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[Jacinta (Australian)]

Hello my name is jacinta
I’m only 29, last Friday I was diagnosed with diabetes but I have to go see a specialist to rule out which one I am and unfortnately I’m waiting as he only comes in fortnightly.
My doctor isn’t sure if I’m T1 or T2 because of how young I am and I been beating myself up as of late and I have started to relook at my diet . I’m absolutely embarrassed , kicking myself , thought I knew better but I noticed a pattern of eating healthy to crappy eating . What didn’t help was that the doctor that rang and told me was like she was shaming me because of my age and that I have diabetes , appranetly my sugar level is high so appranetly I needed insulin the next day and that put my depression and shock through the roof, I told my doctor about it and she said it’s high but I don’t know what type you are , so from then on I been exercising and stopped having sugar plus taking out carbs aswell, my problem is I already been diagnosed with a smaller kidney then the other when I was 12-14 years and I have ibs aswell . Sorry for the rant , it’s still hard to come to the conclusion of having it and it’s making it worse cause I have no idea which I am . Please don’t judge I’m already feeling it from everywhere else and today I been crying about it .

 

[Ljc]

Hello @Jacinta welcome to the forum, firstly try to stop blaming yourself ok, it isn’t your fault !

Type 2 is not only about being an overweight couch potato, genetics are involved , else all those with T2 would be overweight couch potatoes and they are not, we have professional athletes on here who have developed it.

Type 1 is Auto immune condition , this is where your bodies defence system for some reason starts destroying the insulin producing cells I. Your pancreas. And you sure couldn’t do anything to cause that !

Whatever type it turned out you have, diabetes is a condition that with the right info, medication if needed and a bit of effort it can be well managed and shouldn’t stop you from doing anything you want to do.

What was the result of your Hb1ac, it’s usually given as a figure like this 98 or in the old percentage 11.1
48 (6.5%) or above means a person has joined our select club
What symptoms drove you to the Gp
What insulin’s have they put you on.

It’s good to hear that your Gp is referring you to, in assume to the hospitals diabetes clinic as many GPs and the Gp practices diabetes nurses (dn) are unaware that T1 can develop in adulthood.

Don’t panic Ok and please, please do try to stop blaming yourself.

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

So I’m not sure if Australia is different on this but it was 12 ???? Have no idea what that means.
what lead me to the diagnoses was the constant utis all the time. I’m trying to not blame myself but it’s so hard like extremely hard to accept it . They haven’t put me on anything at all , my doctor wants to know what type I am before she starts me on anything . She was hoping I would see her in 2 weeks time but with this specialist I have to wait til next week to see him to do the tests he needs to do to rule out everything .

 

[Ljc]

Ah, sorry I assumed you were in the uk, the measurements system may well be different to the uk , I will try to find out .

Yes glucose in the urine , often causes UTIs , it’s the way our kidneys try to get rid of excess blood glucose

Was their any unplanned weight loss prior to your diagnosis ?

As you are not taking any diabetes medications yet esp insulin I feel safe in giving some general advise on what to eat. It’s advise we give to those with T2.

Protein in all it’s forms are fine and providing one doesn’t have a condition that requires us to go low fat, good fats are fine too.
If you eat meat, like burgers , sausages etc go for high meat content ones.

Many need to be careful with fruit especially the juicy tropical kinds , it’s the fructose , anything with berry as part of its name is often tolerated better.

It is carbohydrates that we can’t handle to well esp the starchy ones, try to reduce them a bit, start gradually as the last thing you should cut them drastically quickly . Till you find god substitutes fill up on vegetables .
If you have T1 the dietary advice will differ some what.

I hope the above helps

 

[Ljc]

Yes it is hard to accept, we can go through a time of grieving

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

Hey sorry I should of mentioned that earlier that I am in Australia .
I also have 1 smaller kidney then the other aswell so I also don’t know if it makes a difference ??? When ever I mention it to my gps about it there not worried at all ??? And I was diagnosed with that condition when I was 12 or 14 years old .
Thankyou hun , I’m trying this and especially more exercise so I can prepare myself (even though I’m struggling with that). Not that I have noticed to be honest .
my doctor did suggest that I need to back off sugars and carbs right now to help myself out .
I’ll defianetly let you know which one I am , I’m just terrified of this .

I didn’t even know d can cause utis I thought it was something completely different that was causing it .

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

with my grieving it seems to repeat itself . 1 day I’m absolutely terrified and start crying and then the next I’m like I’ll grab it by the horns even though it’s a life time thing .

