Hi All,
My name is Helen, i'm 42, live in South London and am a photographer. I'm also hoping for a bit of advice
Unfortunately, I don't have a formal diagnosis though I was recently tested (hba1c and fasting, results were right at the top end of normal). I've actually been trying to find out what's wrong with me for the last 3-4 years and I came to the conclusion of blood sugar issues purely by accident when the last specialist I saw (cost hubby a small fortune) told me nothing was wrong, everything was in my head and I most likely would be looking at seeing a psychiatrist for the rest of my life (I think he was implying I was bipolar, all blood tests came back normal and he did A LOT).
I've always eaten a well balanced diet and am very fit so diabetes never even occurred to me (please excuse my ignorance, I do of course know differently now)
Anyway, to control my moods I decided to eat a clean, organic diet and cut out sugar as much as I could. Mood swings went away completely.
I don't want to go on too long (it's a very, very long story), so I will just summarise now.
Obviously, I realised there was something going on with sugar and ended up reading about diabetes, I came across the symptoms and had a bit of a shock to say the least....
Numbness/pain/tingling in hands/feet........had this for about 3 years or so
Thrush.......despite many hardcore treatments, never went away. Had this for the last 3 years also
Mood swings.....Always been prone to them, but escalated severely beginning of this year.
Frequent urination.....had this for years so thought it was normal, not unusual for me to go 15 times between breakfast and lunch
extreme thirst........started beginning of this year
Fatigue.....Started in my 20's but just in the afternoons and some evenings. For the last 2 years felt drained after every meal
eye pain.....started the beginning of the year
Slow healing........didn't realise just how slow it was till I started getting my post meal spikes and fasting glucose down. It's sped up no end
Itchy skin......started beginning of this year
Ravenously hunger/sugar cravings......had this the last 5 years
Fungal infection on my toenails for the last 4 years that wouldn't go
Now I don't know if this is related and it still baffles me. Around 6 years ago I went from 136 pounds to 105 in the space of of 6 months without even trying, in fact, I was eating everything in site.
Just as mysteriously, I gained a whole stone back in the space of just 1 week about 3 years ago. I then lost around 10 pounds quite rapidly about 4 months ago or so (during the severe mood swings, though I was eating well). I was actually very pleased about this as I hadn't been able to lose anything since the rapid gain no matter what I did.
Once I realised what was going on (after what seems like pretty conclusive evidence to me) I read about low carb diets and decided to give it a go. Literally within days, All of the above problems had subsided significantly, which again, reinforced my theory and I started to monitor my levels with the blood sugar monitor I bought some years ago (never really used it back then, tried it once, saw my fasting was in the normal range and never picked it up again after that). I didn't test my levels properly until i'd been low carb for a weeks or so and started testing post prandial levels. They weren't astronomical by a long shot, but often in the upper range for someone on a regular diet (though one reading was 9.4). So I can't help but wonder what my post meal spikes were like when I was eating a regular diet.
Sorry this is long, but it's pretty obvious (I think hehe) that I have blood sugar probs, call it pre-diabetes or diabetes (symptoms seem too severe for it to be pre-diabetic in my opinion, but i'm no expert).
I went back to my GP and for the first time in years, I wasn't treated like a hypochondriac idiot, He saw the connection and I did yet another fasting and hba1c which came back at the high end of normal (yet again) and unfortunately, he wouldn't do a glucose tolerance test. Also, I have been experimenting with certain foods and if the carbs are a bit too high, the first thing I notice is mild numbness and tingling in my fingers (it wakes me up at night), mild eye pain comes back as does the thrush.
I am of course, still in the early stages of diet control so sometimes my numbers can be a bit erratic, particularly when I experiment with new foods (I always test at 1 and 2 hours post prandial).
I have read of a few cases where people have have been diagnosed as diabetic, though they have had 'normal' fasting and hba1c.
I guess the advice i'm looking for here, is should I try and get a diagnosis? will it benefit me even though I have things pretty well controlled? I suggested monitoring my glucose levels after regular meals and giving the doctor my results and his response was 'you know your body, you know what is helping you feel better, there isn't really any point' I'm thinking that maybe he is right, I am feeling the best I have done in many years so is it better for me to leave things as they are?
Also, i'm wondering if there is anyone out there with a similar story?