I was diagnosed at 11 months old...I'd been ill for a bit & mum being a nurse had twigged what was up. Doc tried to fob her off telling her to bring me back in a week if I wasn't better... 😱 good job for me she was a strong character... That's all I know really...
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Diagnosis - When and how?
- Thread starter MrsMushroom
- Start date
- Status
MaryPlain
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I was diagnosed T1 at 29.
I'd had a really bad cold/flu and been off work for a week but seemed to be over the worst symptoms, but couldn't shake off the tiredness. I had also lost about two stone in a month despite eating and drinking huge amounts - I remember being out shopping and stopping off to buy a drink even though I was only minutes from home - unfortunately I was drinking fruit juice. I remember feeling so tired when on the way to work one day that I was relieved when the traffic lights were against me so I could stop walking while waiting for them to change.
I finally went to the GP because of thrush, and while there told him about the weight loss. He said I looked a bit "bog-eyed" and it might be my thyroid so took lots of blood for tests. As an after thought he tested my urine and then told me there was sugar in it. I had no idea what this meant, he told me it was diabetes. I had an appointment at the diabetes clinic next day and overnight was thinking that I would be able to manage through diet - it was a very steep learning curve for me!
I don't remember my numbers exactly but the nurse who looked at my urine sample said I had large ketones - I had no idea what that meant at the time.
I'd had a really bad cold/flu and been off work for a week but seemed to be over the worst symptoms, but couldn't shake off the tiredness. I had also lost about two stone in a month despite eating and drinking huge amounts - I remember being out shopping and stopping off to buy a drink even though I was only minutes from home - unfortunately I was drinking fruit juice. I remember feeling so tired when on the way to work one day that I was relieved when the traffic lights were against me so I could stop walking while waiting for them to change.
I finally went to the GP because of thrush, and while there told him about the weight loss. He said I looked a bit "bog-eyed" and it might be my thyroid so took lots of blood for tests. As an after thought he tested my urine and then told me there was sugar in it. I had no idea what this meant, he told me it was diabetes. I had an appointment at the diabetes clinic next day and overnight was thinking that I would be able to manage through diet - it was a very steep learning curve for me!
I don't remember my numbers exactly but the nurse who looked at my urine sample said I had large ketones - I had no idea what that meant at the time.
lauraw1983
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I love hearing people's stories, we chatted about this on our DAFNE course and I found it really interesting hearing them all.
It's coming up to a year diagnosed for me, last year over the summer I'd been feeling more tired etc, but put it down to my OH being away on a 15 week training course for a new job and only home weekends, and me being a busy mum with 2 young children! Leading up to my daughters birthday that week I felt awful. Drinking LOADS and weeing a LOT. Last year her party was a Sunday and the night before when I was making her cake I was eating lots of bits of the off cut cake and butter icing, and drinking lots of juice! The day of her party I was downing loads of fruit juice......couldn;t quench the thirst at all!
The Monday I was at work and felt awful, by then I had developed really bad thrush - I have had it plenty times before but this was WAY worse.
On the Tuesday at work I felt even worse and something just clicked, I just knew what was wrong with me - I was googling it and just thinking "please not diabetes". I text my mum and said I was coming by hers on the way home as she has a BG monitor (she's Type 2) and that I wanted to check my BG level. Checked it at her house, 24.9. 😱 Checked it again (after rewashing my hands etc) and got 27.4 ! Really wasn't sure what to do so went home in a bit of a daze (taking my mums meter with me), saying I'd call the GP the next day....got home and my OH had a google and said to phone NHS24 that night....did that, they sent me straight to Out of Hours and from there they wouldn't let me go home, admitted straight onto a ward who were pretty useless tbh until the next day when I finally saw the diabetes consultant.