 

[Lucyr]

Hiya. I was diagnosed as T2 aged 20 and have used insulin for it since age 22 (now 33) so I totally get what you feel on the blame thing, and it really does hurt when you get it constantly from medical professionals. I’d say that however bad your diet is, there will be people with a worse diet who didn’t develop diabetes that young and so there is an element of developing diabetes that is out of your control. Did you lose or gain any weight before diagnosis and have they done any tests to decide your type?

 

[Docb]

Hi @Jacinta and welcome to the forum. Thanks for letting us know you are based in Australia. Makes no difference to us, diabetes is diabetes no matter where you live but different countries have different ways of handling treatment and that needs to be taken into account.

One of the things that I find frustrating is that the label T2 is applied to every sort of diabetes other than T1 and 3c, no matter what the underlying cause. You then end up with some assuming that all T2 is due to long term lifestyle choices and this is not the case.

Read around the forum and see if any of the stories of members parallel yours and see how they have tackled getting things under control. Don't lose sight of the fact that diabetes is controllable and getting a handle on your particular version of it is a good start to finding the best way to get control.

 

[Inka]

Hi @Jacinta 🙂 Stop blaming yourself. Please be kind to yourself, especially at the moment. No-one will judge you here.

My doctor isn’t sure if I’m T1 or T2 because of how young I am and I been beating myself up as of late and I have started to relook at my diet . I’m absolutely embarrassed , kicking myself , thought I knew better but I noticed a pattern of eating healthy to crappy eating.

Well, look - if you’re Type 1 then that’s an auto-immune condition and absolutely nothing to do with diet. Even if you’re Type 2, I bet your diet isn’t unusual at all. Don’t look to blame yourself. X

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

Hiya. I was diagnosed as T2 aged 20 and have used insulin for it since age 22 (now 33) so I totally get what you feel on the blame thing, and it really does hurt when you get it constantly from medical professionals. I’d say that however bad your diet is, there will be people with a worse diet who didn’t develop diabetes that young and so there is an element of developing diabetes that is out of your control. Did you lose or gain any weight before diagnosis and have they done any tests to decide your type?

I have to wait til next thursday to book an appointment to get my specialist to test me to rule out everything, to see which one I am as he is only available every fortnight, I noticed the putting on not so much the taking off .

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

Hi @Jacinta 🙂 Stop blaming yourself. Please be kind to yourself, especially at the moment. No-one will judge you here.

My doctor isn’t sure if I’m T1 or T2 because of how young I am and I been beating myself up as of late and I have started to relook at my diet . I’m absolutely embarrassed , kicking myself , thought I knew better but I noticed a pattern of eating healthy to crappy eating.

Well, look - if you’re Type 1 then that’s an auto-immune condition and absolutely nothing to do with diet. Even if you’re Type 2, I bet your diet isn’t unusual at all. Don’t look to blame yourself. X

Thankyou for that , I’m trying my best to stop blaming myself. I’m just all over the place and over thinking everything , how does the auto immune condition work ??? Like if I got type one how does it go from one person skip a generation or more then I end up with it . I mean I went from healthy to bad foods . And the reason why I ended up tested is because I was getting utis a lot.

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

Hi @Jacinta and welcome to the forum. Thanks for letting us know you are based in Australia. Makes no difference to us, diabetes is diabetes no matter where you live but different countries have different ways of handling treatment and that needs to be taken into account.

One of the things that I find frustrating is that the label T2 is applied to every sort of diabetes other than T1 and 3c, no matter what the underlying cause. You then end up with some assuming that all T2 is due to long term lifestyle choices and this is not the case.

Read around the forum and see if any of the stories of members parallel yours and see how they have tackled getting things under control. Don't lose sight of the fact that diabetes is controllable and getting a handle on your particular version of it is a good start to finding the best way to get control.

Thankyou so much for the information , it’s a lot to take in . What’s 3c ???? I have only heard of T1 and T2

 

[Inka]

Thankyou for that , I’m trying my best to stop blaming myself. I’m just all over the place and over thinking everything , how does the auto immune condition work ??? Like if I got type one how does it go from one person skip a generation or more then I end up with it . I mean I went from healthy to bad foods . And the reason why I ended up tested is because I was getting utis a lot.

Type 1 is auto-immune because an unknown trigger causes the immune system to mistakenly attack and destroy the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Auto-immune is simply your body ‘attacking itself’ rather than attacking outside intruders like viruses, which is what it’s supposed to do.

It’s more linked with ‘environment’ than genes. Most people with the Type 1 genes do not develop Type 1, and around 90% of people diagnosed with Type 1 don’t have a close relative with it. I have Type 1 but none of my close relatives do.

Type 1 isn’t caused by bad diet or by anything the person has done or not done. The environmental trigger isn’t yet known, and there might be more than one trigger. Possible suspects are viruses, cows milk, wheat, a ‘leaky’ gut, and more.

