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What lead to your diagnosis?

I was six years old when I was diagnosed in 1990.

I remember drinking diluting juice like it was going out of fashion and then I started to get very sick. My condition wasn't picked up right away and I became very ill. At first when my GP was visiting he thought I had a some sort of viral infection. I think it was over the course of a week, maybe more, but I lost a huge amount of weight and when I was finally admitted to A&E my veins had collapsed and I really can't remember what my blood sugar reading was.

The memory I have of this is a paramedic wrapping me up in a blanket like a baby (I remember feeling embarassed as I had to be carried out like this to the ambulance). At the hospital I remember being poked and prodded and I swear I will never forget the feeling of them trying to find veins in my feet. Eventually they had to go in through an artery in my side. I was in intensive care for a few days and in the end spent 3 weeks and 2 days in hospital. The worst part of this being that when I felt better they sent in a teacher so I could keep up with school! As I wasn't allowed sweets and my diet was being controlled, family members brought me cold meat and cheese!

My parents (who were divorced at the time and still are) said that they were relieved when they were told I was diabetic as they knew it could be treated. The sad thing is they always said they felt so guilty when visiting me in intensive care as there were children in there who were never going to get better :(

Very nostalgic! Oh - and I remember the doctors and nurses cheering when I was in intensive care because Margaret Thatcher stepped down as PM!!

Jenni
 
Hello :D
I was fourteen when I was diagnosed, and I was in a science lesson and we learnt all about diabetes. A few weeks later a friend said to me that I always needed to go to the toilet and always was drinking and once she said that I realised that I had been doing that a lot. After that I started to wake up 6-7 times a night and I would have to go get a huge drink and go to the toilet! I weighed myself every morning and I would lose 2 pounds without trying everymorning I read up on the internet but I didn't believe it. I went to the chemist but they wouldn't do a test because I was younger than 16. So i went to the doctors and he put me in for a blood test the week after, I went to that and 2 days that he said I needed to go into hospital imediatly! I was in the hospital for 9 days due to my state by then and I was diagnosed with type one diabetes :)
I am doing very well with my bloods now and they hardly ever go high!

kattty :D xxx
 
kattyy :) said:
I am doing very well with my bloods now and they hardly ever go high!

kattty :D xxx
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well done you! what's your secret??
 
I have now been Type 2 for 12 months on paper. :D However, in reality it has been two years. I was diagnosed in hospital as a result of a Liver Function Test. They then informed my Doctors of this :D Unfortunately however, for me :( my Doctors didn't bother to tell me of this :shock: So twelve months down the line, three stone lighter (which is a good thing now), with failing eye sight and numerous other ailments I went for my annual LFT to be asked..."How are you managing your diabetes?" To which I responded... what diabetes? Three hours later I was admitted to hospital for the treatment to start :D .

When I asked the Doctors why they didn't contact me they said they had phoned once but got no reply. I guess they have never heard of phoning back again? :lol: Unless, that is the receptionist are medically trained and decided that there was no need as it musn't be a serious condition? :x

I hope mine was an isolated case!
 
Inns said:
I have now been Type 2 for 12 months on paper. :D However, in reality it has been two years. I was diagnosed in hospital as a result of a Liver Function Test. They then informed my Doctors of this :D Unfortunately however, for me :( my Doctors didn't bother to tell me of this :shock: So twelve months down the line, three stone lighter (which is a good thing now), with failing eye sight and numerous other ailments I went for my annual LFT to be asked..."How are you managing your diabetes?" To which I responded... what diabetes? Three hours later I was admitted to hospital for the treatment to start :D .

When I asked the Doctors why they didn't contact me they said they had phoned once but got no reply. I guess they have never heard of phoning back again? :lol: Unless, that is the receptionist are medically trained and decided that there was no need as it musn't be a serious condition? :x

I hope mine was an isolated case!
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OMG, I am horrified by this! I hope you will make a formal complaint? Not informing a patient of a diagnosis is unacceptable!! what if you had been type 1 and gone into DKA?! or what if it had been cancer?! heaven forbid................glad you have it all sorted now but really, what a shambles! :shock:
 
My diagnosis was as a result of me badgering medical professionals to stop treating symptoms, and get to the bottom of why I didn't heal and ended up with chronic Cellulitis and Lympheodema in my right arm, chest and back, and a bout of septicaemia, being hospitalised, and spending months on end on powerful antibiotics after having had surgery/treatment/radiotherapy for Breast Cancer dx in August 2008.