Luckily I hadn't reached the DKA stage as I was fairly on the ball about diabetes (my uncle was Type 1), but had I not been able to test my own BG on my mums machine I wonder how poorly I would have got until it had been diagnosed.....and due to lack of ketones when I was admitted actually they tried for a while to say I was Type 2 while I said all along it was just due to the fact *I* caught it early!!
I was devastated for days and weeks after it and just in shock really that I was diagnosed at the age I was!
It's coming up to a year diagnosed for me, last year over the summer I'd been feeling more tired etc, but put it down to my OH being away on a 15 week training course for a new job and only home weekends, and me being a busy mum with 2 young children! Leading up to my daughters birthday that week I felt awful. Drinking LOADS and weeing a LOT. Last year her party was a Sunday and the night before when I was making her cake I was eating lots of bits of the off cut cake and butter icing, and drinking lots of juice! The day of her party I was downing loads of fruit juice......couldn;t quench the thirst at all!
The Monday I was at work and felt awful, by then I had developed really bad thrush - I have had it plenty times before but this was WAY worse.
On the Tuesday at work I felt even worse and something just clicked, I just knew what was wrong with me - I was googling it and just thinking "please not diabetes". I text my mum and said I was coming by hers on the way home as she has a BG monitor (she's Type 2) and that I wanted to check my BG level. Checked it at her house, 24.9. 😱 Checked it again (after rewashing my hands etc) and got 27.4 ! Really wasn't sure what to do so went home in a bit of a daze (taking my mums meter with me), saying I'd call the GP the next day....got home and my OH had a google and said to phone NHS24 that night....did that, they sent me straight to Out of Hours and from there they wouldn't let me go home, admitted straight onto a ward who were pretty useless tbh until the next day when I finally saw the diabetes consultant.
Luckily I hadn't reached the DKA stage as I was fairly on the ball about diabetes (my uncle was Type 1), but had I not been able to test my own BG on my mums machine I wonder how poorly I would have got until it had been diagnosed.....and due to lack of ketones when I was admitted actually they tried for a while to say I was Type 2 while I said all along it was just due to the fact *I* caught it early!!
I was devastated for days and weeks after it and just in shock really that I was diagnosed at the age I was!
I had been backwards and forwards to doctor dopey for ages with all the classic symptoms and his mantra was diet go on a diet loose some weight. The my firm had a health awareness day where I got all kinds of tests done. The ladies there gave me a letter to take to my doctor saying they believed I was diabetic so I went and he did minimal tests and gave me a prescription saying this will make you feel better. I took the prescription to the pharmacist who said you need a medical exemption certificate because you have diabetes. I got the meds and went back to the doctor and saw the nurse who filled out the relevent forms but my doctor has never onece said to me you have diabetes, although he did recently send me on a DESMOND course. I was diagnosed in 2006
Aged 4 in 1983. I was lethargic, losing weight and generally unwell. GP suspected glandular fever. I was obviously getting worse so parents took me to A&E at which point I slipped into a coma with DKA. I think it was a "just in time" diagnosis!
mcdonagh47
Banned
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Just being nosy really
When were you diagnosed diabetic?
So, that's my story ........
July 1992. I was having a routine medical for an Insurance policy. GP took a urine sample, dipped his strip in it and asked , "How long have you been Diabetic ?"
Uh ?@!? ....as of now !
LeeSeventyOne
Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Some amazing tales on diagnosis on here, some very lucky people as well.
Mine was on the 23rd June 2012. I had gone to the opticians to complain about the contact lenses that they had sent me as I was having blurry vision with them. After a normal routine test she told me my eyes had dropped from a 2.75 to 4.5. She was asking me if I had been feeling unwell in anyway as this was one of the signs of diabetes. I just replied "not that I am aware off", anyway she checked my eyes for any other issues before I left just to make sure. As this was a Saturday afternoon and the double bank holiday weekend end I knew I wouldn't get to the doctors until the end of the week so I tried a drop in centre and was told to go to my docs as they wouldn't do the test. Got an appointment for the end of the week, went through some of the symptoms that at the time were not obvious but looking back, drinking so much fluid it was scary, I am just glad the fridge wasn't full of beer!!!! Getting up in the middle of the night, but I put that down to the fluid intake (surprisingly it was during a heat wave so I guessed that why I was drinking so much), tiredness which I put down to work and studies coming uptio exams.