 

[Docb]

Thankyou so much for the information , it’s a lot to take in . What’s 3c ???? I have only heard of T1 and T2

3c is is diabetes due to the pancreas either dying completely or being partially or completely surgically removed for some reason or other. It is a bit esoteric and from what I understand, glucose control is only one of the problems this leads to.

There are lots of other subsets of diabetes.

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

O

Type 1 is auto-immune because an unknown trigger causes the immune system to mistakenly attack and destroy the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Auto-immune is simply your body ‘attacking itself’ rather than attacking outside intruders like viruses, which is what it’s supposed to do.

It’s more linked with ‘environment’ than genes. Most people with the Type 1 genes do not develop Type 1, and around 90% of people diagnosed with Type 1 don’t have a close relative with it. I have Type 1 but none of my close relatives do.

Type 1 isn’t caused by bad diet or by anything the person has done or not done. The environmental trigger isn’t yet known, and there might be more than one trigger. Possible suspects are viruses, cows milk, wheat, a ‘leaky’ gut, and more.

Ohh okay Thankyou so much for explaining it to me I appericate it a lot .

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

3c is is diabetes due to the pancreas either dying completely or being partially or completely surgically removed for some reason or other. It is a bit esoteric and from what I understand, glucose control is only one of the problems this leads to.

There are lots of other subsets of diabetes.

Thankyou for the explaination , I really appericate it

 

[helli]

@Jacinta welcome to the forum and the club.
Initial diagnosis is a stressful time - I remember nights of crying when I was diagnosed and I am usually considered quite stoic.
I am pleased to say that time soon passed and I have not looked back. Diabetes has not stopped me getting on with my life and, more than 15 years later, I still celebrate the date of my diagnosis. Many people may consider a celebration a weird thing but, the way I see it, if I had not been diagnosed, I wouldn't be around the celebrate.
At the time, I think the biggest fear was the fear of the unknown. I would say I had lots of questions but I knew so little I didn't know what questions to ask. And I was lucky enough to be told which type ("You must be Type 1 because you are too slim to be type 2" was the scientific approach they took which turned out to be accurate).

What I my waffle is really trying to say is
- yes, it is daunting
- it gets easier
- if/when you think of questions, we are hear to help and provide some answers (although we cannot diagnose, we can share our experience

And two final comments
- blame is useless. There is no point regretting what you have done/eaten/not done in the past which may (or may not) have caused diabetes. The important thing is to look forward now you know you have it.
- I love your name. Until the election of the New Zealand Prime Minister, I had not heard of any Jacintas. You are lucky to have such a beautiful name.

 

[Jacinta (Australian)]

@Jacinta welcome to the forum and the club.
Initial diagnosis is a stressful time - I remember nights of crying when I was diagnosed and I am usually considered quite stoic.
I am pleased to say that time soon passed and I have not looked back. Diabetes has not stopped me getting on with my life and, more than 15 years later, I still celebrate the date of my diagnosis. Many people may consider a celebration a weird thing but, the way I see it, if I had not been diagnosed, I wouldn't be around the celebrate.
At the time, I think the biggest fear was the fear of the unknown. I would say I had lots of questions but I knew so little I didn't know what questions to ask. And I was lucky enough to be told which type ("You must be Type 1 because you are too slim to be type 2" was the scientific approach they took which turned out to be accurate).

What I my waffle is really trying to say is
- yes, it is daunting
- it gets easier
- if/when you think of questions, we are hear to help and provide some answers (although we cannot diagnose, we can share our experience

And two final comments
- blame is useless. There is no point regretting what you have done/eaten/not done in the past which may (or may not) have caused diabetes. The important thing is to look forward now you know you have it.
- I love your name. Until the election of the New Zealand Prime Minister, I had not heard of any Jacintas. You are lucky to have such a beautiful name.

Hello Helli
Thankyou , it’s been very shocking but a dam good wake up call to be honest, as you said no point in blaming myself the past is the past and I just have to focus from hear in on , what’s making it really hard is I don’t know what type I am which I think is making it worse for myself . My fiancée and my mum are both surpporting me so if my fiancée isn’t around I just call my mum so she can put me back in check for me which is good but I’m thankful she understands. Once I have a definite diagnosis of which one I am I’ll defianetly be asking a lot of questions .
Aww Thankyou 🙂 I love my name also .

 

[Drummer]

I was diagnosed after almost two years eating a 'healthy' diet as per a printout from my GP which was all starchy foods - sugar free cereal with skimmed milk, wholemeal bread, baked potatoes - but I can't cope with carbs, never have been able to and I was a wreck, and almost spherical.
Now that I am eating a diet which is considered unhealthy I am thinner, and more energetic too. I am working again, in several senses and it is down to the diet, as I do not need medication.