the rest of my life
I'm only 26 and information I've read talks about sight problems, circulation problems and reduced life expectancy.... I don't have any one in my life who really understands either as there is absolutely no family history of diabetes and none of my family even know of anyone who was ever diabetic. My husbands father is type 2 diabetic but he is 54 years old and extremely obese and unhealthy and so I don't think he can offer any insight at all as he just takes loads of Metformin and acts like he hasn't even got the disease.
Sorry for the essay folks but I didn't know what else to do the doctors are pretty useless and can't seem to tell me anything concrete.
Thanks for reading.
Elaine :wave:
I guess I will start at the start which is to say that I developed gestational diabetes in 2010 while pregnant with my son. There is no family history of diabetes or gestational diabetes at all and during my pregnancy it was easily controlled with Metformin. Six weeks after I had my son they did a GTT test which was completely normal. Over the course of a few months late last year I started getting terrible headaches especially in the morning, I started getting really really thirsty all the time and by the time I started having to get up 3 or 4 times during the night to pee I suspected the diabetes was back.
I visited my GP and told him that I thought the diabetes had returned. He took one look at me and my info on the screen and didn't believe me. I am 26 years old and my BMI is 23.1 so he basically said I wasn't old enough or fat enough to have developed diabetes but to "put my mind at rest" he used a Ketostick on a urine sample right in front of me and funny enough it went bright purple. He still didn't think I fitted the diabetic profile though and so he called the hospital to speak to an endocrine consultant. The consultant was baffled too and said to give me a testing machine and prescribe me Gliclazide and refer me for blood tests. No other advice whether nutritional or otherwise was given and I was sent home. This was a week before Christmas.
I made changes in my diet and took the Gliclazide as prescribed and I was getting results as high as 14.4 mmol post meal and regardless of the time of day my levels were always between 9 and 14 mmol and I felt like rubbish so when those tablets ran out I called my GP and asked to be put on to Metformin as it worked when I was pregnant and the Gliclazide were clearly not helping me. They agreed and prescribed Metformin 500mg twice a day which I have been on ever since. My post meal levels are now usually between 7 and 8.5 mmol which is still slightly high but a massive improvement on the Gliclazide performance. The diabetic nurse had me down as Type 2 diabetic and told me to keep taking the Metformin and only test 2 or 3 times a week.
I then went to the diabetic hospital last week (for the first time since diagnosed) to meet with the consultant about my blood results. When I got there he told me he was baffled. He said that I WAS producing insulin and that the normal levels were 360 - 1400 and i was falling in at 395 so I was right at the bottom end of the scale but it supported type 2 diabetes as there was some insulin production. He then said that my GAD62 result was FOUR TIMES the normal level which indicated type 1 diabetes as my islet (Beta) cells were potentially being destroyed. He then said that the fact the Metformin was controlling the BG also supported type 2 aswell and that one third of type 2 diabetics do have the high GAD62 result. He also said I was on a rather low dose of Metformin again supporting type 2. Then he eventually told me he doesn't know what is going on as I seem to have what they call type 1.5 diabetes and so I have to go back in three months for repeat blood tests to basically see if the rest of my Beta cells are destroyed or not and if they are I will need insulin.
I left the hospital more confused then when I started and the thought of having to take insulin fills me with dread. I hate injections to the point where I even hate having to prick my finger for the BG tests. I honestly don' t think I could cope with having to inject insulin for the rest of my life
I'm only 26 and information I've read talks about sight problems, circulation problems and reduced life expectancy.... I don't have any one in my life who really understands either as there is absolutely no family history of diabetes and none of my family even know of anyone who was ever diabetic. My husbands father is type 2 diabetic but he is 54 years old and extremely obese and unhealthy and so I don't think he can offer any insight at all as he just takes loads of Metformin and acts like he hasn't even got the disease.Sorry for the essay folks but I didn't know what else to do the doctors are pretty useless and can't seem to tell me anything concrete.
Thanks for reading.
Elaine :wave:
