If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be worth i

[elaine77]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to write to everyone in this forum about my own experience to see if I can help anyone!

I had my first baby aged 20 in 2006. Prior to pregnancy I was a size 8 and 5ft 4 and my daughter was 8lb 12oz. I was not diagnosed with GD during this pregnancy but in retrospect my consultant thinks I might have had it even then. I had my second baby in 2010 and was diagnosed with GD at 33 weeks after having to try and force the hospital to give me tests from 30 weeks due to the fact I was measuring full term with 10 weeks to go! My son was born at 37 weeks weighing 9lb 11oz and had congenital hypothyroidism which they say had nothing to do with my GD but I beg to differ on that! At my 6 weeks check after having my son the diabetes had completely gone and I was discharged.

Fast forward two and a half years and after being ill for a while I am told the diabetes has returned and I am type 2 diabetic (December 2012) but then in Feb 2012 when my blood results come back I am told that I am not type 2 I am a type 1.5! Basically, when they checked my blood I tested positive for GAD65 antibodies and so they have doomed me to eventual injecting for life though I am not at that stage yet.

The reason I am writing this post is because I believe everyone who is diagnosed with GD who wasn't diabetic prior to pregnancy should have their blood tested 6 weeks after having their baby, not just a glucose tolerance test but a full test to check for antibodies etc... Because if I had have been tested for that at my own 6 weeks check I would have had 2 years to try and slow this disease down (which can be done, for many years if discovered early enough) and might have bought me some more insulin-free time.

So for everyone on here who was not diagnosed as diabetic prior to pregnancy I would really recommend you ask your doctor to run bloods for antibodies and c-peptide at your 6 weeks check! It will depend on the doctors in your area but even if it helps just ONE person it will be worth it because antibodies can be present years before symptoms apparently!

Thanks for reading


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[janeclark53]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

u sound so like me!!! i am five foot and before my first pregnancy was about 8 st. firt baby born at 40 weeks...9 st 5. three years later still around 8 st..second baby born at 32 weeks...8lb 11 oz...was never tested for gd. baby boy has diary allergy and a munor heart condition . i developedhypothyroidism when he was six month...two years on am now type 1 and undergoing tests for celaic

 

[Robinredbreast]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

u sound so like me!!! i am five foot and before my first pregnancy was about 8 st. firt baby born at 40 weeks...9 st 5. three years later still around 8 st..second baby born at 32 weeks...8lb 11 oz...was never tested for gd. baby boy has diary allergy and a munor heart condition . i developedhypothyroidism when he was six month...two years on am now type 1 and undergoing tests for celaic

Hi, gosh you have been through it haven't you? Diabetes, Thyroid and Coeliac are all assciated. I was diagnosed in November 2012 with Coeliac disease and I have been tested for Thyroid, but luckily, that was negative, so thats a least one condition I don't have.

I hope your little boy is thriving and doing well

Best wishes RRB

 

[elaine77]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

It's so much more common than we realise I think! My son has one last appointment for thyroid blood tests at the end of this month before he gets discharged (as his thyroid problem it seems is transient and has repaired itself, exactly like I sed it would because it WAS because of my GD in my eyes) and I am going to ask his endo consultant to also test his blood for the antibodies for diabetes now that I have been diagnosed.....I would rather know now so that I can prepare incase he does have them.....


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[phoenix]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

I do think that doctors and women need to be aware that gestational diabetes can be a precursor/risk for T1 as well as T2. Most of the texts just mention T2.

I'm not sure that testing would be that helpful ,at best it would identify some women who might develop T1 within 10 years. It might also produce unnecessary worry to a young mother who may eventually develop T1 but it might be 10 or more years later.


You are right that antibodies in GD are a possible indicator of future T1. In Denmark 75% of those with ICA antibodies and GD eventually developed T1 (not sure of the timescale but it suggests that 25% didn't) In Germany, 29% of those with at least one antibody developed T1 within 2 years after the birth.

In a study Sweden, they tested all the women who developed GD in an area for a period of 10 years. There were 385 women
SIx percent (24 out of the 385 women) were to be found positive for at least one of the relevant antibodies (islet cell antibodies (ICA), glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (GADA) or tyrosine phosphatase antibodies (IA-2A) ).These women were followed for up to 10 years. During this time 50% of them (6 women) developed T1, it is possible that the rest may do so and 21% of this group had developed impaired fasting or impaired glucose tolerance but it will have take over 10 years.
12.5% (n=6) of a matched set of 48 controls ie women who had GD and were of similar age /weight/ ethnicity etc but had no antibodies also developed diabetes (T2 in all cases).

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/conten ... l.pdf+html

I'm not sure that you can delay the development. Obviously a healthy lifestyle might increase insulin sensitivity (so the body doesn't need to produce so much insulin) but I don't think that will affect the autoimmune attack.
Maybe in the future it might be possible to halt or delay beta cell loss. There are drugs that are undergoing trials (eg one such drug is: http://www.andromedabio.com/product.php )
Some researchers have also suggested that the very early use of insulin can delay true insulin dependence but someone isn't going to be put on insulin when they still have normal glucose tolerance, only when they start to show some signs of glucose intolerance.

Given that GD is a predisposing factor for both types of diabetes, perhaps women who have had GD should have regular checks and if they develop 'pre diabetes' then they should be tested for antibodies.

 

[elaine77]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

I'm not a medical professional and this is just my opinion but I don't agree that it would lead to unnecessary worrying, I think it would be necessary to be cautious because even if u can't slow down the antibody attack you certainly don't want to speed it up any. 10 years could quite easily become 3 or 4 years if u are unaware of your risks and are careless with your diet and lifestyle. For me personally I would have rather known 6 weeks postpartum rather than being told my GD had completely gone only for it to reappear with a much worse prognosis two years later.

