• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Looking for Reasons

K

kamila261

Newbie
Messages
2
Greetings to all. This is my very first post since I have been diagnosed as a diabetic (type 1). The reason I am writing is the many questions going through my mind at the moment and an answer to why I got this condition called Diabetes. I am currently 27 years old and I was diagnosed last summer at the age of 26. All the doctors were astonished on why I caught diabetes as no one in my family had a medical history of it or any condition affecting pancreas or sugar levels. I was hospitalised with sugar level of 680!!! The doctors told how lucky I was that nothing more serious was caused like a cauma or kidney failure. Anyway the reason that I am being suspicious that the medical staff were not completely honest with me were alot.
A month and a half ago before I was diagnosed I got the swine flu and the doctors prescribed me augmentin ( an antibiaotic ) not tamiflu the medicine for the disease. At the time I was diagnosed the head doctor was shouting at the rest why I was given augmentin and not tamiflu. That made me suspicious. I started asking if that could lead to diabetes but nobody was giving me a definite answer. they were saying like "you never can say why you get diab...." , " ...you cannot say for sure that was that caused it". etc.
All the doctors I visited in the last year are suprised that I got diabetes. I was always a healthy, athletic person carefull with what I ate and no family history of it. So how on earth I got it and why at that time. Can anyone give me some direction or know something about causes of Diabetes.
Thank you for your time and support.
 
Hi Kamila,

From this website http://www.rxlist.com/augmentin-drug.htm# you can see it is an antibiotic, and not an antiviral. Swine flu is a virus, so I should imagine that Doctor was only getting annoyed because you weren't getting the antiviral treatment you needed for the swine flu. Everyone's right I'm afraid, there's no way to tell how you got it, it could be anything and they don't really know what, but it's thought to often be an infection or virus that triggers it, and that trigger is likely to have happened several years before diagnosis. The first page of my DAFNE handbook says the autoimmune attack can be going on for over 7yrs before you get symptoms. There is a lot of talk about the enterovirus being at fault in a large number of cases. But you need the genes for it first, then the trigger to set it off. I also understand that most people are like you - type 1 springs up out of nowhere. It happened to me, and I was 36, it was a great shock. There's no-one else with it in my family and no-one suspected it, so it went on for longer than it should have before I was finally diagnosed.

Before you get upset that you didn't get the right flu treatment, it's worth noting that flu + type 1 diabetes can lead to pneumonia so in fact, those antibiotics you took could have had a protective effect on you. Exactly the same thing happened to me, I had severe flu before I was diagnosed, but was convinced I'd get a chest infection so I demanded antibiotics. After I was diagnosed just over 2 months later with an HbA1c of 12.6%, Doctors were astonished that I hadn't become "much more sick" when I had the flu - one Doctor was literally open-mouthed when he saw my notes - so I strongly suspect those antibiotics stopped things taking a drastic turn for the worse. So all in all, you'll never know how you got it, it's very unlikely indeed to have been the penicillin, and it's probably best (in hindsight) that you had them anyway.

I hope that helps.
Moonstone.
 
And by the way I completely understand how you feel - completely. To this day I still can't get my head around it and it's been 2 years. I got the whole of my extended family racking their brains to think of relatives who might have had it, at one point - trying to think of any reason for it. But it turned out that there was no other answer except, it was just bad luck. One of my best friends wrote a paper at university about what happens to people who get diagnosed with chronic, life-threatening diseases and she told me they (ie, we) usually go through the classic stages of grief - I've forgotten all of them but they include shock, anger, denial and acceptance. I'm not at 'acceptance' yet, and it's different for every person. But there's lots of interesting info on the internet, it turns out to be a very interesting disease, and there's no harm in researching your new 'companion', so maybe you can channel those questioning energies towards that instead? :) xxx
 
The 'Why Me' question is one that is often asked and very rarely answered..

I come from a large family, 8 brother and sisters, one sister is my twin, and you can't find any other dietetic in the family, not even a hint of it.. There is only me a T1 diabetic :!: It's now been over 20 years since I became a diabetic and I'm still nowhere near an answer than I was when first dignoised..

Asking the question is very much part of the course, coming to terms with our condition we go through the 5 stages of grief, as we are grieving for our lost life, and the future we thought we were going to have...

