- Messages
- 8
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Hello all!
This is my first post and really I’m just wanting to share my story, see if there is anyone on here who has a similar story to mine or has any ideas which might help. It’s a bit of a story but I’ll try and keep it shortish!
I’m 37 now but was 32 when I moved across the country and randomly found out I had type 2 (or so they say) diabetes. I was at my new GP for a different reason when he looked at blood test results and said “oh.. did you know you are diabetic?” (no I didn’t!). I was promptly put on metformin and that was that for a while. A few years before this I also found out I had high blood pressure (when I was 28) again by surprise when I went for a pre-op assessment. I also have Ehlers-danlos syndrome, Fibro, ADHD and anxiety disorder. Never had any kids or pregnancies. When I was about 19 i had a scan which showed I had PCOS (although apparently now I don’t!). I have never been slim but i only seem to carry extra weight around my abdomen, everywhere else being sort of proportionate I guess?
I was put on Dapagliflozin a couple of years ago which helped me lose weight and also tried weekly semaglutide injections twice but they made me extremely unwell so had to stop them.
Over the past few years I have simply felt exhausted, randomly vomiting and just sort of lethargic and generally unwell. I’ve had stressful events happen which affected my mental health but not enough to be hospitalised or anything.
In January this year (2023) I was unwell again (randomly vomiting, very exhausted, etc) but just went to bed thinking I was just ill again like the last few times. At about 2 am I woke up feeling dreadful, vomiting, very thirsty, peeing a lot, heart going about 145bpm and felt groggy, dizzy and couldn’t seem to catch my breath. I woke up my partner who looked online for 111 advice. An ambulance was called and they weren’t sure what was wrong.. but took me to hospital. No one was very interested until they did the first blood test which showed I was in diabetic keto acidosis, although with vaguely normal blood sugar (Euglycaemic DKA). Suddenly I was rushed to resus where the endocrinologist told me I was ‘Big Sick’ (I’ve worked in the ambulance service so I know what that means coming from a doctor) from there I went to ICU for a bit and when well enough, I went to a ward.
Apparently the EDKA was caused a combination of me being unwell, severely dehydrated and taking the drug dapagliflozin (which I should have apparently stopped taking when unwell but didn’t know). It created a perfect storm which, left untreated would have put me into a coma and even could have killed me.
Whilst in hospital they stopped the dapagliflozin and started me on daily Lantus Insulin and gave me a blood and ketone monitoring machine. I carried on taking metformin.
The doctors told me they’d do some extra tests and bring me back in as an outpatient to follow up, which I was happy with because I’m a 37 year old with seemingly type 2 diabetes and I am already on insulin….this isn’t good. They warned me the insulin would probably make me gain weight which made me a tad miserable but I had no choice really and am already overweight.. This scared me because I wasn’t sure what my future was going to be like.
Fast forward to February. I reported to my GP that my blood pressure had been quite high so he brought me in and checked it. It was about 215/118 at that appointment so he called the hospital and sent me in. I was admitted for about 5 days and just felt a bit of a fraud, although I could feel my heartbeat all over my body which was very odd. My chest ached and I had a headache but that’s about it. I went home on very strong antihypertensive drugs.
Over the next few months I just got on with checking blood sugars, taking insulin etc.
I stayed in touch with the diabetes centre nurses who were very helpful, especially when I was unwell and panicking about ketones. I was waiting for the follow up appointment with the endocrinologist and eventually got one which was last week (August).
The endocrinologist was hard to read but didn’t seem very engaged, though I tried not to read I to it too much- Drs have a lot on their plates!. I had lots of questions- I didn’t really understand why all of this was happening in my body- the diabetes getting worse and problems with blood pressure, feeling exhausted still etc… Now I am the first to say I’m not the fittest person in the world.. I eat carbs but my diet certainly isn’t awful (cook from scratch mostly). I was / am just confused as to why things were so severe. Is it all my fault? Am I just fat? Am I now on insulin forever, age 37? Is it connected to my blood pressure? Do I have a different type of diabetes altogether? Or is there something else going on? I just don’t know. And any amount of googling just leaves me more confused!
He said he needed more information about my blood sugars so he went and got one of the nurses who fitted me with a Libre 2 and connected it to their service so they could see what my levels were like.
I have had it on for 4 days now and it keeps alerting me to high glucose levels, at one point my blood sugar read 19.4. After 2 days the diabetes nurse rang and told me to increase my insulin by 10% and they’ll be back in touch again Monday (tomorrow).
So anyway sorry for the huuuuuuge post but if ANYone has any ideas, input, advice or has had a similar journey in any way (although I know it’s quite unusual!) or just wants to reply, I would be so grateful!
I’m particularly keen to find out if there’s anyone else an apparent type 2, fairly young(ish!) and already on insulin or are trying to find out if there’s something else happening in their bodies.
