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Have I beaten type 1 or was it type 2?

PXN

Member
Messages
7
Location
Australia
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Other
Hello all,

In June 2016 I was sent to hospital with all the symptoms of Diabetic Ketoacidosis and was diagnosed as a Type 1 despite at the time been over 60 years old. I was instructed to measure my sugars, inject fast acting insulin four times a day and slow insulin once before going to bed. I had my first appointment with a specialist about six months later who changed the treatment to Janumet pills during the day but still injecting insulin at night. After about six months I went to see my general practitioner complaining I felt awful and constantly tired. She gave me some referrals to get a blood and stress test - I think that involves the bicycle, mask and pipes - none of which I did deciding to take matters into my own hands. I stopped taking all medication, brought a mountain bike on ebay and cut anything sugary from my diet. After a few months of this and making pain my friend, the hills here in the Blue Mountains, Australia are horrendous, I began feeling much better and now can easily do 100 kms of mountain trails and have lost over twenty kilos and counting.
My general practitioner canceled my drivers license when I missed an appointment and now I have to do the stress and blood tests to get it back. I should, not having taken any medication for now well over a year, be dead if the original diagnosis was correct. Lesson here and I'll post updates if anyone is interested, is that and I think for all whether type 1, 2 or type not-a-diabetic is to get active and not fear pain and just stop eating rubbish.

Cheers.
 
I think it's unlikely that you are a t1, but to make sure you can have antibodies and c-peptide tests done. It may also be possible that you are one of the "type 1.5"s.
 

Welcome to the forum. Great that you feel better. Getting active is a good idea.

I think your decision to not get blood tested etc after complaining about how bad you felt at the time was potentially risky. I'm glad things have worked out.
 
phdiabetic said:
I think it's unlikely that you are a t1, but to make sure you can have antibodies and c-peptide tests done. It may also be possible that you are one of the "type 1.5"s.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion and am getting a blood and stress test soon. Looking forward to seeing the results.
 
Tophat1900 said:
Welcome to the forum. Great that you feel better. Getting active is a good idea.

I think your decision to not get blood tested etc after complaining about how bad you felt at the time was potentially risky. I'm glad things have worked out.
Click to expand...

Thanks and you're right it was risky and I would not recommend anyone do the same. For sure a better idea would be to get a second opinion but 'risk' is my middle name. lol
 
To answer your header text question: "Have I beaten type 1 or was it type 2?"
If you have beaten anything, it was a Type 2. Type 1 unfortunately cant be beaten no matter what or how little you eat of anything, as your body will need basal insulin to maintain the body organs alive. Its not enough just to exercise and stop eating rubbish. Many young Type1s unfortunately have died due to such misconception, so please lets not feed that.

If you get a pancreas transplant, you will of course be able to 'beat the type1', but by doing so, you move into another category of chronically exposed folks that need life-long medication and care to stay healthy, as to avoid transplanted organ rejection by your immune system. And this by itself in some categories are considered a worse condition than Type1 itself...
 
Hi @PXN congrats on getting off the medication and becoming a VERY fit person
Highly unlikely that you would have been type 1, probably a misdiagnosis. As has been said before, antibodies and c-peptide test need to be done, ask your doc when you get your bloods done to add them on (should be doing them anyway)
 

Absolutely agree on not suggesting anyone follow the same pathway but - my 'have beaten type 1, 2 or whatever' is a bit of a poke at doctors who to date (now near 2 years) are unable to say what type of diabetic I might be which also and in response to your statement means there is no 'misconception' if there is no 'conception', in my case at least, that is established as correct beyond reasonable doubt.
I originally was admitted to hospital with symptoms consistent with DKA but when I asked why I was diagnosed as DKA and not HHS, the doctor response was and I quote, "I'll have to get back to you on that one." He never did.
I could well be a diabetic and don't dispute that based on sugar levels which I measured recently and found to be again in a very high range and have agreed to see a specialist as soon as possible which is unfortunately mid July.
All I know for sure is that I have sugar levels that tend to climb up to dangerously levels. I do not know after all this time what type of diabetic I am or am not. If I am a diabetic, I don't know what could have caused it. If as claimed by doctors I am a type 1 (we think, maybe, we need more blood tests) then I would also need to know how I was able to exist with no medication for well over a year with my physical performance increasing compared to when I was taking medication and steadily feeling worse and to the point of barely been able to walk 100 meters without having to stop. For reminder, I can now do 100 kilometers of mountain bike trail classified as medium to hard difficulty. On one ride, I deliberately ate large amounts of high sugar foods the day before and before setting out measured my sugars at 12.5 and after 20 kilometers measured again and found they had dropped to 5. Obviously that sharp drop is temporary and caused by sudden high fuel consumption but what it did tell me was that the fuel system is working as designed and so reducing intake of fuel and increasing consumption should at the very least assist in keeping reserves to normal levels.
I have researched reasons sugars can rise and have found numerous papers which discuss a possible link between very high levels of stress (under which I live constantly) and high sugar levels possibly but not always caused by the fight / flight response. There are several other blood sugar triggers I also tick off as possibles. No doctor has ever asked a single question about life circumstances when there appears to be plenty of researchers who believe stress could be a significant contributing trigger for type 2. One 17th century doctor made that connection.
What I want from my upcoming appointment with the specialist is answers and not just 'we don't know what type you are, nor what could be the cause but take this, inject that and would you please now go away'.
 