It did take me a while (several years or more) to accept the fact I will probably never know the answer to 'why me' I'm just verbally cursed, by my sisters, neices and pretty soon great-nieces who all had to have a Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) because aunty Jo got T1 diabetes :roll:

I
 
Hi Kamila,
Like you I too am one of a kind in my family with absolutely no-one else with diabetes!! I was diagnosed at 10 yrs old after having a bad flu a few months b4 when i was diagnosed my blood sugars were over 30 mmol/l and would read HI on your meter. My Gp at the thime almost refused to get me the appropriate blood tests for diagnosis as "kids don't get diabetes" but thankfully ma mum is awesome with the medical profession and pushed the matter!! >so next month I'll be diabetic for 20 years - not that I am realy very good at it I must admit I still go throough silly denial weeks and up till recently had all to common "why me?" days too,

Controlling this disease can be a struggle but in the long term it is well worth it coz you wanna keep all the bits of yourself that you are currently attached to (feet,legs eyes etc) don't worry about the why me's EVERYONE gets them!!! It's all up to you how this disease affects your life so take it easy on yourself. :) When I was first diagnosed the dr i saw wasn't a paed doc and he told me i got it because i was SPECIAL don't know what to think of that now but at the time it helped :lol: :lol:
Anyway good luck hope you find some inspiration on this site that helps you deal. I know I have there are amazing people on this site who seem to know just about everything!! :P
 
Mindii,
Aw I really love what your doc said to you,he must have been a complete star, and that you remember it too :D Paediatric doctors are great; spent lot of time in GOS with my eldest, and the dedication of the staff is mind-blowing.
Kamila, I felt the same at diagnosis,looking for reasons, blame, etc; thought I was just cursed :( I'd just come to London to work aged 19. It was a new start for me and the diagnosis was a huge blow to my confidence, and I worried about my future. I've been type-1 21 years now, married with 3 children and still healthy and well,with no diabetic complications. Not the bleak future I invisaged, hope that gives you hope :)
I also had really bad flu about 3 months before I was diagnosed.and no one in my family had diabetes either.
Jus
 
thank you all for the replies and the supportive comments. Recently I found out through my doctor back home (Poland) that an experimental pancreas transplant is been done there. This supposingly provides you with a new healthy working pancreas and you are completely free of shots. Does anybody knows more of this? In the country I am not they have no idea of it that they mock me when I ask the doctors here. Thanks again for all the replies
 
I know what you're going through with questioning why and how. I did for several months about my daughter. Like you, we have no family history at all of diabetes of any kind. My daughter also had a flu-like illness shortly before diagnosis (she didn't take any medication for it). At first I thought this is what caused it but looking back I'm not sure, perhaps she was showing mild symptoms of diabetes before she got the flu-like virus. I have questioned everything, from what I gave her to eat to her childhood vaccines, environmental pollution where we live etc. In the end I decided that I'd drive myself mad trying to find the cause and I'd probably never be able to prove anything anyway. For me, it's been more positive driving my energy and focus towards getting good control of her blood sugars rather than trying to find reasons.

About the transplant, I think that although it's possibly successful for some, the anti-rejection drugs are probably more damaging than living with diabetes.
 
kamila261 said:
thank you all for the replies and the supportive comments. Recently I found out through my doctor back home (Poland) that an experimental pancreas transplant is been done there. This supposingly provides you with a new healthy working pancreas and you are completely free of shots. Does anybody knows more of this? In the country I am not they have no idea of it that they mock me when I ask the doctors here. Thanks again for all the replies
Click to expand...


Here in the UK it is a procedure that has taken place. See here:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pancreastr ... ction.aspx

Extract:
Over recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of pancreas donors and pancreas transplants.

For example, in the UK during 2008 to 2009, there were 308 pancreas donors, resulting in 171 pancreas transplants being performed.

Also, during this period, there were 131 simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplants. See Pancreas transplant - why it is used for more information about combined pancreas and kidney transplants.


There is also the JDRF who are funding research into the artificial Pancreas. See here:

http://www.jdrf.org.uk/page.asp?section ... as+Project

Ken
 
Kamilla

Pancreas transplants are available in many countries now and they tend to be carried out in conjunction with a kidney teansplant when a type 1 diabetic also has kidney failure. this is known as a SPK transplat simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant.

As already posted the number carried out in the UK has steadily risen over the last number of years,in 2006 when I had my SPK transplant there were approximately 130 carried out. Survival of the pancreas also seems to be better when carried out in conjunction with a kidney transplant.

My transplant was carried out at Guys in the UK after having suffered from type 1 diabetes for 30 years and finally end stage renal failure. For myself this has been a complete success both the pancreas and kidney are working perfectly, both kidney function and blood sugar levels are normal.

Pancreas alone transplants are normally only carried out when the patient has un cotrolable complications such as hypo un awareness which can be life threatening

Obviously following any transplant you would not be off of medication, anti rejection drugs would be required and maybe blood pressure and cholesteral.

All I can advise is that for myself it has been a complete succes but this does not apply to all, speak to your doctors and also check out the forum pages on transplant buddies

All the best

Kevin
 
There is also the experimental procedure of islet cell transplantation. At moment only a few trials have been done in the UK all with people who have very difficult to control diabetes, most have been able to reduce their insulin and have improved control, but only one has been able to stop injecting insulin
.http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Research/Islet_cell_transplantation/
A development of this procedure is to use islet and stem cells from the bone marrow.
http://www.diabetesresearch.org/Page.aspx?pid=405

Researchers round the world are also investigated the use of islet celss from pigs and 'growing' embryonic stem cells into islet cells.
 
Back
Top