Anyway back at the docs, who was a locum at the surgery, he said, yes sound like it and what did I know about diabetes and tests. I said about a blood and urine one, he said I will book you in for a blood but there is no point on the urine one as I am a little colour blind and its difficult for me to judge (I only I knew how important this test would have been!!😱), almost a week later I went for a blood test, waited almost a week to get results. Sat an exam in the morning and then rang the docs after the normal blood test time , and was told, I can't really say anything, you need to have another test and see one of the diabetes doctors (I think she gave it away a little here)....... another blood test the next day followed by an exam (really didn?t need that as my mind was wandering all over
) would confirm this, which did a week later when the results were back, waited a few days to see the diabetes doctor as he was booked up. He went through the details, told me I was diabetic and he will refer me for an appointment, just before I left he said I will do a keytone test now, one test later he was on the phone to the hospital and told me to get down there asap as I was really ill. bit of a blur for the next few hours as it sunk in, three days in hospital to level me off and I have a great support from them and my gp upto now, all going well so far.
Mine was on the 23rd June 2012. I had gone to the opticians to complain about the contact lenses that they had sent me as I was having blurry vision with them. After a normal routine test she told me my eyes had dropped from a 2.75 to 4.5. She was asking me if I had been feeling unwell in anyway as this was one of the signs of diabetes. I just replied "not that I am aware off", anyway she checked my eyes for any other issues before I left just to make sure. As this was a Saturday afternoon and the double bank holiday weekend end I knew I wouldn't get to the doctors until the end of the week so I tried a drop in centre and was told to go to my docs as they wouldn't do the test. Got an appointment for the end of the week, went through some of the symptoms that at the time were not obvious but looking back, drinking so much fluid it was scary, I am just glad the fridge wasn't full of beer!!!! Getting up in the middle of the night, but I put that down to the fluid intake (surprisingly it was during a heat wave so I guessed that why I was drinking so much), tiredness which I put down to work and studies coming uptio exams.
Anyway back at the docs, who was a locum at the surgery, he said, yes sound like it and what did I know about diabetes and tests. I said about a blood and urine one, he said I will book you in for a blood but there is no point on the urine one as I am a little colour blind and its difficult for me to judge (I only I knew how important this test would have been!!😱), almost a week later I went for a blood test, waited almost a week to get results. Sat an exam in the morning and then rang the docs after the normal blood test time , and was told, I can't really say anything, you need to have another test and see one of the diabetes doctors (I think she gave it away a little here)....... another blood test the next day followed by an exam (really didn?t need that as my mind was wandering all over
) would confirm this, which did a week later when the results were back, waited a few days to see the diabetes doctor as he was booked up. He went through the details, told me I was diabetic and he will refer me for an appointment, just before I left he said I will do a keytone test now, one test later he was on the phone to the hospital and told me to get down there asap as I was really ill. bit of a blur for the next few hours as it sunk in, three days in hospital to level me off and I have a great support from them and my gp upto now, all going well so far.
Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Lee, that is absolutely atrocious! It's really not rocket science - a fasting fingerprick test over 7 mmo/l if you have other symptoms or a random fingerprick test over 11.1 mmo/l. Takes seconds and can be done in black and white for the colour blind! 🙄 It should not take weeks and weeks!!!
Lizzzie
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I Thought I had a urine infection but the GP couldn't get me an appointment for 3 weeks so I peed on a dipstick at work.... And the sugar came up +++. So I got one the receptionists to stab my thumb with a needle and my bg was 30.