By the following Spring 2009, I was really sick - and not because of the cancer. Eventually my GP got me screened for everything that could be responsible for my failure to heal. Type 2 Diabetes was the culprit. I found this strange as I had no signs of diabetes up until this point, and all my blood sugar tests going back to 2001 and been well within normal ranges.

Consequently, I have to be very careful with keeping my blood glucose in normal ranges as any excesses quickly translate into the re-emergence of infection, and the vicious cycle of high BG levels feeding the infection, and in turn the infection increasing my BG levels even more. It took me months to get this cycle under control, and I had to remove all refined sugars etc from my diet to achieve it and still maintain a good level by eating a low GI diet and avoiding all sugary foods (so no cakes/sweets/chocolate/alcohol etc ) and cooking all my food from scratch so I know exactly what's gone into it. Its a bit of a pain, and I am now experimenting with how near to a normal diet I can get without disrupting my healthy BG levels.

In January this year, I had to have further major surgery, a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo oophrectomy, and had to fight hard to stop them routinely administering me with an insulin/glucose infusion for the week I spent in there and to allow me to control my diabetes myself through Metformin and diet. The diet aspect was tricky as a lot of the food had sugars in them, even the porridge! Anyway, I survived in fresh fruit, sandwiches, and salads, and maintained a BG level of below 7mmol/l the entire week. One of the nurses said to me on discharge ' I am glad you were so stubborn, we usually mess up the diabetics totally'. The result of my stubborness was I didnt end up back in the infection cycle and my recovery from the surgery has been much better because of it.

I was also told I have backgound Retinopathy when I had the routine eye tests they do for Diabetics last August. I had hoped that it was drug induced, as Tamoxifen, one of the cancer drugs I take is known to cause Retinopathy occasionally. I have since seen a specialist eye surgeon, who has ruled out this theory in my case and told me its related to the Diabetes, but he was unable to expain to me why I had it so soon after my initial Diabetes diagnosis. If anyone can throw any light on this I would be grateful.
 
Hi!
My diagnosis took about 10 years of hypos and a change of country... Now I'm 30 but I remember being in high school and feeling weak, and feeling the need to eat sweets without no one telling me to do it. I also remeber in my twenties being told off by my mum for drinking too much water. Well my old GP always took those hypos as low pressure problems and I eventually gave up drinking water :(

I then moved to the UK and I kept having these hypos to a point I was so stressed about work that I was having them daily, always a couple of hours after my bread and jam breakfast. I was then referred to an endocrinology department where they told me that the cause could have been an insulinoma ( i.e. beta cells producing too much insulin!!!) :shock:
The weird thing was that my fasting BG were not showing anything strange by then (4.9). Well, I did tests over tests and that couldn't be, so at the end I was being tested in a Diabetic centre for a stress related reactive hypoglycaemia.

Surprise surprise, the glucose tolerance test which lasted about 5hours (waiting for an hypo) showed I was diabetic instead, and only by chance the doctor had tested me for antibodies. The answer was simply early diagnosed Diabetes Type 1!!! That's how I've found out to be diabetic.
It looks like it's a LADA one, as I've managed fine with diet for a few months after this diagnosis. I didn't get up to the point of producing ketons, but I've had to start on my insulin in december.
It is weird how looking back, there have been clear signs of this slow diabetes progression for years!!! Well at least know I know the cause of my problems and also how to treat them! :)
 
I was in the back of an ambulance at about 06.15 Christmas Eve morning 2007 and came round in intensive care three days later to be told i had died twice but they were always confident of getting me back but there main worry was i had about 30-40 mins before i slipped into a diabetic coma and that was the end for me,my blood sugars were seemingly 96.4 which is totally off the scale thankfully now my bloods dont go above 5.9.I am type 2 and as funny as it seems being diagnosed and the manner it happened was the best thing ever to happen to me as i had turned into a slob.I lost 55kgs i was 137kgs did not exercise now i go to gym 4-5 times a week and everything is going well touch wood.
 
