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Calling All Type 2’s

I didn't have any diabetic symptoms before diagnosis, but I was wanting to eat more carby foods which now I realise might have been a symptom.
 
DCUKMod said:
By that I mean you are without a diagnosis at this point, as I understand it, yet seem to indetify, enthusiastically with almost everything anyone exhibits.
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Okay. I take that as a form of criticism.

1) I have been diagnosed by my GP as having Prediabetes. I am not an imposter.
2) I personally have developed a number of symptoms that appear to be strongly linked with diabetes as specified by forum members in quite large quantities I might add, as specified by medical practitioners and as identified by many sources on the internet.
3) As I take a keen and proactive interest in my future health now even at this late stage then I am keen to learn more.

I can assure you that ailments I have listed and entered into discussion about are genuine and not in any way shape or form a figment of my imagination.

Can you now understand why I ask? Oh and my HbA1c result is due anytime and it is a flip of a coin which way it will go.

Oh and my blood pressure is high enough to warrant two forms of medication and I take medicine for thyroid issues. I am told that high blood pressure and (pre) diabetes are related or go hand in glove.

Not finished yet. I also have a young child who loves sweets and is invited to buy sweets and chocolates and cakes at school in large quantities. So the wider issue of Type 2 diabetes is also my concern.
 
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DCUKMod said:
By that I mean you are without a diagnosis at this point, as I understand it, yet seem to indetify, enthusiastically with almost everything anyone exhibits.
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Here is an earlier thread of mine that might clarify for you my position right now:

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-do-you-make-of-this-hba1c-data.160899/#post-1978487

Please see post #6 of that thread by @Resurgam and my response to that post.

At the end of the day and that includes today I am classified as prediabetic by my GP as in my avatar and was the box I ticked upon enrolling.

Edited to add information.
 
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Listlad said:
Okay. I may have already said to you that I had pancreatitis in 2005. I feel that maybe it was at that time when something along the 3c lines might have kicked in in my case.
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Hi Listlad.

3c is a condition caused by the catastrophic failure of the pancreas. In some people it fails due to massive trauma (e.g a car accident), or through damage caused by disease, pancreatis or medications. Sometimes people have their pancreas fail so badly that they can no longer produce sufficient insulin to function. There is also an operation, called the Whipple, commonly used for pancreatic cancer, which leads to 3c. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pancreatic-cancer/treatment/

While I cannot predict the future of your pancreatic function, if you are 13 years on from a bout of pancreatis without a diagnosis of diabetes, and without needing exogenous insulin, then 3c is unlikely. 3c also has additional, unpleasant symptoms which require other medication to help with food digestion. Malnutrition is a frequent symptom. And controlling blood glucose levels is extremely challenging due to the digestion issues.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3831209/

I would encourage you to not speculate about yourself having 3c until you get a diagnosis of diabetes, and display some of the symptoms mentioned above. At that point, you would need a referral and a proper diagnosis.

There are many type 2 diabetics who have reduced numbers of functioning beta cells, and reduced production of insulin, but this is not 3c, which is a much more severe failure of insulin production - just as type 1 and type 2 are very different.
 
Listlad said:
Okay. I take that as a form of criticism.

1) I have been diagnosed by my GP as having Prediabetes. I am not an imposter.
2) I personally have developed a number of symptoms that appear to be strongly linked with diabetes as specified by forum members in quite large quantities I might add, as specified by medical practitioners and as identified by many sources on the internet.
3) As I take a keen and proactive interest in my future health now even at this late stage then I am keen to learn more.

I can assure you that ailments I have listed and entered into discussion about are genuine and not in any way shape or form a figment of my imagination.

Can you now understand why I ask? Oh and my HbA1c result is due anytime and it is a flip of a coin which way it will go.

Oh and my blood pressure is high enough to warrant two forms of medication and I take medicine for thyroid issues. I am told that high blood pressure and (pre) diabetes are related or go hand in glove.

