Is diabetes progressive?

[childofthesea43]

I am perplexed by my other half's mother who had acute pancreatitis many years ago, had some sort of surgery which saved her life (in Rhodesia) but never had any medication, true she struggled with fatty foods and dairy products until the last couple of years of her long life when she suddenly seemed to tolerate them better and lived on chocolate in the last few months before she passed away aged 98.

That’s the way to go, a long life and the last part stuffed with chocolate! Ideal.

 

[Dragonheart]

Another confounding factor is red cell count because since A1c is only the fraction glycated it seems intuitive that, for a fixed level of glucose, one’s A1c would rise if one’s red cell count fell. This is why the elderly have raised A1c whether diabetic or not. My own count is very low indeed and I reckon that if that were not so then my measured A1c would be well down in the 30s instead of 41. Do you know how your red cell count has been behaving?

I’ve had iron deficiency for years (very low ferretin) but no actual anaemia as haemoglobin remains normal. I know that’s a factor sometime. Ironically the last hba1c followed an iron infusion 3 months earlier. That wasn’t particularly successful as a brief rise to a good level rapidly dropped back down to deficient by the time of that hba1c. That should have resolved it if it was the problem and it was higher than previously. Can’t say I checked rbc. Will look back at them now.

 

[Dragonheart]

I wonder if an ultrasound of your pancreas might be cheaper and give an indication of whether that might be the issue.

Another thought but previous enquiries about private ultrasound puts them at 300-400 ish so quite probably not cheaper and wouldn’t necessarily show damage leading to lower insulin production

 

[Dragonheart]

I believe you can get "silent" pancreatitis, which I think can be caused by repeated irritation of the gall bladder/bile duct.
My mother had 3 very acute bouts of pancreatitis and it was related to/caused by her gall bladder issues. She was never, to the best of my knowledge, checked for diabetes, but I now suspect that may be why she ended up having strokes which ultimately killed her, but she also had other digestive issues which seriously affected her quality of life and I am now sure were linked to pancreatic damage from the pancreatitis. Sadly I knew nothing about diabetes at that time as I was not diagnosed myself. Now I look back on her symptoms and wish I had known what I know now, so that I could have pushed for appropriate testing and treatment.
I suspect diabetes due to pancreatic damage ie Type 3c may well be far more common than is currently diagnosed because it is far too easy to stick the Type 2 label on people without looking any further.

Interesting, I have other digestive issues and deficiencies too. I‘m awaiting a gastro appointment (likely a long way away) but suspect if this is the case endo would be more appropriate and yet I have no chance of getting that referral as a plain old type 2 simply getting worse “as expected”

 

[Drummer]

Thinking back - (my memory is throwing up some recollections from way back these days), from the spring when I turned 17 until I went to college, I was very unwell and had serious anaemia.
I did not do at all well in my final year at school - partly due to bullying, but I wasn't right at all - I have a touch of red hair and a Viking temperament and anyone getting on the wrong side of me as a young adult was likely to regret it.
All my adult life I had problems with carbs, compounded by the constant yammering to eat them, cut down the fat, eat less of everything - 17 years ago I had a blood test 'flagged' for high glucose, but it was just left for a decade until it was quite bad for it to be diagnosed as type 2 .
In the summers of 1967 and 68 I went down to Cornwall to study the effects of the Torry Canyon oil spill - I wonder if the pollution had some effect - we were often wading around up to the fetlocks in tar during that first summer, when I was 16.