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Water etc...

F

Fredex

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I have come to suspect I have diabetes and I am currently awaiting an appointment at the doctors.

I've only come to this conclusion recently because someone mentioned in passing that drinking a lot of water was a symptom, whereas I had always done so for as long as I can recall and thought nothing of it. Recently I have been very fatigued, hungry and have recent numbness in my feet so diabetes would seem most likely.

Anyway my problem is that symptom checkers and the like use ridiculously vague terms like 'increased' or 'excessive' which I can't quantify myself having always drunk a lot of water throughout the day and often needed a lot of sleep.

Ideally I was looking for some rough figures on these things from before people were diagnosed and began treatment, if anyone can remember.

At the moment I am sleeping for 10-12 hours but still feel tired, though not enough to sleep.
For as long as I can readily recall (at least 4 years) around 8-12 pints of water a day has been normal for me, generally I drink a pint an hour. Really this only seems to happen when I am sat at the computer at home (which granted is most of the time since I work at it) but if I am out or at someone else's house I won't feel overly thirsty, as such I had previously put it down to compulsion more than thirst.

As for the numbness, it is in one or both feet, more frequently at night and sometimes feel as if it spreads up my legs. Often feeling cold/hot/aching and sometimes there is tingling in hands and feet, does this sound like neuropathy?

Thanks.
 
Nobody here is qualified or able/allowed to tell you if you have Diabetes. Nobody knows your medical history.

You say you are waiting for an appointment to see your doctor. Once you see him/her and they run tests on you, they will be able to diagnose you.

If it turns out you have Diabetes then come back here and we can offer help and support. Until then I am afraid you will have to wait and see.......
 
Not asking anyone to tell me, merely wondering how much water qualifies as 'excessive' since nowhere seems to give an average amount. To me the amount I sleep and the amount I drink have become normal so I can't be sure it is excessive.

I was just hoping to find some figures on how much water people tended to drink before they started treatment and perhaps for how long people found themselves sleeping.
 
I have no idea, it was 14+ years ago. I actually didn't have any symptoms either. What may be 'excessive' for one may be normal for somebody else, everybody is different. There are no set amounts. I now drink at least 2 litres a day, that's all I can tell you.
 
Hi fredex
Do you wake up through the night thirsty? .I am type 2 and can drink up to 5 pints through the night as well as my day time drinks. Like cugila says you should get an appointment with your GP and get it checked out it could be something totaly different and may require immediate proffesional help.
Let us know what ever the outcome :D
JF.Good luck and be :D
 
In an attempt to answer what 'excessive' means - I suspect it may be different for Type 2s but I was diagnosed Type 1 over 20 years ago and I can remember that thirst very well indeed. It's totally different from being 'thirsty'. It's all-encompassing, it's all you can think about, it dominates your life. You get a 2 litre bottle of lemonade and drink it in one go, and wonder where you can get the next one from. You sit on the toilet having a wee and drinking a bottle of water at the same time and it feels like you are nothing but a funnel for water. (and interestingly, 'diabetes' means 'funnel' in greek - excellently named).

Type 2 tends to come on slower and a little less strong than that, so probably it creeps up from 'thirsty' to 'often thirsty' to 'always thirsty'.

I know that doesn't answer the question 'what is excessive' exactly but at least you have a bit more info than before. But obviously getting a proper blood test at the doc's is the way to find out for sure.
 
my son just before diagnosis drank loads he always drank alot but he didnt mind what it was as long as it was wet, to the point he didnt like fizzy drinks but we went out for kfc he drank his drink in seconds and begged me for mine and my partners, when he got diagnosed they asked about thirst and i recalled this incident to them i did say i had restricted his drink intake because of awful trouble getting him dry he was 4 years old and the consultant told me they had known children drink out the toilet from the thirst i was mortified i had restricted him and he might have done these things i did catch him at the sink drinking out of his hand as best he could once
 
My daughter had what I'd call excessive thirst. She was diagnosed Type 1 so I'm not sure if Type 2 thirst is different. She'd wake in the night wanting a drink, go to the toilet often during the night. During the day and very shortly before being diagnosed she was so thirsty she'd drink to the point of being sick on it. She went from a child who didn't particularly like to drink water to being desperate to drink anything in sight, including water (which was out of character for her). We couldn't leave the house even for a short trip without a large water bottle in my bag. She'd often have more than one drink at a time as she was so thirsty.
 