I went ot the doc as i had thrush that none of the over the counter creams cleared up adn i thougt i had a kidney infection as i was peeing a lot waking up 4 or 5 times a night to go to the loo. She diod a urine test adn found high sugars and then did a finer blood test adn it came up 23.3. I was brought straight in to hospital and stayed for 5 days. That was nearly a month ago, my levels are still high between 10 and 17.
 
Debloubed said:
roo.be said:
Oh and very quickly I think the book "sugar mouse" referred to earlier in this thread is in fact the one by John Branfield. It's a good read, aimed at teenagers and has some very insightful commentary at the end regarding societies perception of Diabetics, although it was written in the 70s and I think it may not be relevant nowadays.
Click to expand...

that's the book! not relevent now, agreed, but a good story none the less, wish I could get my hands on a copy :P
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Have you tried your local library?


Sugar Mouse
by John Branfield
ISBN 057501508X / 9780575015081 / 0-575-01508-X
Publisher Orion Books Limited
Language English
Edition Hardcover
 
Having a syndrome named "KLINEFELTER SYNDROME " which is a genetic abnormality that no-one cares 2 hoots about ! Found that out by trying to get Awareness about it out and about , AND STUPID GPS PUTTING IT DOWN TO Obesity because they don't have a clue what they are dealing with , I'm Type 2 Insulin Dependent with an HB1AC level of 11% that I can't budge , ie : given up bread , all sugars , cakes etc,etc , tried every diet going , as I can't walk I can't burn off the stuff , I'm also on Glucophage S/R tABLETS 2,000MG DAILY On 154 units of insulin daily , begining to get dis-heartened !
 
Hello Hybrid :)

I have read all of your posts and it sounds like a really dreadful situation to be in and I am just sorry that I don't have any ideas that might help you. :(

Have you tried anything like non weight bearing exercises in a pool? Just a thought. :)

Big <<<hug>>> coming your way!
 
Hiya guys
For me no one had a clue what was wrong. Got rushed into A & E first they thought anaemic then anorexic (hadn't eaten a full meal for almost 2 weeks so you could make out every single bone on my body, I must have lost about a stone and I was/am 16yrs old) then they worried that my lungs had collapsed and rushed me into the x-ray room. Finally one of the many doctor who came into the cubical looked at me and instantly said she's diabetic. Once they checked everything my blood was 30+ and I was on something ridiculous like 70 breaths a minute. That is all I remember of my first day at the hospital as I kept going in and out of conciseness so its mainly a blur.
I was stuck in hospital for a week to recover they would have kept me longer but my mums a nurse so she managed to get me out sooner. I couldn't stand being a pin cushion any longer!
As we looked back it turned out about 3 weeks before I was constantly drinking even waking up every hour dying of thirst but this only lasted a few days. After that I had this horrible taste in my mouth and couldn't drink anything and I totally went of food (the taste was apparently from the ketones). Eventually I even started gagging at the sight of any sort of drink (I had been managing to gulp down a few mouthfuls of pop everyday before) we went to the doctors but all they did was give me some medicine that was meant to stop me from gagging but it didn't and then that night I was sick. The next day I couldn't even get out of bed without someone to lean against and that still took way to much energy. It felt like I was going to have a heart attack when I had only move a step! Mum tried to call a doctor out but they refused so she had to take (more like drag) me there instead. The minute the doctor saw me his face paled and he was soon running around like superman trying to do all the test as quickly as he could so he could get me out of there. In about 5 minutes he was done and sending us off to the hospital.
They definitely weren't the best few weeks of my life ;) just over 5 months on and I still cant stand the taste of water :(
 
i had similar symptoms as you and ignored them not knowing the risk. this went on for a year at least and finally my body gave in on the 7th feb this year and i fell into DKA. despite going to see an out of hours doctor about my breathing difficulties. been home 3-4 weeks injecting 4 times a day and i think i'm getting there but only time will tell!!
 
Told my doctor that I was very tired - the ususal advie - lose a bit of weight.