With regard to taking insulin to preserve beta cells, I find this approach completely counterproductive and it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't get any 'worse' (for want of a better word) than injecting insulin...that is as bad as diabetes gets (treatment wise) being insulin dependent and although some say it is better to preserve some beta cell function I'm not convinced because, for me, injecting 3 times a day is no better than injecting 5 times a day....the thought causes me huge stress and panic as I don't do well even finger pricking to check my BG levels.

The earlier you find cancer, for example, the better the outcome and the better you can prepare yourself, nobody wants to find out once it's too late and diabetes is a chronic disease and so should be checked for just as stringently I think... It may seem comparing diabetes to cancer is extreme but...bearing in mind...cancer can be cured in many cases....diabetes can't.


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[janeclark53]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

my 6 weeks check said i had impaired glugose intolerance. still two yrars late having lost half a stone and covered in ulcers i.had to plead with doc to test me for diabetes. was same with thyroid..i was so so.tired i couldnt lift my baby.but because i am slim the doc.tested for everything but!! gd is a v serious issue.both during pregnancy.and after effects. i should add that my gd was undiagnosed until we almost lost the wee man at 32 weeks. three midwives and a consultant saw me the previous week and said.oh gonna be a.big one!!!

 

[elaine77]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

Same here Jane... I was measuring 40 weeks at 30 weeks and I begged and begged them to test me for something as my baby was too big...they said I was paranoid! I told them I couldn't give birth to a baby this big, he was too big! I had to have an episiotomy with my first baby and her heart rate kept dropping during labour and she was 8lb 12oz and this baby was bigger! I said I wanted to be induced. They said no. It took me 4 weeks of complaining and begging them to get them to give me just a GTT!

This came back at 9.8 mmol fasting! Once I was diagnosed they even suggested I STILL go to term but have an elective c-section!! I completely refused and said I would take action against them if they forced me to do that. Luckily my baby came 3 weeks early of his own accord but he was 9lb 11oz! Imagine the size if I went to term?

Then, after he was born on the heel prick test he was eventually diagnosed as having congenital hypothyroidism. I know that's endocrine and I know diabetes is endocrine and I asked if it could be linked to my GD. I asked whether the fact he got so big because the hospital waited four weeks to diagnose me meant that he got too big too quick that his thyroid gland couldn't produce enough thyroxine for the size he became! They said no, they said that 90% of congenital hypothyroidism cases were when the thyroid gland wasn't formed correctly and the babies have the condition for life. He said only 10% were transient. I didn't believe him, I demanded an ultrasound on my babies thyroid gland - funnily enough it was fully formed and funnily enough, once his weight levelled out he no longer needed medication and now they are looking to discharge him at the end of the month....

It's so frustrating that the medical profession don't take you seriously and think they know it all when clearly they don't :-(


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[Hellbunny]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

Its so nice to see someone else who has been in a similar situation! (though not nice but i'm sure you know what i mean)
I was diagnosed with GD in my first pregnancy around 28 weeks along (aged 18.. young i know) and i was able to cut out carbs and keep my readings between 4-7mmol. I had a follow up GTT which came back at 7mmol after he was born. I became pregnant 12 months later, i requested a GTT as i'd felt thirsty, at 6 weeks pregnant i was diagnosed with GD.

Because of my age, BMI, no family history etc, my consultant asked them to do bloods to check for type 1 antibodies, well guess what :mrgreen: :clap: they came back borderline positive! ( i dont know why the clapping emoticon haha) So i thought noo, it can't be, all i'd heard of with type 1 was stories of DKA, and extremely high blood sugars. I started insulin at 24 weeks along, i didn't need any background insulin though! My fasting reading remained in the 5's. So i was just on novorapid!

My baby was born at 38 weeks (induced) 7lb 1oz, nice weight! I had a GTT done at 6 weeks after he was born (i kept some strips and randomly checked, my bloods were around 5-6mmol after meals, i stupidly ate a bag of sweets though and got a reading of 13mmol! But after avoiding sweets and junk food for so long it felt good!

So i had the gtt done, it came back at 9.8.. I phoned my diabetes centre and they said to "monitor things" and update every 2 weeks.

Well a couple of weeks later, we all came down with chickenpox (i hadn't had it as a child) i hadn't tested my bloods for a week, i did it one night and it was 26mmol! so i went to hospital as i had no idea what to do!
There they put me on basal/bolus, 10 units at bedtime and 4units with food. I kept hypoing after a week so i gradually cut down and came off it completely. I read up about low carbing and it worked. I kept my intake less than 60g a day and my hba1c remained in the 5's.

This January i found out i was pregnant again, funnily enough my numbers went ridiculous, this is what made me test. So i went back on insulin really from word go, sadly i don't think i will be off it now but babies are a blessing and i'm just praying all goes okay this time round and i have another healthy baby.

It will be interesting to see how much insulin i need after our baby is born, i'm only on 4units of basal (and 1u per 10g carb) keeping my fasting around 7mmol (if i increase my basal i hypo at night) so i must be making my own insulin still, just not enough to keep blood sugars down.

Sorry this turned out to be an essay x

 

[elaine77]

Re: If this thread helps just ONE person then it will be wor

No it's really interesting to hear how much pregnancy effects diabetes! Unfortunately I don't think I will have any other children until I'm forced onto insulin because I know as soon as I get pregnant I will hav to go onto insulin straight away and I am trying to avoid it at all costs! I'm on tablets and diet at the moment and I'm producing enough insulin to deal with that....for now but I don't know how long that will last :-( I think they should make the antibody tests more routine as there are so many people who have them and get wrongly diagnosed!


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 23 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.

 

[interfaqiez]

i've uncle that got diabetes since 3 years ago, and after i got your post i told him.. your post have nice information