Did you have symptoms of diabetes

[Pinkorchid]

People do talk about the symptoms they had before being diagnosed with diabetes like extreme tiredness, thirst, brain fog aches and pains and blurred vision etc but I wonder how many of us did not have any symptoms at all and only knew we had diabetes from a routine blood test or some other problem.
I have a blood test every year because I take blood pressure medication . I am 77 I have always kept well and had no illnesses apart from the odd colds no joint problems and I have never been overweight so nothing to indicate diabetes from how I felt. .My diet was mostly low fat with plenty of fruit and vegetables but not pasta or rice as never keen on those and meals always cooked from fresh. I still have mostly the same diet but without any sugar stuff now and lower on the bread and potatoes ...jacket potatoes were my lunch time staple sadly not any more and I do miss them

 

[Brunneria]

The only indication my Dad had was sleepiness after Sunday dinner, or meals out. Mum used to refuse to let him drive home, because he would just doze off in the car.

Looking back, he was probably like that for 15-20 years. Which is rather depressing, really, because no one, doc, family, etc. picked up on it.

And he had a highish pre diabetic HbA1c years back, but didn't know what the numbers meant. Didn't tell me. And the surgery never chased him up for a repeat test.

 

[britishpub]

I started by constantly feeling thirsty, and urinating excessively, and then developed an almost constant fatigue. This all begun some time during February 2015 and rapidly worsened.

Glucose had been found in my urine on a couple of medicals in previous years, but on both occasions I had an OGTT and had a negative result. I probably should have seen the signs sooner, but hindsight is always 20/20.

I was finally diagnosed in April 2015, but I had a pretty good idea what the problem was before then, and luckily had already found this wonderful site, and even more wonderful forum and members.

 

[Mep]

I didn't have symptoms of diabetes. I went to the doc to get a suspected UTI investigated. It turned out I had a UTI. But then the doc carried on about at the age of 25 I was too young to have a UTI (thought that was a bit bizarre myself as even kids can get UTIs). Well anyhow she insisted on getting all these blood tests done. The result of the hbA1c was 8.2 so I was sent off to an endocrinologist for further diagnostic tests. I was then diagnosed with type 2 and PCOS on the same day when I was 25. I did have PCOS symptoms since I was a young teen... but docs never took me seriously and just told me I was normal (I actually wasn't after all their advice). I had no symptoms like thirst, tiredness, blurred vision, etc.... so didn't know I had diabetes from symptoms. I do get symptoms now if I'm too high or too low.... never had them before diagnosis though. So I guess I can be grateful I had a doc that thought me having a UTI at age 25 was weird.

 

[carol43]

I didn't have any symptoms apart from intense itching (which apparently, is not a symptom of diabetes). Still have some of the itching even though I'm now in BG 5 range.

 

[clingclang]

I was constantly thirsty and needing to wee all the time. I was also throwing up nearly every day, and I started to get the constant fatigue but I didn't think much of that. It was the thirst and vomitting that made me go to the doctors in the end.

 

[JohnEGreen]

I think I did but dismissed them as being caused by my other conditions. When I raised the subject of losing sensation in my feet my GP said it's probably to do with your MG talk to your Neurologist when next you see him. Which I did so it was my Neurologist who ordered a HbA1c test but that was six months after talking with my GP.

I think this happens a lot symptoms are put down to existing conditions or just something other than diabetes.

 

[LittleG]

I had no symptoms at all. My diabetes was picked up in a routine eye exam, I had decided to change my specs. there was nothing in the previous eye test 18 months before. So I spent £300 on two pairs of sexy flashy varifocals, all very pleased with myself which will now probably end up being the wrong prescription as my diabetes comes under control. DOH!!!!!
Good news... even though I do have diabetic maculopathy in my eyes, the work I have done in the last 2 months since being diagnosed means it will heal itself and I won't have to have scary eye ops ( in my imagination a masked dude comes at my eyes with a giant needle full of burny drugs).
In many ways I am glad it happened this way.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I was totally without symptoms. I felt perfectly well and normal, no tiredness, no excess thirst, nothing at all. I was diagnosed after a routine health check with an HbA1c of 53 and a FBG of 7. That was my first ever HbA1c, but all my previous FBG tests were normal in the 5s. I was, I think, lucky that my type 2 was caught early enough for it not to have caused too many problems, and I know for certain it happened within a 12 month period.

 

[Winnie53]

Formally diagnosed with hypoglycemia in early 80's - (definitely had symptoms ).

Gestational diabetes the day before I gave birth in early 1988 - (no symptoms).

Pre-diabetes in 2003 - (no symptoms but might have been thirstier and used bathroom more frequently).

Crossed over into diabetes in 2005 - (no symptoms; but around this time both feet began swelling, particularly during summer. I was told it was unrelated to my diabetes. I now disagree.).

7.3% A1c in 2009 - (no symptoms other than feet swelling).

8.2% A1c in 2011 - (no symptoms other than feet swelling).

9.9% A1c in 2015.

In December 2013/January 2014, I had experienced an unusual amount of fatigue and the need to sleep 10 - 12 hours a day for about 3 weeks following the co-coordination of a community event and the holidays.

In December 2014, my leg muscles were really stiff from getting up and down a lot off the floor during our annual community event. The afternoon of the Gala fundraiser, I was walking across the Silent Auction room when I felt my Achilles tendon pop. My entire leg swelled up from walking on my toes of my right foot the rest of the night. I was in a boot for three weeks, should have been six weeks so rupture must have been minor. I later learned that high blood glucose levels can make tendons stiffer. A few months later, I was re-diagnosed with T2D with a 9.9% A1c. Around that time I was also experiencing blurry vision.

In 2015, as my blood glucose levels began dropping with the LCHF diet, walking, and nutritional supplements, I began having more symptoms, including neuropathy pain in the top of my right foot, also both feet still swelled off and on that summer, a ten year problem. When I first began walking, I walked as if I was drunk, veering to the left and right. After a week or so, it was much easier to walk a straight line. Still walking.

This year, feet still swell when it's hot, but not as much and I recover more quickly. I think taking a B-complex and regular walking for the last year has greatly helped. All signs of neuropathy are mostly gone, but when I touch the bottom of my feet, I can feel it but not as strongly as I could 10 years earlier.

I think diabetes is a silent killer. Without blood glucose testing, a reading of 100 mg/dL or 200 mg/dL still feels the same.