Just before you were diagnosed????

I was diagnosed with Type 1 in 1983, aged 10. I weighed three stone and the doctor said I only had two days to live because I was so poorly. Mum and dad had to carry me into the GP's surgery because I didn't have enough energy to walk. Spent three weeks in hospital recovering.

Quite why my folks didn't get me checked out sooner is a mystery, because I had all the usual symptoms and spent have the day on the loo having a wee / drinking gallons of fluids.

But what was interesting was that I had a recurring nightmare every night for about three weeks prior to diagnosis – I was on a bus as the walls, floor and ceiling started coming in. I couldn't escape and as I was about to be crushed I'd wake up. Once diagnosed, I never had that dream again. The doctor said it was probably my body telling me that I was dying! Amazing, really!

I'd had a serious flu-type of virus months before, as had my mum, and I've always wondered whether it was that that triggered the diabetes. My mum got Rheumatoid Arthritis at the same time (also an auto-immune disease) and she's been wheelchair-bound for 15 years, so I got it easy, really.

Hi Fallenstar,

A whole Jamaican ginger cake in one evening with a pint of custard, 3 chocolate trifles in one sitting - but still loosing weight, banging on my local shop door at closing time demanding fizzy pop, and walking into town one afternoon wondering how the elderly managed to stay upright in windy weather! Oh and having to sit down for a breather after chopping some carrots. Yes - looking back it was obvious I wasn't 'quite right'

Jessie x

Feeling unbelievable thirst and thing for water and cold..At nite I slept with my windows open and the temperature would drop below 15 and I didn't use any blankets or duvets, i would still feel hot..my roommate wanted to kill me.In day time I would make a cold water bath imagining my body can drink water over my skin.. I walked slowly and talked slowly and felt the gravity real good. And yes-the CARBS!! I bought 3 boxes of chocolates for my parents and friends (i was about to go home on holiday), but I ate it all myself. As well as a whole can of condensed milk and box of 'crunchy nut' cereals and half loaf bread toasted and topped with jam and a watermellon and as my stomach already felt like exploding i topped it with 1 littre box of apple juice. I never thought this was fizically possible..but..it turns out..miracles happen

Crazy when you look back isn't it! Also I used to drink so much iced water it made me feel dizzy (isn't that dangerous?!) and I thought I'd explode!

Jessie.x

I had symptoms long before diagnosis, starting from the age of 10! Gradually got worse over the years, was blamed on puberty and other things.
Felt exhausted, legs like lead, insatiable thirst, I described it 'as having two gullets, I am drinking and drinking past my thirst'. Forever hungry, feasting on doorstep slices of bread and jam, one evening ate an entire tin of Cadbury's Roses to myself, son came in said 'Mum you smell like pineapple', was drowsy, fell asleep so deep I lost control of my bodily functions, GP paid home visit, bg reading of 38.7.

Admitted to hospital, returned home a week later, packed with medication, leaflets and pamphlets and a new mattress waiting for me.

It really feels crazy looking back now..but at the time it didn't feel not even a little bit funny..
I was scared to hell of that thirst and hunger, i thought i was turning into monster, not to mention starting to believe monsters lived on the other side of my room wall (it was the dizziness from drinking way too much fluids i believe now) which kept me awake in the time i already had difficulty sleeping because of running to toilet every 15 minutes.. Anyone else felt like starting to have mental issues??

Not as such - I was always a big eater when it came to carbs (500g dry pasta per meal) and used to feel quite thirsty. I did actually ask my GP for a test 3 months before I was diagnosed but that (random blood glucose only) came back negative... Which is why I didn't go to see my GP re persistent nausea earlier and ended up in the ICU for 2 days

WhitbyJet said:

I had symptoms long before diagnosis, starting from the age of 10! Gradually got worse over the years, was blamed on puberty and other things.
Felt exhausted, legs like lead, insatiable thirst, I described it 'as having two gullets, I am drinking and drinking past my thirst'. Forever hungry, feasting on doorstep slices of bread and jam, one evening ate an entire tin of Cadbury's Roses to myself, son came in said 'Mum you smell like pineapple', was drowsy, fell asleep so deep I lost control of my bodily functions, GP paid home visit, bg reading of 38.7.

Admitted to hospital, returned home a week later, packed with medication, leaflets and pamphlets and a new mattress waiting for me.

Click to expand...

I think you were lucky to smell like pineapplebut it's sweet way of describing a smell..kids..
When i went to hospital, the readings were 39.2 but i walked to hospital and managed to wait in emergency. I had no idea how bad was it so when the nurse told me i just smiled. I spent 3 hours on a bed suddenly feeling extremelly happy and wanting to hug a doctor. It was the insulin.

Fallenstar,
Thank goodness for insulin, really. Insulin is my god now. How did it feel-your first injection?

