Confused newbie

[Althornton29]

Hi everyone I'm new to all of this! I was diagnosed with diabetes in January but haven't been diagnosed with a type yet. When I was diagnosed my hba1c was 64 but in march I had brought it down to 52 through diet and exercise (I'm not on medication). This indicated my body is still producing insulin but my GAD antibody test came back as 'strongly positive'. They are still monitoring me and I've looked into LADA/type 1.5 which kind of makes sense but without knowing which type it's hard to get my head around it all. Has anyone else experienced this situation or anything similar?

 

[urbanracer]

Hi @lexiex29 ,

Welcome to the forums. From my own experience, the original diagnosis is often not very scientific. They looked me up down and concluded that being a tall, slim adult meant that I was obviously a T1. It was over a year before I had a GAD test, - requested by a different doctor.

A GAD result of strongly positive does point towards you being a T1, even if you are still producing some of your own insulin. This honeymoon period can last a long time if you're lucky and I know of at least one forum member who's posted that she's given up injecting insulin and is managing to control her blood glucose levels by diet alone during this period.

Have a read around the forums and the front end of the website where there's a lot of great info. Ask as many questions as you need to.

 

[Daibell]

Hi and welcome. Late onset T1 can come on at wildly different speeds; it took a good few years for me to need insulin. With a positive GAD you are very likely to be T1 and may need to go onto Gliclazide tablets and I'm afraid you need to expect insulin at some future point (sorry). Insulin isn't really a problem and it's a welcome relief if you end-up as I did struggling with three tablet types. A low-carb diet will help delay medication.