Not finished yet. I also have a young child who loves sweets and is invited to buy sweets and chocolates and cakes at school in large quantities. So the wider issue of Type 2 diabetes is also my concern.
Click to expand...

I am a great supporter of people educating themselves and looking after their own health.
And I certainly encourage anyone to take pre-emptive action to reduce their blood glucose and stave off a diagnosis of (type 2) diabetes.

However, you may not realise that being told by a doctor that 'you are pre-diabetic' is not, in the UK a diagnosis.
There is no condition of pre-diabetes, so no diagnosis is used.
Only after the patient achieves blood glucose levels of 48mmol/mol on their Hba1c, do they receive a diagnosis of diabetes.

Obviously, many people see this as a failing of the NHS, and it is good to see that more and more doctors are giving people the 'you are pre-diabetic' talk, and giving them an opportunity to take things seriously and turn their health around. Nevertheless, no diagnosis should be forthcoming without hitting the diagnositic criteria for T2.

The reason I am posting this, is because it is always useful for both new and old members to use the correct terminology to avoid misleading themselves and others. Plus of course, self-diagnosis can often lead to confusion further down the line.
 
Listlad said:
Were there any other symptoms, looking back?
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Very difficult to say. When I complained about my thirst all those years ago, my GP just said are you peeing regularly? I did. I weighed around 12 1/2 stone so not someone who you would immediately think was diabetic (I know it's no real indicator but didn't in the 1980s). I did have a very skinny type II father so maybe I should have thought more, when he was diagnosed he assumed it was because diabetes was in the family, his sister was type I and had been since insulin was "invented".

I did seem to go through patches of being angry about everything and wonder now if that was high BG, I don't have empirical evidence but I can tell when my BG is going up.
 
Yes, apologies there. I was not aware of that, not being in the medical profession at all. I hope you can see why I saw it like that.
 
Brunneria said:
Hi Listlad.

3c is a condition caused by the catastrophic failure of the pancreas. In some people it fails due to massive trauma (e.g a car accident), or through damage caused by disease, pancreatis or medications. Sometimes people have their pancreas fail so badly that they can no longer produce sufficient insulin to function. There is also an operation, called the Whipple, commonly used for pancreatic cancer, which leads to 3c. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pancreatic-cancer/treatment/

While I cannot predict the future of your pancreatic function, if you are 13 years on from a bout of pancreatis without a diagnosis of diabetes, and without needing exogenous insulin, then 3c is unlikely. 3c also has additional, unpleasant symptoms which require other medication to help with food digestion. Malnutrition is a frequent symptom. And controlling blood glucose levels is extremely challenging due to the digestion issues.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3831209/

I would encourage you to not speculate about yourself having 3c until you get a diagnosis of diabetes, and display some of the symptoms mentioned above. At that point, you would need a referral and a proper diagnosis.

There are many type 2 diabetics who have reduced numbers of functioning beta cells, and reduced production of insulin, but this is not 3c, which is a much more severe failure of insulin production - just as type 1 and type 2 are very different.
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Okay. I understand. I did have major issues with pancreatitis and was hospitalised over it. So...I did wonder about a connection. Understandable mistake from a layman.
 
Also worthy of note: It’s not impossible for “prediabetes” to bring about complications through extended periods of seemingly mild glucotoxicity. I’m certain that it’s rare, but there have been instances of mild neuropathy and other common problems. One doesn’t necessarily have to be labelled diabetic in order to suffer issues related with hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinemia.
 
I think something has been going on since teen years (30+yrs ago), maybe insulin resistance started then. I have always suffered extreme unexplained tiredness, often in bouts. For the last 20 years I’ve also had extreme dry and cracked heels . Weight had gradually been harder to control but not extreme. I’ve traced blood tests back as likely prediabetic (but not informed of it) for nearly 10 yrs and diagnosed last summer. I’ve had some nerve issues and a bad frozen shoulder 2 yrs ago but no one has ever linked it to diabetes. Who knows?
 
