What lead to your diagnosis?

My husband was diagnosed last summer almost 18 months ago. After months of asking our GP what this white rash was over his body, they did a biopsy and eventually discovered that it was fatty lumps, did some urgent tests and results were cholesterol of 17.4, type II diabetes and an urgent referal to consultant at local hospital. Now all seemingly under control - just in time for his 40th birthday next year. Managed by diet and large concoction of drugs. Odd but there were no other symptoms as described by others but it was final straw following several traumatic occurances in our lives and he has been off sick since with post traumatic stress disorder.....

Incidentally (following my post just submitted), had a big battle with current doc recently about Metformin dosage & half-life etc. The mantra used to be that patients should be empowered to help manage their own disease. Now, he said that has all changed and the advice is NOT to do regular meter testing at all as (he says) it makes no significant difference to diabetes management. My guess it's more to do with saving the cost of prescribing testing strips!

Hi Geoffo, the official NICE guidelines still say patients should be helped to manage their own diabetes and lifestyle. The PCT's think otherwise! :twisted:

Ruth Mann said:

My husband was diagnosed last summer almost 18 months ago. After months of asking our GP what this white rash was over his body, they did a biopsy and eventually discovered that it was fatty lumps, did some urgent tests and results were cholesterol of 17.4, type II diabetes and an urgent referal to consultant at local hospital. Now all seemingly under control - just in time for his 40th birthday next year. Managed by diet and large concoction of drugs. Odd but there were no other symptoms as described by others but it was final straw following several traumatic occurances in our lives and he has been off sick since with post traumatic stress disorder.....

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Hi Ruth and welcome to the forum. I hope you will find some interesting information on here that can help you both.

sugarless sue said:

Hi Geoffo, the official NICE guidelines still say patients should be helped to manage their own diabetes and lifestyle. The PCT's think otherwise! :twisted:

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Thanks Sugarless Sue! I've found it's very easy for bg levels to creep up if you don't test for a while. Regular testing brings you back down to earth. He refused to sign my prescription unless I tried his regime for six weeks. It might work, but getting a frequent dry mouth and tingling lips so I guess levels are getting higher compared to when I did regular testing. Must find those NICE guidelines for the next appointment!

I tried not testing for three months and my Hba1c went up quite a lot! My doctor now puts my strips on repeat prescription with no problem. It is interesting reading all the different 'excuses' that the HCP come out with for not giving us strips.

My only symptom was feeling really thirsty and of course drinking lots of "healthy orange juice" to counter it :lol: I had just changed blood pressure tablets so put it down to that but my doc ordered a blood test and it was 30+ and I was urgently called into the surgery. For about two years I was on tablets and diet but then had a severe attack of pancreatitis at which point I was moved onto insulin.

I am still confused about the difference between type 1 and type 2 - does type 2 (late onset) remain type 2 when you are put on insulin?

gbswales said:

My only symptom was feeling really thirsty and of course drinking lots of "healthy orange juice" to counter it :lol: I had just changed blood pressure tablets so put it down to that but my doc ordered a blood test and it was 30+ and I was urgently called into the surgery. For about two years I was on tablets and diet but then had a severe attack of pancreatitis at which point I was moved onto insulin.

I am still confused about the difference between type 1 and type 2 - does type 2 (late onset) remain type 2 when you are put on insulin?

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Hi gbsw.

Type 2 is Type 2 whatever the treatment regime. Being on Insulin makes no difference whatsoever.

I remember reading a book called 'Sugar Mouse' about a young girl who had diabetes and a pony :lol: it must have been written in the 70's as the story was about how she couldn't eat any sweet things at all and injected with a re-used needle which was kept in a bowl of sterile solution by her bed. Anyway, I digress.........about a week after reading that book, my Mum took me to the Docs for some tests and a week later, hey presto, they diagnosed me! Can't remember the tests or what my BG was but distinctly remember telling the Doc there was no way, no how I would inject myself (I was an expert you see, I'd read that book :lol

Symptoms were insatiable thirst, peeing round the clock and I was whippet thin (but only 13 so only close family noticed the weight loss) In fact, it was my Mum getting miffed at my drinking a 1.5l bottle of squash in 2 days flat which triggered the whole diagnosis event! Perhaps because I was young I didn't suffer from or notice any of the other symptoms, such as tiredness etc.......

I've since looked for the Sugar Mouse book but can't find it - did anyone else read it?!

debloubed said," I've since looked for the Sugar Mouse book but can't find it - did anyone else read it?!"

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I think this Enid Blyton book might be the one you refer to, along with other short stories.
Have a look here.
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... hp?id=1455

You might find a copy on Amazon or EBay, failing that the Hay on Wye bookshops are always a good bet.