Thank you so much xx
This is my first post and really I’m just wanting to share my story, see if there is anyone on here who has a similar story to mine or has any ideas which might help. It’s a bit of a story but I’ll try and keep it shortish!
I’m 37 now but was 32 when I moved across the country and randomly found out I had type 2 (or so they say) diabetes. I was at my new GP for a different reason when he looked at blood test results and said “oh.. did you know you are diabetic?” (no I didn’t!). I was promptly put on metformin and that was that for a while. A few years before this I also found out I had high blood pressure (when I was 28) again by surprise when I went for a pre-op assessment. I also have Ehlers-danlos syndrome, Fibro, ADHD and anxiety disorder. Never had any kids or pregnancies. When I was about 19 i had a scan which showed I had PCOS (although apparently now I don’t!). I have never been slim but i only seem to carry extra weight around my abdomen, everywhere else being sort of proportionate I guess?
I was put on Dapagliflozin a couple of years ago which helped me lose weight and also tried weekly semaglutide injections twice but they made me extremely unwell so had to stop them.
Over the past few years I have simply felt exhausted, randomly vomiting and just sort of lethargic and generally unwell. I’ve had stressful events happen which affected my mental health but not enough to be hospitalised or anything.
In January this year (2023) I was unwell again (randomly vomiting, very exhausted, etc) but just went to bed thinking I was just ill again like the last few times. At about 2 am I woke up feeling dreadful, vomiting, very thirsty, peeing a lot, heart going about 145bpm and felt groggy, dizzy and couldn’t seem to catch my breath. I woke up my partner who looked online for 111 advice. An ambulance was called and they weren’t sure what was wrong.. but took me to hospital. No one was very interested until they did the first blood test which showed I was in diabetic keto acidosis, although with vaguely normal blood sugar (Euglycaemic DKA). Suddenly I was rushed to resus where the endocrinologist told me I was ‘Big Sick’ (I’ve worked in the ambulance service so I know what that means coming from a doctor) from there I went to ICU for a bit and when well enough, I went to a ward.
Apparently the EDKA was caused a combination of me being unwell, severely dehydrated and taking the drug dapagliflozin (which I should have apparently stopped taking when unwell but didn’t know). It created a perfect storm which, left untreated would have put me into a coma and even could have killed me.
Whilst in hospital they stopped the dapagliflozin and started me on daily Lantus Insulin and gave me a blood and ketone monitoring machine. I carried on taking metformin.
The doctors told me they’d do some extra tests and bring me back in as an outpatient to follow up, which I was happy with because I’m a 37 year old with seemingly type 2 diabetes and I am already on insulin….this isn’t good. They warned me the insulin would probably make me gain weight which made me a tad miserable but I had no choice really and am already overweight.. This scared me because I wasn’t sure what my future was going to be like.
Fast forward to February. I reported to my GP that my blood pressure had been quite high so he brought me in and checked it. It was about 215/118 at that appointment so he called the hospital and sent me in. I was admitted for about 5 days and just felt a bit of a fraud, although I could feel my heartbeat all over my body which was very odd. My chest ached and I had a headache but that’s about it. I went home on very strong antihypertensive drugs.
Over the next few months I just got on with checking blood sugars, taking insulin etc.
I stayed in touch with the diabetes centre nurses who were very helpful, especially when I was unwell and panicking about ketones. I was waiting for the follow up appointment with the endocrinologist and eventually got one which was last week (August).
The endocrinologist was hard to read but didn’t seem very engaged, though I tried not to read I to it too much- Drs have a lot on their plates!. I had lots of questions- I didn’t really understand why all of this was happening in my body- the diabetes getting worse and problems with blood pressure, feeling exhausted still etc… Now I am the first to say I’m not the fittest person in the world.. I eat carbs but my diet certainly isn’t awful (cook from scratch mostly). I was / am just confused as to why things were so severe. Is it all my fault? Am I just fat? Am I now on insulin forever, age 37? Is it connected to my blood pressure? Do I have a different type of diabetes altogether? Or is there something else going on? I just don’t know. And any amount of googling just leaves me more confused!
He said he needed more information about my blood sugars so he went and got one of the nurses who fitted me with a Libre 2 and connected it to their service so they could see what my levels were like.
I have had it on for 4 days now and it keeps alerting me to high glucose levels, at one point my blood sugar read 19.4. After 2 days the diabetes nurse rang and told me to increase my insulin by 10% and they’ll be back in touch again Monday (tomorrow).
So anyway sorry for the huuuuuuge post but if ANYone has any ideas, input, advice or has had a similar journey in any way (although I know it’s quite unusual!) or just wants to reply, I would be so grateful!
I’m particularly keen to find out if there’s anyone else an apparent type 2, fairly young(ish!) and already on insulin or are trying to find out if there’s something else happening in their bodies.
Thank you so much xx