DavidGrahamJones said:
Very difficult to say. When I complained about my thirst all those years ago, my GP just said are you peeing regularly? I did. I weighed around 12 1/2 stone so not someone who you would immediately think was diabetic (I know it's no real indicator but didn't in the 1980s). I did have a very skinny type II father so maybe I should have thought more, when he was diagnosed he assumed it was because diabetes was in the family, his sister was type I and had been since insulin was "invented".

I did seem to go through patches of being angry about everything and wonder now if that was high BG, I don't have empirical evidence but I can tell when my BG is going up.
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I see, again so much variance between individuals.
 
HSSS said:
I think something has been going on since teen years (30+yrs ago), maybe insulin resistance started then. I have always suffered extreme unexplained tiredness, often in bouts. For the last 20 years I’ve also had extreme dry and cracked heels . Weight had gradually been harder to control but not extreme. I’ve traced blood tests back as likely prediabetic (but not informed of it) for nearly 10 yrs and diagnosed last summer. I’ve had some nerve issues and a bad frozen shoulder 2 yrs ago but no one has ever linked it to diabetes. Who knows?
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Thanks.

The reason why I posed the question is that I wanted to try and establish in my mind a pattern of early warning signs. But it isn’t as straight forward as it seems.
 
Jim Lahey said:
Also worthy of note: It’s not impossible for “prediabetes” to bring about complications through extended periods of seemingly mild glucotoxicity. I’m certain that it’s rare, but there have been instances of mild neuropathy and other common problems. One doesn’t necessarily have to be labelled diabetic in order to suffer issues related with hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinemia.
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Well, I was wondering about that.

If you will excuse me for saying, I still pee regularly through the night even though the reading is 36. That is still there.
 
HSSS said:
Gentleman of a certain age often suffer that regardless of diabetic status.
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And wimmin.
At least this one does. :) Although a good part of that is that I now drink enough. Which is a lot more than I used to. And wot goes in, must come out. At night, apparently.
 
Brunneria said:
And wimmin.
At least this one does. :) Although a good part of that is that I now drink enough. Which is a lot more than I used to. And wot goes in, must come out. At night, apparently.
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Although an enlarged prostate which affects more than 50% of men over 60 would not be the cause.
 
I suspect that I had some tendency to be unable to manage carbs after being bombarded with antibiotics in my late teens and early 20s. I had tonsillitis then tracheitis and also H. pylori - on two occasions I was so ill that the doctor was coming to the house twice a day for over a week.
A couple of years later I moved to the Midlands and got a job at Allied Lyons, and part of my work there was on the Cambridge diet. I found that I could lose weight and felt better eating low carb. I did have leftover Cambridge diet mixtures stored in the deep freeze there all during my time there, and brought them with me when I left. (I think that I am safe in admitting to that now after so long)
I suspect that having lived with it for so long it was my normal - it is why I always felt so ill when the GP insisted that I follow a diet plan with lots of 'healthy' carbs, and why I feel twenty years younger now that I have really stuck to low carbing knowing that I was right all along, it was the carbs making me feel ill.
 
I think my thirst/peeing symptoms go back forty odd years to when I was in my early 20s and was diagnosed with PCOS. Luckily I did get pregnant and had symptoms during pregnancy. I still had no idea that T2 was in my future or that there was a connection between PCOS and T2 - had anyone mentioned it at the time I might not have been posting on this forum today. After that there was a few years when I managed to keep my weight very low and was symptomless.

Then at around 42 the PCOS got bad and necessitated a hysterectomy. After that I got more symptoms, more regularly but not enough to join the dots that they were all related to one condition.

I went through what I like to think of as my super fit phase in my late 40s early 50s and that was when I started having the occasional hypo. Nope I STILL didn't join the dots... it wasn't until the arthritis kicked in about 10 years ago and I couldn't exercise any more that my BG started to rise. I ignored the thirst, the peeing, the thrush, etc, but I couldn't ignore the final one thing that was so frightening and a wake up call that something was radically wrong which was when (within the space of a couple of days) my eyesight went so blurry that I couldn't see enough to read or even watch TV.
 
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