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Diagnosis - When and how?

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

MrsMushroom

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Just being nosy really :D

When were you diagnosed diabetic?

My diabetes was found when I was pregnant with my son (he's now 16 months).

At that time I was 7 months pregnant and addicted to creme eggs, I was eating about 3 a day, plus pints and pints of milk and punnets of grapes ........ I had thought the constant peeing, tiredness, sugar cravings etc were all symptoms of pregnancy and had no idea I had diabetes.

I had gone for my 28 week check at my midwife and had bloods taken then the day after, I was called into the hospital as when they had done the tests, I had a BS of 17.2 (this was on the Thursday). When the tested me again at the hospital on the Friday, I was 28.8!!! 😱 I was admitted for Easter weekend and was on all sorts of drips etc. It was the most frightening time of my life and I have honestly never felt so vulnerable and scared.

My consultant at the time was convinced it was T1 and not GD as I "didn't fit the criteria". It was confirmed the week before I gave birth that it was indeed what he had thought and I have been a T1 insulin dependant diabetic ever since Good Friday 2011.

So, that's my story ........
 
Diagnosed July 2012. Constant drinking water, peeing, dizzy after lunch, loosing weight yet eating loads as constantly hungry. Waking up in middle of night wanting something sweet. Went to doctors, he did sugar test, then keytones, then told me to leave room and when I came back he said I had to go to hospital. DKA, drip, Type 1, completed stunned, cried when they brought the needle out, continued as if was not a problem, went to a festival 2 days later and when returned to work I crashed and burned and it was like being smased in the face with a truck! Only really just getting to grips with it. However considering I didnt want to leave the house for a fear of hypo I am finally back at work🙂
 
I was diagnosed aged 49, a week before I was due to run a marathon. The consultant thinks I may have been a slow onset (Type 1.5 or LADA) as with hindsight I had symptoms for about 2 years prior to diagnosis, but because I am a runner and had a reasonably good diet my body was able to make best use of the declining amount of insulin I was producing. Like you I had been drinking enough milk to float the Titanic! Getting through about 30 pints a week at one point.

I was admitted on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of May 2008 after falling extremely ill with a stomach virus which also scuppered my pancreas completely and I had DKA with an A1c of 11.8 and blood sugar of 37 mmol/l. I had lost 18 pounds in weight over the previous 4 days as I couldn't even drink water without being sick - I thought it would pass but eventually gave in when my hearing went and I couldn't walk across the room without feeling exhausted and my heart pounding 😱

I was in for 8 days, partly because they also thought I'd had a heart attack on the second day in (it turned out I hadn't). Needless to say, I didn't get to run the marathon that year, although I did manage the great South Run 5 months later 🙂
 
diagnosed aged 10 in April 1998

Had been Ill and lost 2 stone in 2 weeks . went to 8 different doctors within the space of a couple of months. My mum was told i was faking it to get off school , it was just my hormones etc ..... i used to get into trouble for drinking to much ... litres and litres of water ... 2 litres of juice with dinner etc.

Went to a diabetic doctor one day by chance . one urine sample and off to the Sick kids hospital
 
Kerry Type 1 said:
diagnosed aged 10 in April 1998

Had been Ill and lost 2 stone in 2 weeks . went to 8 different doctors within the space of a couple of months. My mum was told i was faking it to get off school , it was just my hormones etc ..... i used to get into trouble for drinking to much ... litres and litres of water ... 2 litres of juice with dinner etc.

Went to a diabetic doctor one day by chance . one urine sample and off to the Sick kids hospital
Click to expand...

It's pretty appalling that no-one considered doing the test earlier since you had all the symptoms. Sadly, the same thing is still happening today :(
 
Northerner said:
It's pretty appalling that no-one considered doing the test earlier since you had all the symptoms. Sadly, the same thing is still happening today :(
Click to expand...

Yup ! i mean the signs were SO clear ! we even suggested that it was diabetes as my aunt was a nurse ... So many GP's dont know even the basics about diabetes.

If someone is complaining of being tired , thirsty etc the first thing i say is get your blood sugar tested!
 
I was diagnosed in 1971 when I was 2. My mum had taken me to the doctors two or three times and he had said that there was nothing wrong and that I was jealous of my new brother! When I was finally admitted to hospital, my mum was so scared she went to the factory where dad worked telling him that she thought I was going to die because of ill I was - she still hadn't been told it was diabetes.
 
Its quite scary how ill people become before being diagnosed isn't it?

Before I had diabetes I had no idea that it was so serious, I was really naive and thought diabetics just had to take insulin and that was it!

I really wasn't ill atall when I was diagnosed though, i was just pregnant! I wasn't being sick, or anything like that.

My brother was diagnosed T1 6 months after me, and he was ILL. He lost so much weight and he's very tall so he just looked emaciated :(
 
Just picked up this thread whilst having a bit of a lurk.

I was diagnosed from pre-op tests 2 years ago for my first lumpectomy (early breast cancer).

Buy 1 get 1 free!!

Type 2 in the family so not a huge shock, and due to cancer treatment didn't seem very important at the time. LOL.
 
Diagnosed April 1965. aged 4 1/2.
Mum noticed I was standing on tiptoe to reach the tap, at first she thought it was a novelty for me as I was just tall enough to reach at that age. Then she saw me down the lot in one go and reapeted it twice more.
Alarm bells rang as a family history of it. So she took me to the Drs and he said rubish paranoid mum syndrome 😡 he told her I was far to young to have diabetes. 🙄
Mum stood her ground and he just said ok if you say just to put your mind at rest drop in a urine sample some time in the week.
Mum produced one from her pocket (Nurse) and said here you are. He went to his little back room came back saying all the way across the room to her and said I will take you to the hospital NOW. He closed his surgery and drove both of us to the hospital. He even managed to get hold of my Dad who was on shift in the fire brigade.
I was to young to remember that side of things this is just what Mum told me years later.