Thanks for your encouragement and suggestions. I am seeing a specialist in a few months because sugar levels have risen but am not giving up on using diet / exercise and lifestyle methods in managing sugar levels. Cheers and again thanks.
 
If I were you I'd get some basic GP-level tests and treatment underway within a week and see the specialist in a few months as well. Because:

It doesn't matter what type of diabetes you have.

It doesn't matter what age you are.

According to the guidelines I've read, any BG above non-diabetic levels means you are a diabetic and will carry that label for life, even when in remission.

IMO, having the label is a good thing not a bad thing.

An HbA1c above 55 means the person is at risk of complications that may be irreversible.

Personally I am only satisfied when my HbA1c is under 42.

Regardless of diabetic type, every diabetic needs an annual diabetic check including HbA1c for the rest of their life. I get my blood tests done 6 monthly now (see my stats below).

It may turn out that you have one of the dozens of types other than Type 1. You still need to get and keep your BG under control.

Weight loss and exercise are brilliant tools in addition to the basics of regular routine medical care and if needed, insulin.

Personally I won't touch any of the non-insulin diabetes drugs except Metformin and I may yet go off that, too.

To me they have side effects and risks that I'm not prepared to try and many of them are ineffective.

I have found this website very helpful:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/index.php
 
hi Jenny15 - agreed on the medication, I think people put on medications that are supposed to strip sugar from blood should be closely monitored. A few weeks ago I picked one off the footpath where he had collapsed - the guy was probably in his mid fifties - and who told me he is on the same medication I was when my doctors decided to try something different from injecting 4 or 5 times a day. Strange that on that medication I too could not do 100 meters without feeling like I was about to collapse in a heap on the concrete. As for seeing the GP - I coincidentally just got a call from my GP's office asking if I could come in tomorrow morning. The Universe works in strange ways. lol Cheers and thanks.
 
All good then @PXN.
For all you write, you are definitely not a type1. And sorry for feeling offended by you posting a message hinting towards beating type 1. As said, we have already too many fraudsters online taking money from less informed and fatalities being the end-result. Don't see we should feed that monster with yet another post hinting towards such probability.
 
No worries mate and of course people should stick to what the experts say but not feel intimidated into not asking questions and if necessary feeling free to get a second opinion. The human machine is incredibly complicated! Anyway - latest is I saw the GP and had a long discussion with her about my experience to date and she agreed that stress could have been a contributing trigger of what is most likely a type 2 condition. I think that given what is shaping up as an epidemic of type 2 all factors should be considered including mental health.
I think and not just because it's my biological machine that is experiencing difficulties, that determining exactly what happened in my case is important - I'm for sure not alone and given the apparent lack of understanding of the link between mental health and diabetes it's important I make it a bit of a mission to continue drilling down to what happened and what is the best treatment. I will discuss all this with the specialist in July and hopefully we will be able to arrive at a treatment regime that minimizes medication and has a strong focus on diet, exercise and stress relief strategies such as increasing the amount of time I spend practicing Iaido. A few hours of swinging a sword around and chopping bamboo and you feel incredibly good in brain and body - even if such culturally foreign activities causes the hipster neighbor to scoop up his kids and rush inside...

Cheers.
 
Go for it PXN, and go for it hard - A true Samurai doesn't wait weeks or months to get resolution!
起死回生
 
Hi PXN my son is just the same as you, he has a very stressful job, one weekend at the end of March he noticed he was very thirsty after a night out drinking with his mates, his pal a doctor checked him over and got him in at the hospital that morning
His bs was 17...they said his age 30 and been slim (6'2") they thought he was type 1
They did a blood test and said he had a sm amount of ketones in his blood , anyway they sent him home with 1x 10units of insulin to be taken at bedtime, two days later his sugars were going too low
So his nurse told him to come off insulin and to this day he is still on no insulin and having normal readings controlling his diet and watching his carbs but eating more or less what he wants.
He exercises quite a lot, so wondering if this is helping, he is still waiting a GAD test as the first one they messed up.

Very interesting I've not heard about stress causing diabetes, I'm now wondering if this along with a virus has caused his spike that weekend
 
Hi mate,

My experience was similar to yours.

I had DKA last year and nearly died at the hospital. I was put on insulin and came off it just after 13 days when my blood glucose levels normalised, thank God!

Type 2s also experience DKA but it’s very rare.

I am now on low to moderate carb diet and I choose better carbs ie brown rice, egg noodles, avocados and low carb bread.

Good luck with the C-Peptide and GAD tests!

Andrew
 
If I have understood correctly, your blood sugars are higher than they should be except when you are in the middle of a bout of prolonged, strenuous exercise. You are currently taking no meds.You have cut all sugars from your diet. This suggests to me that you have not also cut carbs? I am convinced by Dr Bernstein's argument that what matters is to attain "normal" blood sugars, by whatever means are necessary. In your position I would not wait for my next doctor's appointment, but try cutting carbs now. If my blood sugars were still too high, I would discuss taking Metformin plus insulin with my doctors. Don't be too critical of the fact they have trouble categorising your diabetes. This is a very hard call, and there are currently research papers claiming that there are actually 5 or more types, or even that there are no types, only individuals. Satisfying as it always is to get a firm diagnosis, IMO finding how to manage your condition is key, and as you have learned, to a great extent the person best qualified to discover that is you.

Congratulations on your new vigorous exercising life. You have joined quite a number of people on this Forum whose diabetes, and their reaction to it, has improved their lives rather than blighted them.
 
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