Age at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes only please

[Lucy Honeychurch]

I was 46, admitted to hospital suffering a DKA, after feeling increasingly ill after what I assumed to be a virus.

 

[mikeyB]

I was 43, usual symptoms of tiredness, peeing a lot, and a bit of weight loss. Went round to my T1 mum and tested 16.8. Went round to see doc that evening and he assumed T2, started me on tablets (I can’t remember what). More and more tablets over the next couple of months, still high double figure. Then I developed full bore Ulcerative Colitis, so food was going straight through me. As soon as that quietened down, the BGs went so high I was urgently referred to the diabetes consultant who told me I was T1 just like my mum, who was also in his care. I’ve never done the DKA tango.

So that day was practicing injections with syringes filled with distilled water, and left with humalog and a long acting insulin that I can’t remember.

The rest is history.🙂

 

[Ally beetle]

I was 43, usual symptoms of tiredness, peeing a lot, and a bit of weight loss. Went round to my T1 mum and tested 16.8. Went round to see doc that evening and he assumed T2, started me on tablets (I can’t remember what). More and more tablets over the next couple of months, still high double figure. Then I developed full bore Ulcerative Colitis, so food was going straight through me. As soon as that quietened down, the BGs went so high I was urgently referred to the diabetes consultant who told me I was T1 just like my mum, who was also in his care. I’ve never done the DKA tango.

So that day was practicing injections with syringes filled with distilled water, and left with humalog and a long acting insulin that I can’t remember.

The rest is history.🙂

Thanks Mike, for your journey. It just goes to show that health care can be like being a detective and finding the clues and if you rush and do not examine all the clues you can get it wrong. Even if it looks like and a lemon and smells like a lemon it could be a lime lol!! I am getting so many great stories

 

[Ally beetle]

I was 46, admitted to hospital suffering a DKA, after feeling increasingly ill after what I assumed to be a virus.

luckily you came out of it the other side. it seems to be quite a theme to have a virus that starts of the cascade of events to eventual type 1

 

[Matt Cycle]

I was 32 I think.

You think! I won't forget my diagnosis - it's ingrained in my memory along with the births of my children.

 

[Ally beetle]

You think! I won't forget my diagnosis - it's ingrained in my memory along with the births of my children.

I have now worked it out it was 2010 September and I was 31 had to ask my family about things that happened that year to work it out lol!!

 

[Jimmy Keenan]

DX when aged 57, 6 weeks after gallbladder surgery in 2016. Symptoms started immediately post op. Running up and down big hills a day before Dx. And a 5 mile jog prior to seeing gp in the early evening. Called me at dinner an hour later telling me to high tail it up to hospital. Probably 6 weeks sound quick on here for dx No history of T1 in the family although anecdotal evidence points to trauma although consultant disagrees.

 

[Ally beetle]

DX when aged 57, 6 weeks after gallbladder surgery in 2016. Symptoms started immediately post op. Running up and down big hills a day before Dx. And a 5 mile jog prior to seeing gp in the early evening. Called me at dinner an hour later telling me to high tail it up to hospital. Probably 6 weeks sound quick on here for dx No history of T1 in the family although anecdotal evidence points to trauma although consultant disagrees.

this could mean you are a type 3 diabetic then I think if it was trauma but I don't know, really interesting even so.

 

[Northerner]

DX when aged 57, 6 weeks after gallbladder surgery in 2016. Symptoms started immediately post op. Running up and down big hills a day before Dx. And a 5 mile jog prior to seeing gp in the early evening. Called me at dinner an hour later telling me to high tail it up to hospital. Probably 6 weeks sound quick on here for dx No history of T1 in the family although anecdotal evidence points to trauma although consultant disagrees.

I was 49. I'd been losing a bit of weight over a period of about 18 months, but I thought that was due to me training for a marathon - I've been a runner for over 35 years and ran a half marathon 3 months before my diagnosis. About a week before I was due to fly off to Stockholm to run the marathon I caught a stomach virus and was very sick. Eventually, I gave in and called 999 after about 4 days (I lost 17 pounds during those 4 days 😱) and was diagnosed with DKA and Type 1. I spent 8 days in hospital because they also thought I'd had a heart attack. I didn't realise how poorly I had been, and once they gave me insulin I felt a million dollars and was wondering if I'd still manage to make my flight and run the race! 😱 🙂 Consultant thought I'd probably had a failing pancreas during those 18 months, but the running had helped me by making me sensitive to the declining amounts of insulin I was producing, then the virus pushed it over the edge and could no longer cope.

 

[Jonathan_15Jan1969]

2 years 233 days. Not definite about cause but diagnosed after having the measles.

 

[trophywench]

I can never forget - it was just before the Olympics in 1972. That year, they were in Munich.

Nobody who was alive and old enough to take in the news then, could forget.

 

[Jimmy Keenan]

I was 49. I'd been losing a bit of weight over a period of about 18 months, but I thought that was due to me training for a marathon - I've been a runner for over 35 years and ran a half marathon 3 months before my diagnosis. About a week before I was due to fly off to Stockholm to run the marathon I caught a stomach virus and was very sick. Eventually, I gave in and called 999 after about 4 days (I lost 17 pounds during those 4 days 😱) and was diagnosed with DKA and Type 1. I spent 8 days in hospital because they also thought I'd had a heart attack. I didn't realise how poorly I had been, and once they gave me insulin I felt a million dollars and was wondering if I'd still manage to make my flight and run the race! 😱 🙂 Consultant thought I'd probably had a failing pancreas during those 18 months, but the running had helped me by making me sensitive to the declining amounts of insulin I was producing, then the virus pushed it over the edge and could no longer cope.

