• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 1.5/LADA, diabetes educator 'has never heard of it'

C

chumbley17

Newbie
My doctor has recommended I see their diabetic educator here in Australia as part of my diabetic management programme.
I was diagnosed as type 1.5 / LADA in 2004 and have a more or less consistent HbA1c of 7.4
My initial phone chat with the educator was disappointing to say the least. She claimed I was 'just type 2' and 'had never heard of type 1.5' although I explained that I was diagnosed by a professor of endocrinology in 2004 and went straight onto insulin.
Can anyone point me towards some material to share with this educator, so that she can help me and her other patients with the same diagnosis? Thank you
 
I agree with @EllieM - if that doesn't get through, you will need to ask for another who at least knows the differences. IMO - any advice you get from this ignorant educator is going to be potentially inadequate or even dangerous. You need someone who actually is educated. I have no idea how someone can be registered as a diabetic educator and be this ignorant, just shocking.
 
I think I'd be tempted to tell her she might want to Google it - HCPs love to sneer about Google, but clearly it knows more on the subject than she does :rolleyes:
 
It's usually best to give people some benefit of the doubt, but this educator is unfit for purpose. You might not need to know everything about your subject, but not knowing about 1.5 is the kind of shocking ignorance that shows they have never even been on Wikipedia or a forum. Compounding it by not saying '1.5? what's that? then looking it up on the phone there and then moves the situation into wilful stupidity and arrogance. Not knowing, then being willing to hear what it is and look it up would be more reasonable.
 
chumbley17 said:
My doctor has recommended I see their diabetic educator here in Australia as part of my diabetic management programme.
I was diagnosed as type 1.5 / LADA in 2004 and have a more or less consistent HbA1c of 7.4
My initial phone chat with the educator was disappointing to say the least. She claimed I was 'just type 2' and 'had never heard of type 1.5' although I explained that I was diagnosed by a professor of endocrinology in 2004 and went straight onto insulin.
Can anyone point me towards some material to share with this educator, so that she can help me and her other patients with the same diagnosis? Thank you
Click to expand...
Perhaps she ought to think about a change in career as she has the potential to cause damage by advising patients incorrectly.
 
Hi. Nowadays it's more commonly called LADA rather than T1.5. This is a Google quote from this website:

LADA stands for Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood. LADA is a form of type 1 diabetes that develops later into adulthood. LADA tends to develop more slowly than type 1 diabetes in childhood and, because LADA can sometimes appear similar to type 2 diabetes, doctors may mistakenly diagnose LADA as type 2 diabetes.

The Mayo clinic in the USA recognises it and so does diabetes.org.uk. Just Google 'LADA diabetes'
 
Back
Top