And as if by magic.....here is a link to one on EBay for £4.50 free p&p.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Enid-Blyton-1975- ... 1c0864c08e

Hi, One and all
I have read the blogs above and reckon I should count myself very lucky. In August 2005, when I was 70, the local Lions Club, in conjunction with a local hospital, was offering blood glucose tests to any passer-by who wanted one. I had a test, which did not seem satisfactory to the doctor present so I was tested again. He told me that my bG was 9.5 and suggested that I saw my GP. Some weeks later I did so and he sent me for a blood test and the report said my bG was 11.4, my HbA1c was 12.2, and my BMI was 27.6. Five days before Christmas I saw him again and the message was clear: “Give up smoking, (I was a thirty a day man), give up sugar, take more exercise, and lose weight. All that and less that a week before Christmas! But I did as instructed and a couple of months ago my HbA1c was down to 6.6 and this morning my bG was 5.1 and my BMI down to 25.5.

thanks Cuglia, it's not the Enid Blyton book though, that is more for children as opposed to teenagers?! the book I read was called 'Sugarmouse' on it's own and was (I think) written by a chap called John Branfield? I have found that author name from googling but I can't find an actual copy of the book :?

I had been a soldier in the Royal artillery for 16 years when i became more and more tired and thirsty and lost loads of weight.In the army they have a sort of macho type attitude to illness and so when i reported sick to the army doctor he just sent me away with a flea in my ear and a couple of asprins.
I reported back to the doctors many times over the next 6 months and was told i was depressed and to pull my socks up. I was posted to Cyprus for 6 months and eventually the heat and my symptoms overcame me and i was bedded down excused all duties. I was lying in a bed in a room full of ruffy tuffy soldiers who did not seem to care about my condition which slowly got worse untill i slipped into a diabetic coma,on one of my concious moments i saw that the room was empty the other soldiers had just gone and left me to fend for myself .Just by luck another soldier saw the empty room as an oppertunity to have a look to see what he could aquire. He was surprised to see me and i just managed to croak that i needed to be in hospital. I was taken to Acrotiri military hospital and was in a diabetic coma for 9 days . When i woke i was told i would be discharged from the army because i was a diabetic.I wasnt told of any compensation or other finacial help so struggled for the next few years but now i have a war pension and am managing to get back on my feet.
im left with severe diabetic nueropathy due to the fact my blood sugar level was so high 55 for so long b4 i was diagnosed.

I was thirsty all the time and always needing the loo. I have always drunk quite a bit of water so the increase was oddly not that much. The big one in my cases was i was up and down every couple of hours at night.
I lost around 20KG though put that down to my thyroxine dosage being doubled about a year before and I had become more active in that time. I was only occasionally tired but when I was I was wiped out... I would get home from work, eat and go to bed.

After about 18 months or so it was actually my wife that made me promise to go see a Dr, she is currently working abroad so didnt see all the symptoms all the time. By this point there was no arguament since I had lost some sensation in my left hand but otherwise felt fine so the diabetes check was an aside since I had promised.

Dr tested and first meter wouldnt register, second meter came back at 36, ketones tested off the scale and about 30 minutes later I found myself in hospital. They were expecting DKA but oddly enough my blood was slightly alkaline... that confused them a bit and they redid the tests
A1c back then was 17 which suggested an average of at least 24mmol/l.

Now have things nicely under control and got my 3 months A1c into 5.9 though under no illusions it was stay there but it was nice to see that I can do it.
The loss of sensation in my left hand has partially recovered which is good though

Taking it all a day at a time and doing the best I can to think like a pancreas.

A

AndyS said:

Taking it all a day at a time and doing the best I can to think like a pancreas.

A

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Hi AndyS, have you read the book, 'Think like a Pancreas' by Gary Scheiner? A **** good read

It all started in late September of 2006 with sweating a lot and a cough...

After having had the dammed cough for a few weeks and it NOT going away after all it was clear that more severe measures were needed, Little did I know HOW severe. I knew I'd been overdoing things by working full time and then popping round to look after my parents before going home but I probably just needed some multivitamins to get back on top of things.. On the Thursday morning I went to work feeling like death warmed up but deciding, as usual, that I just needed to shake it off by getting on with things. I was only at work for a few hours before it became clear that I could not continue. One of the girls from HR saw me taking a breather halfway up the stairs (Not very long ones either) and asked me if I was OK. After a brief chat it was decided that I couldn't stay at work and wasn't going to get any better without seeing a doctor. So I packed myself off home having made an emergency appointment with my GP. I got to see him at around lunchtime and told him what my symptoms were, including the new ones that had manifested themselves that day. (They were not nice at all so I will not share them here, but let’s say I thought I'd eaten something that had not agreed with me at all). He listened and said he needed to get some samples sent away to have a better idea of what was wrong so I provided him with a cup of one sample, no prizes for guessing what THAT was, and his nurse took some blood too. Once all was done I returned home with instructions to call him at 10AM the next day. At 9AM the next day my doctor called ME and said he thought I should go straight down and see him. This I duly did. When I got in to see him (he was having a really busy morning too) he sat me down and gave me the news... My white cell reading was off the scale so I must have been fighting something rather nasty. Also, my urine contained some worrying things. Namely Blood, high levels of Protein, & rather high levels of glucose which suggested that I might also be a Type 2 Diabetic.

