Am I Diabetic?

Hello all. I'll start by apologising - I'm sure you've had lots of these questions in the past, however I would like to ask a few questions to see what you think. Rest assured I am going to see the doctor, but it's not for another 2 weeks (no free appointments) so want to find out as much info so I can have a proper discussion when I get there.

I'm 29, male and am not overweight (although I was up until about 1.5years ago).

For quite a long time, I've noticed certain things, which I never really linked together, but after having a conversation with someone, I thought I'd go and do some research.

I have the following "symptoms":

1. Constant thirst - impossible to quench it
2. Go to the loo a lot, especially at night.
3. If I have sugary drinks, or any kind of white carby food, I often feel like I have what I call a "down", whereby I basically feel all flushed, can sweat a little, sometimes get a little shaky and often get a bit grumpy.
4. If I haven't eaten in a few hours and start to get hungry, point 3 often happens and I don't recover for the rest of the day
5. I get sore/achy legs when in bed or sitting
6. Terrible sleeper
7. Find it hard to gain muscle (work out at the gym as often as possible)
8. IBS

Points 3 and 4 are not guaranteed to happen 100% of the time, but are fairly common. All other points are fairly constant.

I've had urine tests in the past at the doctors as part of general check ups, or if I've mentioned I'm weeing a lot, and it's always come back fine. However the last one was maybe 3 or 4 years ago.

I have one aunt who is diabetic and we have a family history of Factor V Leiden mutation (blood clotting disorder) which I have.

So could all of these things just be coincedence? Or something else? What kind of tests would need to be carried out? I'm booked in for a blood test when I go to the doctors - will that cover it?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the reply. The more info I have for when I see the doc the better, so will discuss anything suggested here.

Hi everyone. I'm back. I thought I'd update this thread and see if I could get any more responses.

I went to the doctors, as discussed originally in this thread. My glucose tests were all normal. HOWEVER, no-one told me I needed to fast before the test. I was told I was fine and that there was nothing wrong, despite me feeling **** all the time.

2 years on I still feel ****. Just yesterday much of the day was spoiled by me having what seemed to be a hypo. Not long before lunch, ran out of energy, got all hot and sweaty, numb lips, inability to properly hold a conversation, irritability and general shakiness. Then went out for lunch and had a pint of Coke (full fat) then lunch itself. Picked up a bit after that, but was still a bit up and down for the rest of the day. What was annoying was that before this happened I had eaten a couple of sugary biscuits/donuts (small ones) about an hour before, so it's not like I hadn't eaten all morning. Plus I'd had a banana on the journey into town and porridge with honey for breakfast.

This has been happening a lot and I'm really sick of it. I'm going to try going to the docs again and push for another test, this time with me correctly fasting and see if that makes a difference.

*edit* I also realised I do not react well to alcohol and wondered if this too was related. If I've had even the slightest "down" or "hypo" during the day, if I have say a beer or a glass of wine in the evening it hits me really hard and I can get really grumpy, or start to not really listen to conversation, or just feel really really sleepy. This of course just could be a normal reaction

I just want to know what's causing this and why I get these horrible downs which can spoil whole days!

Thanks all.

I'm back. Again.

Thought in preparation for me going to the docs I'd buy a blood sugar monitor to see what was going on.

Before lunch today I was feeling a bit low, shaky, a bit sweaty, all the usual stuff. Had eaten some fruit about 1.5-2 hours previously.

Reading was 4.8mmol/L which I understand is fine. I have now had a few sugary sweets and a brown bread sandwich and will test again in 2 hours.

I know this is a very rough test but I think it could be interesting to see the results.

Started to feel a bit odd after my lunch, bit flushed and hot. This was just under an hour after eating. Reading was 8.5mmol/L.

Will test again at the 2 hour mark.

Thanks for that. Now tested exactly an hour after eating. 9.2mmol/L and feeling flushed with raised heartrate.

Will continue to monitor so I have some info when I see the doc.

That sounds positive. I'll post the 2 hour reading when it's been 2 hours.

At the end of the day I just want to know what's making me feel so ****** before and after eating.

2 hour reading is 7.3mmol/L so that's looking good

Interesting. My plan is to try it before dinner, then 2 hours after.

Then I'll try again tomorrow morning pre-anything, which should be about an 8 hour fast, then I'll try 2 hours after breakfast.

Does porridge with milk and honey sound too carb loaded for a good test breakfast?

Thanks Hellbunny - I may well try that test to see how it responds. What results should I be hoping to avoid?

Also, as an update, I took 2 more sets of readings.

Pre-dinner last night: 4.3mmol/L
1 hour after: 5.1mmol/L
2 hours after: 4.6mmol/L

1st thing this morning after not eating since dinner, or drinking anything sweet: 4.8mmol/L
2 hours after breakfast of porridge, honey and tea: 4.9mmol/L

Now I can see myself that those are pretty decent readings, so what I don't understand is why do I feel so low when my blood sugar is around 4.5mmol/L and why did it spike so badly yesterday lunchtime, making me feel terrible, then not return to normal levels after 2 hours, yet last night and this morning it did?