• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

New LADA diagnosis

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
M

Mars90

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1.5 LADA
Hello,

New to all this. I've just been diagnosed with LADA. Been feeling quite unwell for the last few months and finally got a consultant appointment. My blood sugars have been sitting in the high teens/low 20s and every morning I wake up and feel like I've been hit by a train. Got a phonecall yesterday that my GAD antibodies are extremely high so need to start on insulin straight away. Just did my first injection. I've got two young kids and work clinically in the NHS. Feeling quite overwhelmed by everything. And just when you think the year of coronavirus couldnt get any worse!! My worst symptom is chronic headaches, often waking me up in the night when my sugars seem to peak. Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Welcome @Mars90 🙂

The headaches could be dehydration if you’re running high. Hopefully they’ll ease as your sugars gradually come down. Don’t rule out stress as a cause either. Diabetes is a huge life change. It might not feel like it now but things will gradually get easier and you won’t feel so overwhelmed. Be kind to yourself. You’re not alone.

I feel awful when my blood sugars are high so I really think you’ll feel better on the insulin. What insulins are you on and are you carb counting?
 
Welcome to the forum Mars.
 
Hi @Mars90 and welcome to the forum.

I have noticed that a few people with late onset type 1 have joined the forum in recent months so you will have people to swap notes with. As @Inka, says, try not to beat yourself up. You have a lot to learn and the learning curve is steep, but it is manageable as most of our members have shown. Where we can help is in answering questions. Nothing is considered too silly, so ask away.
 
Welcome to the forum @Mars90 from another late starter with T1.

Like others have said, I find that when my sugar levels are high I feel absolutely awful. I also get very bad headaches, feel sick and very very tired. Now that you have the diagnosis and have started to get some insulin on board you should start to feel better.

It is so much to learn so quickly at the start, but it really does get easier. The best analogy I have been given is that it is like learning to drive. At first it all seems so complicated and lots to think about, then it becomes automatic. It will with your Diabetes as you get used to it.

There is a lot of experience on here and loads of support. Ask absolutely any questions that you have. Nothing is considered silly. We have been there at the start of the journey.

This is a manageable condition and it does not need to prevent you from doing anything. It just takes a bit of organising and planning.
 
Hi Mars - I am also LADA - was diagnosed at age 50 out of the blue - picked up at my company medical. I remember well feeling overwhelmed, plus also nervous, inquisitive, impatient and many other feelings! My immediate advice would be to track down your Diabetes Specialist Nurse and start talking to them - I found that invaluable in the early days as I really knew nothing - including about food and food types which becomes something we all end up knowing a lot about! Also be reassured that Diabetes can be managed and managed well - there are loads of people on the forum who are examples of this. Since my diagnosis I have been able to continue to travel the world (pre Covid, at least), pick up a long lost hobby of running and undertake a full and very active life with actually very few adjustments. I have just had to learn about the condition and how to manage it and how to be prepared in case anything goes wrong. I also recommend using this Forum - I didn't and I found the early days quite lonely. It was only when I physically meet other people with Diabetes after about a year that I gained confidence with it. The Forum can give you that peer group that I missed. Good luck!
 
Welcome @Mars90
I was diagnosed with T1 in my mid 30s. As you say, it was a shock.
Thankfully, my DSN was fantastic and gave me the best advice: "diabetes should not stop you doing what you want." Like @Ian T it has not stopped me travelling (and not necessarily to the most "hospitable" locations), exercising (running, cycling, climbing, kayaking, hiking, flying trapeze ... if that's a sport..., and more), continuing my, at times, stressful, career, eating many different foods, ...
It took me some time to get used to my diabetes and I am still learning.
I felt rough at the start but now I think of my diagnosis as a good thing. I had been feeling drained for some times, The diagnosis, gave me an explanation and a treatment. If I wasn't diagnosed, I wouldn't be here now.

Take care of yourself, don't beat yourself up, give yourself time to get the hang of diabetes and enjoy your life.
And ask any question you want.
 
Welcome to the forum @Mars90

Hopefully now that you have insulin your levels will begin to come down and your feeling of general grottiness will begin to subside.

Feeling overwhelmed befuddled and, frankly, 'knocked for six' is perfectly normal with a diagnosis like diabetes, especially T1 or LADA that can come on quickly and completely out of the blue - but take heart - diabetes is a pain in the rear but it IS something that you can learn to live well with, and modern treatment options and insulins make normal glucose levels (while still having some semblance of a life) increasingly possible.

The 'useful links' thread is a mine of helpful information.

