Hi, 44 year old male here recently diagnosed type 2. Been prescribed metformin 500mg up to 1500mg by 3rd week. The thing is my bmi is 23 and I've lost a bit of weight My GP worried about something more sinister and booked me in for scans as "I don't look like a type 2", been browsing through here it looks like I wouldn't be the first light person diagnosed, anyways fast forward to today I went to the hospital today to see another doctor today who seemed a bit more up on diabetes and looking at my bloods she said it highly unlikely anything sinister is happening as it pretty much just the high blood sugar wrong, and everything else is within reason, she said she suspects I may be type 1 or even type 3c. I didn't even know there was a type 3c, anyways all going well with the scan she's going to refer me to a diabetics specialist place/person. Generally wondering if anybody has been through similar, as it's all a bit confusing with so much conflicting information online. My blood sugar "score" was 81 so not as high as others I've seen, the other thing is I could do with putting on weight definitely not losing it,any tips on that on a diabetic friendly diet? Any help appreciated.
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Hi All
- Thread starter Withnail
- Start date
Inka
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- Type 1
Welcome @Withnail 🙂 Love the name! Sudden and unexpected weight loss can be a Type 1 symptom. Have you noticed any other symptoms? It’s good you’re being referred to a specialist - is that soon? Are you testing your blood sugar at home? Did they take any additional blood tests to determine your diabetes type, ie Type 1 antibodies and C Peptide?
mashedupmatt
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- Type 1
Lucyr
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- Type 1
It says in the OP 81
mashedupmatt
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- Type 1
My bad - apologies
Hi Inka, thanks for your reply, the doctor said after the results of the CT scan which I have on Thursday she would push for it. I haven't had any other blood tests yet but presume that will come soon. To be fair the nhs have been good and I can't complain at all. Other symptoms are weakness, tiredness (compared to my old self) buzzy feelings occasionally in the nerves, and strangely thrush (gone now) getting up at night to urinate, probably more irritable than I used to be as well if I were to be honest. Would it not be strange to be type 1 so late in life? Thanks for replying again.
Lucyr
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- Type 1
Not at all strange, and at 44 you’re hardly elderly anyway. You can get T1 at any age.
Inka
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The oldest person I read about who got Type 1 was in their 90s! More adults are diagnosed than children actually, so getting Type 1 in your 40s wouldn’t be super-rare. The CT scan might be checking your pancreas. You said the doctor mention Type 3c. Have you had issues with your pancreas before?
Do you test your own blood sugar? If so, what kind of results are you getting?
Leadinglights
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As far as diagnosis of Type 1 your age is not late in life, many here have been diagnosed much older, a friend was diagnosed at nearly 80 years old after struggling on oral meds for 2 years, losing weight and muscle and feeling awful.
Hopefully your scan will clarify things and if needed you will get the additional tests.
Those do sound very typical symptoms of diabetes and what will send people to see their GP./
I've never had any issues with my pancreas before, I've been lucky enough to be generally healthy up until this, I do test my blood now it's kind of all over the place, it varies anywhere from mid 8's to as high as 15. I'm using this forum atm to educate myself a bit, it's really useful. So many contradictions online as I said, reading about real people and seeing how things can differ so much between different people. I'm sure everybody's been through the same thing at some stage. The Ct scan is to check my pancreas. Again thanks for all the responses, im actually quite upbeat about it all and am just eager for a diagnosis so I can get on with things
Skater P
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- Type 1
Hi Withnail
Welcome to the forum.
About 3 months ago I went to see a GP with a very similar list to yours. Early 50s but had been healthy/sporty, lost weight (from an already "lean" body shape), tired, weak when doing sport, getting up at night to go to the loo, thursty, I didn't feel "ill" just unfit. My numbers were possibly different though. BG was in the 20s with high Ketones as well so they knew something was wrong, suspected T1 but someone mentioned T2 was a possible, tests a few weeks later showed T1 (LADA)
Now on multiple daily insulin injections and much happier, I put the weight back on very easily (much of it may have been dehydration) sport performace is back, mood swings are less common too.
As @mashedupmatt says the C-Peptide and auto-antibodies should differentiate between T1 and T2 (not a clue how they test for 3c though)
Proud to be erratic
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Morning @Withnail and @Skater P. I'm not sure about how they test for T3c either - I suspect it's more a case of detective work: symptoms in conjunction with known circumstances of pancreatic damage.
T3c is pretty rare and invariably because of specific pancreatic damage that immediately or ultimately causes diabetes. For some people their diabetes can be managed without any medication, just carb awareness and lifestyle; akin to being prediabetic as if T2. Or needing just oral meds, again pretty much as T2. But for someone like myself where my pancreatic damage is extreme(!) then needing full multiple daily Injections or a pump; my D could be seen as if T1 but without the autoimmune circumstances and most of us have other medical constraints (that probably caused the original panc'y damage). Frequently those other medical factors are significant factors in how we need to manage our D and can be our primary consideration.
