Hi everyone,
My first post on the forum, I've been quietly reading through a lot of the content on here over the past 4 weeks and thought I should contribute with a post of my own
A bit of background, I am a 22 yo male and was diagnosed around 4 weeks ago. Symptoms looking back now were so obvious (couldn't stop drinking, going to the toilet, weight dropped all the way to 7st 13) but I was too nervous to go to the doctor. Mainly for 2 reasons, firstly I was simply terrified of what they would tell me, was it diabetes? Did I have something much more sinister? Secondly, I knew I'd require a blood test and I am petrified of needles (or was, that fear quickly had to be given the boot). Anyway, my results came back and pretty much confirmed what the GP thought:
A1C: 120 (shocking I know)
Random BG Level: 19.6 mmol
2 days later I am in the hospital, thinking I'll only be there a couple of hours whilst they show me how to use a needle and a glucose meter when it gets even worse. My ketones are showing as HI (the nurse wasn't able to get a reading they were so high). I have never drank so much water in my life, nurses bringing me cup after cup. Anyway, I'm being prodded with insulin pens and told to keep drinking, keep drinking, keep drinking.
Fast forward a few hours after testing and additional blood tests, my ketones were finally readable at a very impressive 3.7! Everyone was amazed that I hadn't been seriously ill which took me by surprise because I had got accustomed to it and I'd felt "normal" all this time. My ketones were coming down by the hour and they were happy to let me go home with a big bag of diabetic goods (Monitor, Fiasp, Tujeo and all the trimmings).
That was my diagnosis experience, and now 4 weeks in I'm sat with a Libre 2 sensor, EchoPlus smartpen and enough dextrose tablets to feed a small village. I've recently started carb counting and to be honest I'm quite proud of the progress I've made (I think?). My TIR over the last 2 weeks is 79% with an average BG of 7.8 mmol (can't wait to get this down a bit more), still lots of work to be done but I think I can say my first month has been a relatively successful one. My diabetes centre has been absolutely brilliant and I'm very thankful that I was able to go from visiting my GP for a chat on a Friday, booking in a blood test for the Monday to being diagnosed and seeing my DSN by the Wednesday.
Huge thank you to everyone on this forum, the wealth of information has been so incredibly useful
My first post on the forum, I've been quietly reading through a lot of the content on here over the past 4 weeks and thought I should contribute with a post of my own
A bit of background, I am a 22 yo male and was diagnosed around 4 weeks ago. Symptoms looking back now were so obvious (couldn't stop drinking, going to the toilet, weight dropped all the way to 7st 13) but I was too nervous to go to the doctor. Mainly for 2 reasons, firstly I was simply terrified of what they would tell me, was it diabetes? Did I have something much more sinister? Secondly, I knew I'd require a blood test and I am petrified of needles (or was, that fear quickly had to be given the boot). Anyway, my results came back and pretty much confirmed what the GP thought:
A1C: 120 (shocking I know)
Random BG Level: 19.6 mmol
2 days later I am in the hospital, thinking I'll only be there a couple of hours whilst they show me how to use a needle and a glucose meter when it gets even worse. My ketones are showing as HI (the nurse wasn't able to get a reading they were so high). I have never drank so much water in my life, nurses bringing me cup after cup. Anyway, I'm being prodded with insulin pens and told to keep drinking, keep drinking, keep drinking.
Fast forward a few hours after testing and additional blood tests, my ketones were finally readable at a very impressive 3.7! Everyone was amazed that I hadn't been seriously ill which took me by surprise because I had got accustomed to it and I'd felt "normal" all this time. My ketones were coming down by the hour and they were happy to let me go home with a big bag of diabetic goods (Monitor, Fiasp, Tujeo and all the trimmings).
That was my diagnosis experience, and now 4 weeks in I'm sat with a Libre 2 sensor, EchoPlus smartpen and enough dextrose tablets to feed a small village. I've recently started carb counting and to be honest I'm quite proud of the progress I've made (I think?). My TIR over the last 2 weeks is 79% with an average BG of 7.8 mmol (can't wait to get this down a bit more), still lots of work to be done but I think I can say my first month has been a relatively successful one. My diabetes centre has been absolutely brilliant and I'm very thankful that I was able to go from visiting my GP for a chat on a Friday, booking in a blood test for the Monday to being diagnosed and seeing my DSN by the Wednesday.
Huge thank you to everyone on this forum, the wealth of information has been so incredibly useful