Must be something in this exercise lark

 

[Paige]

I was diagnosed New Year’s Eve when I had just turnt 10! Don’t really remember life without diabetes ... it’s not the worst thing in the world but I defiantly struggle sometimes!

 

[CosmicHedgehog]

I was 7 years old 1989, I don't know the exact date ( never did things like diaversarys when i was young so never cared about the exact date lol) I was in severe DKA and was vomiting and collapsed, i was taken to hospital in an ambulance(don't remember that bit) i was very skinny about 4 stone. I don't remember much, My memory of the whole time is foggy but my first clear memory post diagnosis and still being in hospital was learning to inject an orange and how to 'flick' a syringe to get the bubbles out (somethings never change still lol) I remember my mum telling me my blood sugar on diagnosis was 48mmol. I was very very poorly. No Type 1 or any other diabetes in the family. I don't know what my Hba1c was on diagnosis. My first BG kit was one of those brick boehringer mannheim's that took forever to get a result and i used to mix actrapid and monotard in the same syringe twice a day. so much has changes since then. But still alive and kicking 😉

 

[tigerella]

I was diagnosed just after my ninth birthday. Usual symptoms raging thirst constant peeing. Mum gave her doctor a specimen of mine at her appt. It was dip tested and I was sky high with sugar. I went back in the evening with a further specimen and it was the same, needless to say. I was rushed into hospital in an ambulance. learnt about diabetes with a book about Rupert the bear. Taught about injecting using an orange No family connection with diabetes. I think it took about 2 years before I was really stable and no idea what caused it.

 

[Ally beetle]

I was 49. I'd been losing a bit of weight over a period of about 18 months, but I thought that was due to me training for a marathon - I've been a runner for over 35 years and ran a half marathon 3 months before my diagnosis. About a week before I was due to fly off to Stockholm to run the marathon I caught a stomach virus and was very sick. Eventually, I gave in and called 999 after about 4 days (I lost 17 pounds during those 4 days 😱) and was diagnosed with DKA and Type 1. I spent 8 days in hospital because they also thought I'd had a heart attack. I didn't realise how poorly I had been, and once they gave me insulin I felt a million dollars and was wondering if I'd still manage to make my flight and run the race! 😱 🙂 Consultant thought I'd probably had a failing pancreas during those 18 months, but the running had helped me by making me sensitive to the declining amounts of insulin I was producing, then the virus pushed it over the edge and could no longer cope.

Thanks so much for your input Northerner. I was so silly I work in health care and it did not even occur to me I had diabetes even though I had the classic symptoms.

 

[Ally beetle]

I was 7 years old 1989, I don't know the exact date ( never did things like diaversarys when i was young so never cared about the exact date lol) I was in severe DKA and was vomiting and collapsed, i was taken to hospital in an ambulance(don't remember that bit) i was very skinny about 4 stone. I don't remember much, My memory of the whole time is foggy but my first clear memory post diagnosis and still being in hospital was learning to inject an orange and how to 'flick' a syringe to get the bubbles out (somethings never change still lol) I remember my mum telling me my blood sugar on diagnosis was 48mmol. I was very very poorly. No Type 1 or any other diabetes in the family. I don't know what my Hba1c was on diagnosis. My first BG kit was one of those brick boehringer mannheim's that took forever to get a result and i used to mix actrapid and monotard in the same syringe twice a day. so much has changes since then. But still alive and kicking 😉

Thanks so much for your history. I have not even heard of that BM monitor you are talking about but sounds like a classic lol!! I guess you have seen the rapid changes in diabetes technology and teaching I feel I am in some ways lucky to have been diagnosed in the last 7 years as the training was fairly helpful.

 

[Ally beetle]

I was diagnosed New Year’s Eve when I had just turnt 10! Don’t really remember life without diabetes ... it’s not the worst thing in the world but I defiantly struggle sometimes!

I think we all struggle sometimes. I was reading a post from someone who has had diabetes burnout and I have been so close to losing it a few times over the past few years, I find it hard sometimes I suspect I always will until the technology is so good that it all does it all for me.

 

[trophywench]

I never had a BM one - but hospitals still routinely test everyone's BM whether diabetic or not and 99.99999999r% of the folk employed in the NHS haven't a clue it stands for Boehringer Mannheim !!

My first was a Roche and cost me a month's salary, Roche had made VAST advances and it was teeny - approx. 7" long by 4" wide by 1" high - pale grey. Prior to that of course I was boiling up my wee in a Clinitest test tube kit.

 

[Ally beetle]

I never had a BM one - but hospitals still routinely test everyone's BM whether diabetic or not and 99.99999999r% of the folk employed in the NHS haven't a clue it stands for Boehringer Mannheim !!

My first was a Roche and cost me a month's salary, Roche had made VAST advances and it was teeny - approx. 7" long by 4" wide by 1" high - pale grey. Prior to that of course I was boiling up my wee in a Clinitest test tube kit.

blimy I never realised that. that is amazing I never ever realised that is why it is called a bm machine it always puzzled me thank you for that piece of info I feel I have learnt a new bit of fun useless info that really excites me and if I ever work in diabetes that will be one of the things I can say in an interview to make me stand out from the crowd !!!!!