Called the doctors and asked their receptionist very politely to run the 3 weeks wait past the doctor because I had a bg of 30 and 'wasn't sure' whether I should be worried or not.... Never has an appointment become available so quickly!
In hindsight, I'd had to have my wedding dress taken in about 4 times and by the wedding, no longer really had the boobs to carry it off. I'd been eating like a horse and living on orange juice for weeks. Potatoes and thick carns made me feel awful.
I'm very lucky though because I don't seem to make ketones very easily and was treated through outpatients throughout.
Called the doctors and asked their receptionist very politely to run the 3 weeks wait past the doctor because I had a bg of 30 and 'wasn't sure' whether I should be worried or not.... Never has an appointment become available so quickly!
In hindsight, I'd had to have my wedding dress taken in about 4 times and by the wedding, no longer really had the boobs to carry it off. I'd been eating like a horse and living on orange juice for weeks. Potatoes and thick carns made me feel awful.
I'm very lucky though because I don't seem to make ketones very easily and was treated through outpatients throughout.
mum2westiesGill
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Dx with GD during 2nd pregnancy 1991 aged 30
Dx Type 1 1992 / 1993 apprx aged 31
I was told by the hospital I had Gestational Diabetes during my 2nd pregnancy in 1991.
I was never told anything about Diabetes or told to monitor / test myself when the hospital picked up on the GD towards the middle / end of my pregnancy . When my pregnancy had finished my care was back with my then GP. A question I always ask myself is "should the hospital have passed notes on to my GP about the GD?" I was never sent for to have any further blood tests re GD or diabetes when my pregnancy had finished.
In 1992, one year after i'd had my DS, i was drinking loads, pints of water, sucking ice pops etc & I became extremely ill, lethargic etc. I remember lying down on the settee one day with 2 small babies crawling around (OH was at work), I called the GP out, they said i had a virus & to drink plenty of sugary fluids, I felt worse the next day, called a different GP from my practice out & was told the same thing.
Then on the 3rd day my Mum & Dad knowing i was ill went armed with our shopping list, to get all our shopping, when they arrived at our house apparently my Mum came upstairs to find me in bed & i didn't know who she was......i came round in hospital & learned that I was Type 1 diabetic. When my OH arrived at the hospital he was met by the sister of the ward who told him that if my parents had arrived at our house just 1/2 an hour later I would have lost my life! The sister also told my OH that she'd worked for years with diabetics and never before had she seen anyone with a BS as high as mine - 65!!
Dx Type 1 1992 / 1993 apprx aged 31
I was told by the hospital I had Gestational Diabetes during my 2nd pregnancy in 1991.
I was never told anything about Diabetes or told to monitor / test myself when the hospital picked up on the GD towards the middle / end of my pregnancy . When my pregnancy had finished my care was back with my then GP. A question I always ask myself is "should the hospital have passed notes on to my GP about the GD?" I was never sent for to have any further blood tests re GD or diabetes when my pregnancy had finished.
In 1992, one year after i'd had my DS, i was drinking loads, pints of water, sucking ice pops etc & I became extremely ill, lethargic etc. I remember lying down on the settee one day with 2 small babies crawling around (OH was at work), I called the GP out, they said i had a virus & to drink plenty of sugary fluids, I felt worse the next day, called a different GP from my practice out & was told the same thing.
Then on the 3rd day my Mum & Dad knowing i was ill went armed with our shopping list, to get all our shopping, when they arrived at our house apparently my Mum came upstairs to find me in bed & i didn't know who she was......i came round in hospital & learned that I was Type 1 diabetic. When my OH arrived at the hospital he was met by the sister of the ward who told him that if my parents had arrived at our house just 1/2 an hour later I would have lost my life! The sister also told my OH that she'd worked for years with diabetics and never before had she seen anyone with a BS as high as mine - 65!!
Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Another shocking misdiagnosis story Gill Thank heavens your parents arrived when they did!
Thank heavens your parents arrived when they did!- Status