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Newly diagnosed type 1 or not? Please help

B

bootloader

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello everyone,
I am Alex and I am 26 years old.
First of all I want to say that I am glad I am here to talk with all of you and wish you all the best. My English is not perfect but I hope you will understand me and be able to help me and answer to some of my questions.
26 October 2022 I went to endocrinologist after I was feeling thirsty and was going often to pee (usually during the night), that was only for 1-2 days. I did HbA1c test which showed 9.8% and blood sugar level was 19 mmol/L. I did not do any other tests. Endocrinologist said that I am type 1 and sent me to hospital where I started to get insulin injections immediately. After first injection (in a vein) I was in hypo and was in hypo almost every day in hospital after insulin injections. I was in hospital for 5 days and was sent home with 4 times insulin therapy a day. I have started insulin therapy but again was in hypo almost every day and then I decided to see another endocrinologist who said that he is surprised about my diagnose since I didn't do any test beside HbA1c. He gave me diet plan and I started to workout as well and my blood sugar levels are around 5 mmol/L in the morning, they are about 6-7 2hrs after a meal and if the meal was high carb (potato + bread in the same meal without exercising) then my blood sugar levels goes to 7.8 for example 2hrs after a meal. After all that I did c-peptide test and the following are the results:
Range: 0.9 - 3.7 mg/dl
0 min - 2.48 mg/dl
6 min after breakfast - 2.98 mg/dl
120 min after breakfast - 4.47 mg/dl
First endocrinologist that sent me to hospital said that I am in "honeymoon" period currently and the other one who gave me diet plan said that he doesn't think that and that I am not diabetic at all.
I forgot to say that during the high values of blood sugar levels I was taking glucocorticoid tablets which my dermatologist gave me for some skin problems on the fist.
First endocrinologist said that a lot of children are taking glucocorticoids and they don't have sugar level problems and the second endocrinologist said that they can raise sugar levels and it should take some time after stopping those medications to go back to normal.
My question is, do you think that I am really type 1 diabetic and currently in honeymoon or I am not diabetic at all? Do you think that those high values were caused by glucocorticoids with very poor diet as well (eating a lot of snacks and drinking a lot of Coca Cola)? I have stopped using insulin immediately after going out of hospital (I was on insulin therapy for about 15 days in total) and stopped taking glucocorticoids and my blood sugar levels are normal now. Sometimes it doesn't even go above 6 mmol/L 1 hour after eating but that depends on the meal and if I worked out or not.
Sorry for the long message and thanks in advance if someone can help me. Wish you all the best!
 
Hi and welcome to the forum @bootloader ,

This description you have given us is intriguing and one of those situations that the specialists you are seeing are guessing and trying to get a handle for the lack of clarity on what is happening to you.
I believe by your last sentence, that you are getting normal blood glucose levels.
Is that a fasting test before you eat in the morning?
The c-peptide to me are in range. But I'm not an expert.
I know nothing about glucocortoids, but they are glucose and quick acting, which if you are diabetic, that wouldn't be recommended. Eventually glucose in any way will effect your health in some way in the future.
the diet plan is something I would agree about, however, if it still full of carbs, starchy veg, sugars, that is not a healthy balanced diet for someone suspected of diabetes.

I have a condition that I produce too much insulin. And too much insulin is like too much glucose or too much of other hormones. Bad. The excess insulin causes hypoglycaemia, similar to Type 2 on meds or overdosing on insulin when first diagnosed. Or wrong diagnosis.

So, if you are non diabetic, having insulin shots will put you in hypoglycaemia.

I would ask either endo for tests other than hba1c or c-peptide, diagnostic tests to see why you are getting these symptoms and readings. If you have a glucometer, text yourself and keep a record.

I haven't a clue wether you are any type of diabetic, there are so many types of diabetes or non diabetic endocrine conditions that it is impossible to say.

Best wishes
 
A glucocorticoid is what we would more commonly call a “steroid”, and yes Alex, they can definitely raise your blood sugar. Whether to the levels that you were seeing, I’m not sure but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Your sugars you describe after meals seem fairly normal - is that with insulin or without? If it’s without, then I’m not surprised that insulin would give you hypos.
 
Hello @Lamont D ,
Thank you for your reply.
Yes, it is the fasting test before I eat in the morning, it's always around 5-6 mmol/L, and that value is often before every meal during the day (before lunch, dinner and before going to bed).
 
Hello, @finzi1966
Thank you for your reply.
All of the levels I have described are without insulin and without any medications.
 
Lamont D said:
I know nothing about glucocortoids, but they are glucose and quick acting
Click to expand...
They're not glucose but steroids. Which raise blood glucose in diabetics, sometimes by very much. I don't know if they affect BG in non diabetics as well though.
An initial diagnosis of T1 makes sense, seeing as you are on the young side for T2, your symptoms came on quickly and your blood glucose was very high.

But then there are the steroids and who knows what other factors playing a role. It looks like it might be possible that covid may cause a form of temporary diabetes for instance.

There is no way we can tell. For now, you're doing well, which gives you and your endo time to work out what's happening.
 
Hello @Antje77
Thank you for your reply.
I started glucocorticoid therapy with deflazacort in July this year. I think that I was on one more glucocorticoid therapy 2 years ago, but that was only one injection which didn't cause any problems with sugar levels and those were tablets. My father is diabetic type 2 and he is the only one in the whole family, no one from his side doesn't have diabetes (his brother, his parents etc. and from my mother's side all of them are also non diabetic).
Antje77 said:
An initial diagnosis of T1 makes sense, seeing as you are on the young side for T2, your symptoms came on quickly and your blood glucose was very high.
Click to expand...

I agree, and the thing I am very surprised about is how I didn't get diabetes when I was 17 years old (9 years ago) since I was younger person with less life experience who wanted to get muscles over the night so I was taking anabolic steroids (oral dianabol tablets and testosterone injections) which are way more dangerous than corticosteroids as far as I know but I am not a doctor.
As I said, I do have genetic predisposition to get diabetes because of my father, but he got diabetes after I was born, not sure if that has something to do with genes or not.
 
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Hi Names Jack. So yesterday I want to a laboratory for tests and it turned out my urine had alot of sugar. So I guess I'm a bit diabetic. Like it's kinda hard for me right now since I'm only 17 and I have a huge sweet tooth!. I'm kinda scared since I had some of the symptoms like excessive thirst and urination plus the feeling of being tired. I'm so overwhelmed and scared.(plus I don't wana eat like my grandma -_-)
 
Hi Jack,

Welcome to the forum.

You post may get lost in the middle of someone else’s topic.
You are very welcome to start your own thread regarding your concern. If you wish.?

Or I or a member of the moderator team can sort it for you.
 
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