@Withnail, unless that Specialist had some other indicator of you having some panc'y damage, I'm inclined to think it was a somewhat spurious throw away observation to add T3c into the mix. T1 is very specific: autoimmune problems closing down someone's insulin production. T3c is also specific, caused by panc'y damage, but with much variation in treatment paths. T2 (some 90% of diabetes diagnoses) can originate from several circumstances, with varying symptoms (but with the common factor of high BG) and also needs varied treatment paths. I hope the Specialists can isolate your symptoms sufficiently well to give you a clear treatment path.
T3c is pretty rare and invariably because of specific pancreatic damage that immediately or ultimately causes diabetes. For some people their diabetes can be managed without any medication, just carb awareness and lifestyle; akin to being prediabetic as if T2. Or needing just oral meds, again pretty much as T2. But for someone like myself where my pancreatic damage is extreme(!) then needing full multiple daily Injections or a pump; my D could be seen as if T1 but without the autoimmune circumstances and most of us have other medical constraints (that probably caused the original panc'y damage). Frequently those other medical factors are significant factors in how we need to manage our D and can be our primary consideration.
@Withnail, unless that Specialist had some other indicator of you having some panc'y damage, I'm inclined to think it was a somewhat spurious throw away observation to add T3c into the mix. T1 is very specific: autoimmune problems closing down someone's insulin production. T3c is also specific, caused by panc'y damage, but with much variation in treatment paths. T2 (some 90% of diabetes diagnoses) can originate from several circumstances, with varying symptoms (but with the common factor of high BG) and also needs varied treatment paths. I hope the Specialists can isolate your symptoms sufficiently well to give you a clear treatment path.
Hi @Withnail, I was diagnosed (very much to my surprise) in March, symptoms very similar, unexpected weight loss, lack of energy, feeling of being vacant (only way I could describe), episodes of blurred vision and regularly needed to drink/wee! I also had/have a deep tissue abscess in my thigh which I am waiting to be removed, general feeling is this is contributing to the weight loss, but time will tell I guess. However, this was the first thing I noticed which drove me to go to the docs along with generally feeling rubbish and I then found it common with diabetes to get abscesses owing to the high blood sugar level.
I was initially diagnosed T2, 1000mg of metformin which I've been on since March and my levels have reduced, though recently added Dapaliflozon (10mg once daily) to bring down my HbA1c as it is not coming down quickly enough for the docs and I did not want to increase the metformin. My doctor told me thrush is a common side effect of the new tablet, owing to the body passing higher levels of blood glucose, but so far I've managed to avoid it.
I did have the hospital blood test for T3 or LADA, but both came back clear, so persevering with the meds and adjusting my diet to hopefully get my levels down for my next test in 3 months time. the test was just a blood test at the hospital, they take a few samples and sent it away, took 4/5 weeks to get the result back.
I was initially diagnosed T2, 1000mg of metformin which I've been on since March and my levels have reduced, though recently added Dapaliflozon (10mg once daily) to bring down my HbA1c as it is not coming down quickly enough for the docs and I did not want to increase the metformin. My doctor told me thrush is a common side effect of the new tablet, owing to the body passing higher levels of blood glucose, but so far I've managed to avoid it.
I did have the hospital blood test for T3 or LADA, but both came back clear, so persevering with the meds and adjusting my diet to hopefully get my levels down for my next test in 3 months time. the test was just a blood test at the hospital, they take a few samples and sent it away, took 4/5 weeks to get the result back.
Leadinglights
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If your diagnosis is Type2 then many find a low carb approach is successful but with the 'flozin' medication you are taking you need to be cautious of going too low on carbs but the suggested no more than 130g per day which the Freshwell program is based on should be suitable, so take a look to give you some ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com
Hi @Withnail welcome to the forum. I had a healthy BMI when diagnosed Type 2 last October, but as the diabetes nurse explained, the problem with diabetes is that it is not an overnight illness. It builds up over time and as I looked back over my life, I could see the instances and choices that may have resulted in the illness coming on. I also think I was suffering for at least six months prior to the actual diagnosis.
While I am older than you by 20 years, it is possible that the results may show that the other options can be ruled out but, I also underwent the tests following significant weight loss post diagnosis. Trying to put it back on has been difficult as my diet is low carb, however, I tend to focus on both carbs and calories now and have seen some small improvements. A lot depends on how much exercise I undertake each day as I run, golf and go the gym every week as well as enjoying walks.
While I am older than you by 20 years, it is possible that the results may show that the other options can be ruled out but, I also underwent the tests following significant weight loss post diagnosis. Trying to put it back on has been difficult as my diet is low carb, however, I tend to focus on both carbs and calories now and have seen some small improvements. A lot depends on how much exercise I undertake each day as I run, golf and go the gym every week as well as enjoying walks.
Thank you everybody for all the responses, and for putting so much time and thought into them, I'm really grateful. I've read them all and decided the best thing to do at the moment, is to take the metformin I've been given and just eat as well as I can. The diagnosis will come in good time, so im not going to worry about what "Type" I am, because what will be will be. I've food the food part of the forum quite helpful there's some good looking dishes in there. Thanks again everybody.