Eventually got fed up and changed doctors.

When you change you have to have lots of tests, including urine and blood.

The nurse at the new doctor's picked it up.

I do wish doctors would look further than weight for reasons for being tired etc.
t's the second time it's happened.

....After having another baby at the age of 46, I was undiagnosed hypothyroid for two years thanks to the 'loose weight by exercise' regime of around four male doctors.

The one with cycle clips on his desk was especially annoying. (I'd like to see him go jogging with a toddler in tow, after giving birth at that age.)

A young woman, in training in the surgery, picked up my problem by ordering the tests.

My advice to anyone is - not happy - change your doctor.

And keep going until you find one that is smart enough to look further than the obvious reason.
It's your health, not theirs.
 
Debloubed said:
Inns said:
I have now been Type 2 for 12 months on paper. :D However, in reality it has been two years. I was diagnosed in hospital as a result of a Liver Function Test. They then informed my Doctors of this :D Unfortunately however, for me :( my Doctors didn't bother to tell me of this :shock: So twelve months down the line, three stone lighter (which is a good thing now), with failing eye sight and numerous other ailments I went for my annual LFT to be asked..."How are you managing your diabetes?" To which I responded... what diabetes? Three hours later I was admitted to hospital for the treatment to start :D .

When I asked the Doctors why they didn't contact me they said they had phoned once but got no reply. I guess they have never heard of phoning back again? :lol: Unless, that is the receptionist are medically trained and decided that there was no need as it musn't be a serious condition? :x

I hope mine was an isolated case!
Click to expand...

OMG, I am horrified by this! I hope you will make a formal complaint? Not informing a patient of a diagnosis is unacceptable!! what if you had been type 1 and gone into DKA?! or what if it had been cancer?! heaven forbid................glad you have it all sorted now but really, what a shambles! :shock:
Click to expand...

I thought about it but is it worth it, my main priority was to get my reading down from 23 to something that didn't constitute being diagnised with Diabetes Ketoacidocis as the Doctor said that I was suffering with!
 
how were u diagnosed?

i was diagnosed 2 and a half years ago around christmas time was really ill i was suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis apperently spent 5 days in intesive care was nearly a gonna luckily the staff at addenbrookes cambridge are amazing saved my life would really like to hear your stories how did u all get it?? no1 in my family has it they suspect i got it from a long term infection from an ingrowing toenail it wasnt nice news at 23 but at least im still here
 
Re: how were u diagnosed?

I was knocked off my bike in the summer of 1966 I was 6, around late 1967 I was losing weight thirsty all the time and wetting the bed, my father took me to my gp who did a urine test which turned bright orange, I spent Christmas in hospital, was in for around three weeks, I have been on insulin eversince, if only I didn't ride my bike that day lol. :D fi
 
Re: how were u diagnosed?

That sounds like a very unfortunate way to discover your diabetes. But from what I've read no-one knows exactly why it happens, but a virus could contribute to it. When i was diagnosed i hadn't had any kind of virus for a long time, so the cause is just unknown.

How i was diagnosed was;
for about 2 months I had felt a bit ill. Light headed mostly and i found i was drinking a hell of a lot. About 4 litres a day and using the toilet about 5 times more than usual. Also my eyesight had gone blurry and i've always had 20/20 vision throughout my life. So i did some googling and it all pointed to diabetes. I made an appointment to see my GP, who did a urine test and said he thinks i'm diabetic. So i went for some blood tests, got the results of those and had to go back in for more blood tests and then it was confirmed. From first seeing my GP to diagnosis, of being type 1, took about 2 weeks. After going on insulin, my eyesight went back to normal within 24 hours, which I hear is quite rare. Similar thing with my excessive thirst. But the lightheadedness took a bit longer to get back to normal. I started having hypo symptoms when i was at 7mmol due to my levels being so high for a few months. But now 7 weeks in I feel much better. I'm 26 by the way, so it did come as quite a shock to me too. I'm hoping to go on one of these carb counting courses in the next few months, but apart from that just taking each day as it comes. Got more meetings with my DSN, dietition and consultant coming up. So it's all go go go at the moment.
 
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