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Hello and Help!

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B

B!tchBeTrippin

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello everyone,

Nice to meet you all.

I've recently been diagnosed as diabetic, presenting at the GP with 3 weeks of symptoms (very sudden - like flicking a switch - one night I got up 5 times for the loo and this continued until I was put on insulin). My initial tests showed ketones of 3mmol/l and glucose of 33.3mmol/l and I was sent to A&E.

I've been on insulin which seems fine but I'm yet to see a dietitian and so sometimes my glucose is up and down, although my ketones are back within normal range.

However - the GP surgery has made the assumption (probably fairly) that I'm a Type 2, and has asked if I have been overdoing sugary drinks (e.g. "Do you drink a lot of coke? Sugary drinks can trigger it!" - I only drank/drink water or (unsweetened) tea or coffee in the day, and occasionally weak squash (not any more!), and I rarely have alcohol). I've also felt a bit down as so much has been made of my weight being a factor (I don't know what I weigh but I'm a size 16 - so while overweight I'm not abnormally so). I'm 31.

I'm keen to take better care of myself either way but I'm trying to piece together why a Type 2 diagnosis has been assumed. Surely if I had high levels of ketones in my blood then I am more likely to be Type 1?

I will ask for further tests in the new year but I am just trying to feel my way at the moment - apologies for the long post but it's nice to put some of these thoughts down in writing!
 
Hello and welcome.
It does sound like an odd assumption, given that you have gone straight onto insulin. Did you lose any weight before being diagnosed?
 
Hello, welcome to the forum. My GP assumed I was type 2 to begin with purely on the grounds of my age. She'd no idea someone of 51 could develop Type 1.
Were you diagnosed by a hospital team? If so, they should have written /be writing to your GP with a report of their findings and action. Sometimes this can take weeks to come through. In our region, the patient is supposed to be sent a copy, so you may get one, but don't assume it'll arrive automatically. So ask your GP surgery if they've had a report, and if they have, ask for a copy of it, and you will be able to see what the hospital department have said regarding your diagnosis.
 
There are sugar free squashed, you know! so you can have them.

I'd be asking the hospital, too.
 
Good luck with tests, you sound like you are doing the right things to me. There is a bag of sugar in everything these days. Welcome & ask if you are unsure 🙂
 
Sounds to me like the GP at the surgery is assuming type 2 because s/he doesn't know much about diabetes - a lot of GPs don't realise adults can develp type 1, and indeed don't realise that weight isn't the only factor (and sometimes isn't a factor at all) so far as type 2 is concerned. The suddenness, the ketones, and being put straight onto insulin sound rather more like type 1 than type 2 to me, so I'd be asking the hospital which you have if I were you too. They may not have got the test results back yet which will clarify which type you are, assuming they did lots of tests when you were in hospital?

As you say your glucose levels are still up and down and you're keen to take better care of yourself, it's worth having a look around this forum to find out more about which things are good for you to eat (as a diabetic) and which aren't - there is probably more useful info. on the food board here than the average dietician will be able to give you!
 
Thank you so much for all the replies, it's really appreciated!

I wasn't tested at the hospital - I was sent down at 11am and they did a couple of urine tests throughout the day and hooked me up to a drip. The diabetes nurse wasn't able to see me until later in the afternoon (4pm or so) and so I wasn't given any medication all day, just fluids. I got told how to inject and got sent home with my blood testing monitor, strips and levimir insulin plus metformin. Two days later I went back for an appointment and got given novorapid too, but when I asked if I had Type 1 or Type 2 the diabetes nurse said she didn't know 'yet' (subsequent conversations when I've called to let her know my readings have indicated I need to ask for further tests so as far as I know, none have been done).

I think this has stemmed from the initial ward nurse reporting me as a newly presented type 2 diabetic in my notes, which my GP got and I received a copy of.

I'll take a look at the forum for more info now 🙂
 
It would be worth trying to get the hospital to do a GAD antibodies test and a couple of others, sorry I can't remember names as I'm not very with it today, but someone will (c-peptide, I think, is one?). They're just blood tests, but some of them may take a while to get results - if you can get them done though, you will be able to find out for sure which type you are.

Keep in touch with the diabetes nurse, she will know a lot more about this than GP or ward nurse, especially if she's a diabetes specialist nurse at hospital rather than nurse at surgery who knows a bit about diabetes.
 
There is about 3 different auto-antibodies tests I recall. However, my consultant said there was more types of antibodies then they had clinical tests for. So, not detecting antibodies does not mean that you are not T1.
 
I think that's why they should do the other tests as well, in an ideal world. I'm not sure they did them all for me though because my antibody results were so far off the scale, it was pretty obvious I was type 1.
 
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