In particular, many members here recommend Ragnar Hanas's very practical and clear book about type 1 diabetes, which will be just as appropriate for LADA, and whatever age you are!

Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas
 
Mars90 said:
Hello,

New to all this. I've just been diagnosed with LADA. Been feeling quite unwell for the last few months and finally got a consultant appointment. My blood sugars have been sitting in the high teens/low 20s and every morning I wake up and feel like I've been hit by a train. Got a phonecall yesterday that my GAD antibodies are extremely high so need to start on insulin straight away. Just did my first injection. I've got two young kids and work clinically in the NHS. Feeling quite overwhelmed by everything. And just when you think the year of coronavirus couldnt get any worse!! My worst symptom is chronic headaches, often waking me up in the night when my sugars seem to peak. Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi Mars90,

I also work in a clinical NHS role and was diagnosed 2 months ago. Although everyone here is unique we do share similarities and adult T1 diagnoses are no different!

It is overwhelming at first. My profile pic is me doing my first injection. I'd been moody for weeks prior, thirsty, peeing all the time and agonisingly hungry. At first I felt a great weight off my shoulders when I got in the ambulance. Then when I left hospital the implications hit hard. Things are different, everything requires more thought and planning.

The symptoms got better quickly with insulin but that comes with hypos to manage and I'm better than before, massively. At first I was fearful of going out. My control was fine within my four walls but outside was more difficult. Over time however, I'm getting back to what I consider normal. As it happens im on call right now, non resident but I stay on site.

It gets better, each day has different challenges but it gets better. Don't be a stranger. It's a cliche but it's good to talk.

P.s. there's a podcast called typeoneonone. Listen to Amy's story. I've listened to it fortnightly and you'll react to bits later and later on in the podcast as you get further into your journey. I found it very therapeutic
 
Docb said:
Hi @Mars90 and welcome to the forum.

I have noticed that a few people with late onset type 1 have joined the forum in recent months so you will have people to swap notes with. As @Inka, says, try not to beat yourself up. You have a lot to learn and the learning curve is steep, but it is manageable as most of our members have shown. Where we can help is in answering questions. Nothing is considered too silly, so ask away.
Click to expand...
Docb said:
Hi @Mars90 and welcome to the forum.

I have noticed that a few people with late onset type 1 have joined the forum in recent months so you will have people to swap notes with. As @Inka, says, try not to beat yourself up. You have a lot to learn and the learning curve is steep, but it is manageable as most of our members have shown. Where we can help is in answering questions. Nothing is considered too silly, so ask away.
Click to expand...
Interesting correlation with the pandemic imo.
 
We've had shedloads of new members recently full stop, all of us are finding it noticeable that there's lack of support - instead of just dropping in wherever we all have to make a lot more effort to get whatever help we need from whatever ails us. If we can actually speak to whoever knows about whatever that is, then it gets sorted. When you're newly diagnosed and not yet even met the team who will become your best mates it's doubly hard.

@grovesey commented on a different LADA thread that it's not surprising that patients have never heard of it cos shedloads of GPs still haven't either. GPs are absolutely not experts in dealing with normal T1 - even the ones with the moniker 'with a special interest in diabetes' - does not indicate particular expertise.

Years ago with a gynae prob I'd been trying this that and the other for about 5 years, even went to our local Sexual Health clinic to get checked out in case, you never know ..... when I eventually managed to get an appt with the one who is heavily involved with pregnancies so she asked if she could examine me so I happily climbed up onto the couch, took one look at me as she was walking past to ask a nurse to come in to chaperone and diagnosed exactly what it was and still is. Basically all caused by lack of oestrogen cos I'm flippin old! Prescribed fairly instant relief, NP. So clearly special interest in gynaecology is different!
 
trophywench said:
@grovesey commented on a different LADA thread that it's not surprising that patients have never heard of it cos shedloads of GPs still haven't either.
Click to expand...
At a RL diabetes support group I attended there were people hadn't heard of LADA. (There was also one guy who thought he'd gone from T2 to T1 cause he was now on insulin.)
 
Just reading all the comments I’m in the early stages of lada. Bit annoying scared about the insulin and all the other jargon which goes with this. Awaiting hospital antibody test but brought on from covid. Bit fed up but helps reading the comments
 
Yeah? Well this time last year you'd never heard of Covid or CV19 either, had you?

Unfamiliar things are always off-putting at first - but you do, soon, get used to the terminology, don't you? 😱

By this time next year you'll be an expert, as we all are here, in our own diabetes whatever type it turns out to be in the finish. We're all here to try and help guide you along the way and assure you there are absolutely no questions any of us regard as being stupid. We've all ben there and wondered if, whether or how!
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top