I do remember being in hospital though and coming home, and as it was Easter my Easter egg was taken away and given to my brother instead.
My lovely Gran though went out and to my eyes bought the biggest diabetes friendly! Easter egg you could wish to have.
 
Kerry Type 1 said:
diagnosed aged 10 in April 1998

Had been Ill and lost 2 stone in 2 weeks . went to 8 different doctors within the space of a couple of months. My mum was told i was faking it to get off school , it was just my hormones etc ..... i used to get into trouble for drinking to much ... litres and litres of water ... 2 litres of juice with dinner etc.

Went to a diabetic doctor one day by chance . one urine sample and off to the Sick kids hospital
Click to expand...

That's similar to my experience in autumn 2007. :( I went to a GP (not my usual one) complaining of tiredness, and described to her what I now know to be all the classic symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (a dangerous, life-threatening condition), especially waking in the night with the knowledge that what had awoken me was that I'd stopped breathing for several seconds -- and she reckoned I was just malingering! 😡 Fortunately, a few weeks later I was admitted to St. Thomas' for an unrelated condition, and while on the admission ward the nurses noticed my OSA, so I was transferred to the sleep ward.
 
I was diagnosed August 2011 aged 43. I got a bad sinus infection that wouldn't clear up. Over the next week after 2 visits to the docs and antibiotics I was feeling worse. I eventually decided I had flu and went to bed. After a few hours I started being sick and struggled breathing. My mum called an ambulance as I was talking nonsense.
I was diagnosed in the ambulance with a blood glucose of 22.3. My first hba1c was 8.3. I spent 3 days in critical care and 3 days on the ward before I got home. I lost a stone in weight in a week.
 
its scary how often people are left not being diagnosed to the point where they are in a critical or really bad way .
 
September 2011 age 29, found out after losing about a tone in 4 weeks (I was dieting) and couldn't quench my thirst! Thanks to Dr Hilary on DayBreak he done a story on Diabetes/not being able to quench thirst, first of all was in denial, then got courage to see doctor.

Was originally diagnosed type 2,but now told I have likeness to type 1 (due to my age) and I am more of aType 1.5. After a year of dieting (lost 5stone) and trying different meds, I started insulin yesterday.
 
Diagnosed 21.02.10

Had been feeling rough all week, drinking lots, weeing lots and eating everything and losing weight! my breathing became really shallow and rapid so went to A and E to check things out, got seen doctor did NO tests or anything listenend to my symptoms and said i had SEVERE INDIGESTION and was sent home with gaviscon.....the next night i was even more ill could barely walk/dress myself and was going into DKA and admitted to intensive care immediatly (altho i was not aware of this as i was unconscious) and put on several drips, i didnt realise how poorly i was until my dad told me all my organs were failing and i was close to a coma!

Glad to be alive really...no thanks to that doctor! 😡
 
D_G said:
Diagnosed 21.02.10

Had been feeling rough all week, drinking lots, weeing lots and eating everything and losing weight! my breathing became really shallow and rapid so went to A and E to check things out, got seen doctor did NO tests or anything listenend to my symptoms and said i had SEVERE INDIGESTION and was sent home with gaviscon.....the next night i was even more ill could barely walk/dress myself and was going into DKA and admitted to intensive care immediatly (altho i was not aware of this as i was unconscious) and put on several drips, i didnt realise how poorly i was until my dad told me all my organs were failing and i was close to a coma!

Glad to be alive really...no thanks to that doctor! 😡
Click to expand...

Scary story that a diagnosis so far from the proper one could be made. Seems you have to be practically at death's door before some doctors take you seriously! 😱
 
Slightly less scary diagnosis than some of you guys (some of you are lucky to be here from the sounds of things - flippin doctors!!).

Went for a regular nurse appointment, argued with her about my blood pressure - she said it was high and i told her it must be her machine that was faulty, as I had never had high blood pressure in my life! She took some blood I think to prove a point. Couple of days later I was asked to go back for a fasting blood test. Following day got a call confirming diagnosis - 9 March 2012. Diagnosed as a T2 although there are doubts about that due to speed I have progressed onto insulin (within 3 months) and i'm the wrong age / weight to have T2 so they say. 🙂 Still, as long as they treat me, I dont care! Looking back I had symptoms in the couple of weeks before diagnosis, although don't remember a long build up of problems.

No family history of D that we are aware of although massive thyroid problems with my mum, gran, and all aunties which I understand can be linked. Guess my pancreas beat my thyroid to it!
 
Diagnosed 12th feb 09 after op on a abscess which was put down to bs levels
 
Daughter diagnosed recently. Taken to Doctor's, prescribed antibiotics, taken back 18 hours later to see another Doctor, DKA, straight to A&E then High Dependency! When explained to first GP she had lost weight, didn't seem herself etc, she told me all about her own kids!
 
Following a TIA in 1999 I had annual nurse visits to keep an eye out for any CHD symptoms. Around October 2005 one of the tests came back with elevated blood glucose so I was sent for an OGTT. The result of that was a diagnosis of T2. Went on for the next 6 years with D&E then on to Gliclazide usually getting an OK HbA1c. End of last year A1c went up to 8, so double the Gliclazide, 3 months later it was 10, so doubled the Gliclazide again. Another 3 months and the A1c came back at 12! Only at this stage did I actually EVER have any symptoms, and that was only thirst and peeing, I never felt ill. Referred to the practice DSN and within 2 hours was injecting insulin. She believes I was misdiagnosised and was infact a slow onset type 1.

That was 6 months ago. Reading some of the other stories I got away lightly!
 
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