Bearing in mind I had thought I was having an off day with a cough and a bit of a dodgy tummy it was a bit of a shock when he said he was having me admitted to the local hospital that morning and I should go home, pack a bag and report to the hospitals "Accident & Emergency department" forthwith. My friends next door were great and said they would drop me off there straight away, so I left my car at home and packed a bag.

Thus I entered the local general hospital carrying my standard overnight bag and a couple of books to read. To cut a long story short.. (Too late, I know!)

Four days, what seemed like a million doctors, chest x-rays, countless blood tests, and a ton of anti-biotics later; I was sent home but had still to discover what on earth was wrong with me.

Some time later, having been around the houses and back to the doctor, I knew what the problems were.

1st was Pneumonia.
(Not a serious case and not life threatening thank heaven!)

2nd was quite a serious urinary infection.
(This was causing the high white cell levels and some of the nastier symptoms, Apparently diabetics are "prone to getting them")

3rd I was almost definitely a Type 2 Diabetic.
(A bit of a shock but until everything else was out of my system they couldn't confirm anything)

I had to take a month off work and spend some quality time resting.
Once we got into the new year of 2007 and did the glucose load tests etc. the diagnosis was confirmed.

Hi all,

I was similiar to lots and had unquenchable thurst BUT my mum thought i was just being greedy drinking all of the fizzy pop (was 9yrs old at the time) I was challenged to drink a pint of milk if I was that thirsty (I dislike it immensely) I subsequently downed a pint of the stuff and went to hospital soon after with sugars of 36.

I think a massive problem is that undiagnosed diabetics will drink ton's of suguary drinks to quench thirst! especially red bull, lucozade etc to compensate for tiredness.

skybluegilby said:

Hi all,

I was similiar to lots and had unquenchable thurst BUT my mum thought i was just being greedy drinking all of the fizzy pop (was 9yrs old at the time) I was challenged to drink a pint of milk if I was that thirsty (I dislike it immensely) I subsequently downed a pint of the stuff and went to hospital soon after with sugars of 36.

I think a massive problem is that undiagnosed diabetics will drink ton's of suguary drinks to quench thirst! especially red bull, lucozade etc to compensate for tiredness.

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thank goodness for Mum's who watch the purse strings!! :lol: my penchant for Ribena (before the sugar free days!) was so extreme, I was banished to the Docs pdq 8) if I'd been downing the cheap 'value' stuff then perhaps it would have gone unoticed for a bit longer :lol:

Hello
I think I have diabetes for years cos I remember needing the loo all the time when I was younger. It only came to a head when I could not see the computer screen at work & the doctor at work checked my blood & referred me to my own GP right away, That was 15 or 16 years ago. I was really chuffed with myself last month the diabetes doctor said I didn't have to go back to the clinic for 1 year because I've been really good bloods. YES!!
Best wishes Morag

On thinking back, had a cluster of cold sores in July. First for years but of course thought nothing at the time. Also restless legs which I now relate to same

Then in Sept, returned from hols on Sunday. Hadnt lost weight but hadnt put it on which was unusual.
On the Weds I was up through the night to toilet- thought Id keep an eye out - maybe a UTI?

Thursday night felt very thirsty after going to cinema where I had nachos (sob!), full sugar coke and minstrels. Spent rest of evening literally lying under a tap, doubled over Id drank so much.
Up 12 times that night

Friday morning - phoned GP. Went to GP to say I had symptoms of diabetes. Was told that I couldnt possible as too young for T1 (ha!) and not overweight/family/age liklihood for T2. On asking why the symptoms I was told it was likely related to my holiday and body settling back in. From italy I may add, not the Congo (quote, unquote to the Doc). BG was taken 'anyway' and I went out for the day to get home to find 3 messages on the phone, urged to go to A and E immediately

Admitted from Fri to Sunday night. Bam. T1, straight to insulin, do not pass go, do not collect £200 :lol: Bg of around 28.