I was sleeping for hours and hours and when awake I was very tired and thirsty, and needing the loo a lot. I didn't notice any other symptoms.

1st post in the forum...

this is my kind of thread...

was off the beer attempting to 'detox' and was just drinking water by the swimming pool full... anyway i had a really bad day at work...

had the shakes after 'drinking too much coffee' and in a general mood but my darling girl had rung me earlier and asked if i wanted anything for when i got in... told her i was about to fall off the wagon so to get me 8 cans of beer...

so i get in from work... sit down with a can and just destroy it in about 2 gulps... then the next, the next and then a 4th...

we are talking world record times here :mrgreen: , my girl looks at me and just says....

"erm do you think you have a problem? your drinking like a fish..."

i said

"i dont think so" although deep down that night made me think...

im a lightweight on the beer ive never been able to do this before... :lol:

little did i know 4 days later when the thirst was getting even more worse.. id be down the docs filling up a plastic cup and having a finger prick test to be told

congratz... your off to the hospital your ketones are 5.9 and BG is 17.9 :shock:

and here i am today type 1 for nearly 1 year (in nov 2010)

would loved to know what my BG was after that night of the beer

nice to meet you all 8)

I was diagnosed just after a holiday with my family aged 11, we were driving around Ireland with me and my brother in the back seat and the camping fridge sitting in the seat between us...of course this meant that the orange juice was very close at hand, I dread to think how much juice I drank in those 2 weeks! It was pretty much constant, and when I wasn't chugging juice I was asleep...

Then the ferry on the way home was a very rough crossing and I don't do sea travel that well anyway...after a big meal to use up our remaining euros, I felt sick and went to the toilet with my mum. As she was sympathising with a woman in the ladies with a toddler who was being seasick, I passed out on the toilet floor! When my mum brought a urine test for me from work when we got home (she's a practice nurse) and then took me straight to the GP , my blood sugar was 29...it must have been even higher than that on the ferry for me to pass out.

My first day of secondary school was about 3 weeks after I was diagnosed and we all had our photos taken...so there's an official record of how ridiculously skinny and pale I was! Like everyone else, in retrospect it all pointed towards something being very wrong but at the time it kind of crept up on me.
xx

Hi,

My symptoms came on really quickly - from first indications to diagnosis in about a month. I lost about a stone in weight and had very blurred vision, but the main thing I recall is the absolute desperate thirst. I was drinking 3-4 cans of coke (full sugar!) plus 2-3 big bottles of water a day. My commute to work is 1 1/2 hours each way and there were times when I was in tears as I was so thirsty but had nowhere to stop off to buy a drink.

Whilst on my way to work I crashed into someone at a roundabout - first accident since I passed my test nearly 20 years ago . I now think this was due to my high levels affecting my reaction times...

I don't know how high my initial urine test was, but it was high enough for the surgery to phone me to come in. Unfortunately they had my old phone number so they wrote me a letter advising me to go to hospital if my symptoms deteriorated :shock: . This took 5 days to get to me by which time I was vomiting and generally feeling pretty ill!

By this point I had started lurking on this site and begun making changes to my diet so fortunately it didn't get to the stage where I needed to go to hospital.

Hi

For as long as I can remember I have always been quite thirsty so I didn't notice any difference in the thirst. However, I was constantly feeling the heat and my family would be complaining that the house was cold! I also couldn't understand the extreme tiredness/lethargy and I would be falling asleep at all times of the day whenever possible. Doing housework seemed impossible as I had no energy.

I was at the doctors during the summer for more anti-depressants and I said to her that I was feeling the heat alot. I asked her if it was my age (thought it might be onset of menopause), my weight or side effect of my tablets. Her answer was "probably all 3". In hindsight, I wish I had been tested then.

It all came to a head at start of September. My vision was blurred ( I had only been wearing glasses since March and I thought prescription may be wrong). I had flu which floored me, ended up with thrush which I have never had, feeling really run down and just generally awful, still really hot and always tired. Also going to loo alot. It was only when they tested for a urine infection that they discovered high sugar and phoned me to come to surgery next morning for fasting blood test. Hb1 was 9.5. Thankfully it wasn't bad enought to need hospital treatment.

Looking back all the signs were there and it all adds up now. I was eating 3 kitkats in the morning one after the other before getting breakfast. I continued to eat chocolate and sweet things all day. I couldn't get enough carbs. I also lost 8lbs in the 3 weeks before diagnosis! I thought my scales were broken :lol:

Before I was diagnosed I was drinking 2 liters of fizzy pop a day, about 30 pints of water and a liter of fruit juice. My eyes were blurry and I was tired all the time. My condition worsened and was nearly passing out so went to doctors and they checked my blood sugar levels and it was that high it didn't register properly on the meter. The doctor admitted me to hospital and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and was put on drips for 5 days and spent a week in hospital over all.