I'm T2 and I can tell you that the thirst was the same for me - drinking 2 litres of coke and thinking about the next drink before I had finished that one - couldn't seem to get it cold enough either - would stand in the kitchen with a pint glass full of ice just filling it up with "pop" and drinking.

Waking every hour to drink a pint of water - when I wasn't drinking I was dreaming about drinking- luckily for me all my drinks were sugar free

Snodger said:
It's totally different from being 'thirsty'. It's all-encompassing, it's all you can think about, it dominates your life. You get a 2 litre bottle of lemonade and drink it in one go, and wonder where you can get the next one from. You sit on the toilet having a wee and drinking a bottle of water at the same time and it feels like you are nothing but a funnel for water.
Click to expand...

I was exactly like this too - but I agree Snodger it probably comes on gradually with T2 where as T1 I suspect would be much faster - It's my belief that I was T2 for 2 - 3 years before diagnosed

"Excessive" thirst is a bit ambiguous - maybe a better way of saying it is an unquenchable thirst

Having said all that - like others have said you need to see your GP if you are worried about your health -
 
I remember the terrible thirst,
drinking my own then finishing everyone else's drinks too, just glad that i never ever had full fat coke in the house have always had diet
Sue
 
I remember I drank anything I could get my hands on, not because of habit but because I was so thirsty all the time I really needed something to drink. When I was out somewhere I always ended up buying a bottle of water and pouring it down me in one go and then still feeling thirsty!
I think this is what is meant with the symptom, drinking loads of fluids not because you like to or do so out of habit, but because you feel so thirsty you absolutely feel like you have to.
Good luck at the doctor's, hope you are okay :)
 
I was sleeping most of the time (over 12 hours a day), and was woken up by thirst and needing the loo multiple times during the night. And I was tired and thirsty during the day too.
 
Thanks for all your answers, would have been useful if some of the pages of symptoms had included clarification like this to begin with...

Part of the reason I had never considered the amount I drink to be an issue up until now was because I didn't really associate it with thirst and from some of your horror stories I get the impression that even the word 'excessive' doesn't do it justice. I don't think I have ever woken up in the night to get a drink, if I awake I'll usually just have a sip. My concern was that when trying to get to sleep I will often go to the toilet once or twice and if I am woken up by my partner I will go. Scarcely wake up just because I need to go...

Had a blood test today anyway so it's just a case of waiting for the results and hoping the foot pain doesn't get worse in the meantime. Myself and the doctor were essentially tied between diabetes and anemia and if my water consumption isn't actually as heavy as I had been led to believe then that might point more towards the latter.

I'll post results when I get them in a couple weeks anyway.
 
Lots of people never have noticeable tiredness and thirst, their diabetes is just picked up by chance on a blood test. So no one can say 'if you drink X amount and sleep X amount you have diabetes', which is why the pages of symptoms don't say that.
 
Hi, I stumbled across this and I think it's answered my question. I too have always drunk a lot, no matter what; water, diet fizzy drinks etc. . I always take a pint of water to bed and will chain drink in the evening, drink after drink but nothing like you have described. I do sometimes feel dehydrated and desperate for a drink but it's not that often. My 5 year old son is the same. Being over weight I know I could be a candidate for diabetes. I was tested for gestational diabetes during pregnancy but I was clear. We haven't got diabetes as far as I know in the family. I'm not worried about the drinking now but will persevere with the diet to give myself a better chance of avoiding this condition.
 
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