How long before diagnosis?

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donnarob

donnarob

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi there,

I'm guessing when you are newly diagnosed, you wonder how long you have had this for? I've said before, I never had any of the well documented symptoms of thirst, frequent urination etc.

Again, through total coincidence, I had to see the eye doctor last February. My optician detected high IOP and wanted this checking out. I had all the tests done and the eye doctor diagnosed very thick corneas. He asked me to return in a year's time to get checked again. Would he have detected if I had diabetes through the eye exam? He never mentioned anything about diabetes at the time.

Donna
 
I thought exactly the same I wonder how long I have had it. I did have some of the symptons but only for the 6 weeks before diagnosis. The thing that made me get it checked out was I had thrush on and off for about 6 weeks and thought I had better get it checked out.

In hindsight I think I have probably had it for 12 to 9 months. I had a tingly feeling in my heal which started about 9 month ago.
 
In hindsight, my diabetes had probably been developing for a couple of years - I had had symptoms but associated them with other reasons, never suspecting diabetes. It turns out I had a slow onset Type 1, which fnally showed itself when I caught a virus that my body just couldn't cope with and sent my blood sugar rocketing.

Eye examinations, if thorough, may detect background retinopathy or blurred vision die to high blood sugars, but I think it would depend on how pronounced they were.

Donna, just a tip - when you start a new thread you don't need to put your name in the title, you should put something that indicates what the thread is about e.g. 'How long before diagnosis?' for this thread so people know what it is about - your name appears alongside anything you post. If you are replying to an existing thread you can leave the title blank. I'll change this thread as in my example and you'll see what I mean 🙂
 
I think (?) the symptoms are slightly different and slower for a type 2 than a type 1 - so it could be a while until there is a diagnosis made.🙂Bev
 
I left it about 6 months before going to the docs.... because I stupidly (and mistakenly) thought that you could only get T1 when you're a child, or T2 when you're old and fat, and I was neither of those.
 
I had symptoms for a long time before diagnosis, about 2 years or so, and had been backwards and forwards to my doctor with various things for two or three years. I only got diagnosed because I went to a health care awareness thing at work where they did loads of tests including a finger prick glucose test.
 
For the tips about posting. I suppose being a newbie this is quite common - or is it just me?

I did wonder whether the eye doctor did see something and didn't tell me?

Donna
 
donnarob said:
For the tips about posting. I suppose being a newbie this is quite common - or is it just me?
Click to expand...

We all have our little foibles (you may notice that I keep sticking "Andy" at the bottom of many of my posts even though there is a big "Andy HB" to the left of them!!).

Anyway, I have suspicions that I'd been getting symptoms up to ten years prior to diagnosis. Really bad leg cramps, headaches, fungal infections, wounds not healing properly and such like. But the GPs never tested me for diabetes and so I'll never know.

However, the fatigue, unexplained weight loss, thirst and excessive peeing didn't occur until a few months prior to diagnosis and so I think that's when it kicked in 'properly'.
 
donnarob said:
For the tips about posting. I suppose being a newbie this is quite common - or is it just me?

I did wonder whether the eye doctor did see something and didn't tell me?

Donna
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it Donna, not a problem 🙂 If there's ever anything you are unsure of just send me a message, but don't worry about making any mistakes, as you say many people find it a little confusing at first!

I would very much doubt that the eye doctor would withhold any information from you - more likely if he had spotted something he would have advised you to get a test at your doctor's. It's not always possible to spot the signs, an example: I had my retinal scan last year where they take special photos of your retina then examine them. This is much more likely to reveal any potential problems than a 'manual' eye examination when you are having a sight test, and on my subsequent sight test I asked the optician if she could see anything - she couldn't. So, it may or may not show up. With some people it is likely to be very pronounced, since it is possible to have Type 2 for many years undetected. In your case, I imagine that things were caught relatively early by that test since you had no 'classic' symptoms which usually occur (but not always).

Whatever the case, that is something you cannot change now - you can only concentrate on staying well-controlled and healthy. You have already shown your determination to do this, so I have no doubt you will succeed! 🙂
 
I read that it's quite common with Type 2 for people not to notice symptoms as they creep up slowly, and people brush some away as just getting old. Often it is by accident that people are diagnosed.

I discovered I was diabetic after breaking and dislocating a toe. Initially I thought I was losing weight due to my metabolism speeding up to heal the bone. I read an article and I had classic symptoms - when I told my OH he said I was a hypochondriac. I said well we have to change Drs (we had just got married and bought a house) and the screening as a new patient should pick it up if I am. The practice nurse was a little blaze with me said I had probably lost weight being busy. The dip stick though showed very high glucose. I can't remember if she tried my blood or not - but she went off to talk to one of the Dr's came back and took some blood for testing - and that as they say was the start of things.
 
I dident seem to have any simtoms but I think it was just that I was pregnant and it was one of the hottest summers that we had 1975 and just put the thurst down to that. It wasonly on one of my check ups that they then took me in to hospital. Then after my baby was born they stoped the insulin said I was ok but I lost that much weight in 6 months they put me back on it and I am Type 1.
 
My daughter was (eventually) 'diagnosed' by her optician whom we visited because her eyesight had become quite bad. We had put this off for at least 4 months because of Christmas, bad weather, family illness. Prior to this she had started loosing weight almost 2 years previously but was always hungry and/or thirsty. Unfortunately she has a huge bladder capacity so did not spend all her time weeing - she did have to get up once every night - her doctor kept telling me all this was 'her age' . She had blood tests about 6 months before her diagnosis after I made a scene in the doctors surgery - I in my ignorance assumed they would have included a test for diabetes but they did not.
K has cataracts caused by diabetes which is what the optician could see. She sent us to the doctor who, at last, tested her wee. I understand cataracts take a very long time to develop so my belief is that she had diabetes for almost two years, but her pancreas continued to work on and off so she had no 'crisis' as most type 1's do.
My dad had type 2, and was diagnosed almost before he had it - as he had heart problems which they assumed would eventually lead to diabetes so kept checking for it. He never really had the 'thirsty/weeing/weight loss symptoms but once on meds he would get hypo some times, and he also quite quickly developed sight problems.
Unfortunately quite often symptoms get missed which is why Diabetes Awareness is such an important cause
 
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