Pleased to be joining this forum

[CES]

I’m really pleased to be joining this forum. My diabetes journey has been a strange one. In early 2020 my HbA1C was 57 & I was diagnosed as type 2. I was allowed a couple of months to try and lower this by following a low carb diet. I lost loads of weight, but for all the wrong reasons - I was becoming quite ill. My next HbA1c in March 2020, just as lockdown began, was now 135 and I was feeling very unwell.

Because of this reading of 135, and other infection & inflammation markers in my blood tests, it was assumed I was type 1 or LADA and that my pancreas was no longer working. I was immediately put on insulin. To cut a very long story short, in October 2020 I was finally able to get a phone consultation with a diabetes consultant and different blood tests were ordered, including C-Peptide. By now my HbA1c was down to 39, my insulin doses were very, very low and I was having multiple hypos. The new blood tests showed that my pancreas is working very well, so I’m now officially, probably, type 2 and am now on Metformin three times a day.

 

[CES]

Hi Martin, my next HbA1c is at the end of this month (March). I’m starting on Semaglutide this Sunday. I’m delighted that my consultant has agreed to try me on this. I’d done some research before my last phone consultation with her and asked if I was a suitable candidate. I’m quite excited and hope that it’ll make a considerable difference.

 

[MrDaibetes]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Sounds like you had an eventful diagnosis but thankfully everything is back on track.
If you have any questions feel free to ask away.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Goodness! What a runaround you’ve had @CES

You certainly aren’t the first member to have seen quite unusual and erratic responses to diabetes treatment which foxed the Drs though - and I daresay you won’t be the last!

Several members here demonstrate that the neat little ’type’ boxes are only the vaguest indication - and that often a person’s diabetes has other ideas entirely!

Hope the Semaglutide works well for you, and you can begin to settle into your newly confirmed ‘official probable’ diagnosis. 😛

 

[CES]

Goodness! What a runaround you’ve had @CES

You certainly aren’t the first member to have seen quite unusual and erratic responses to diabetes treatment which foxed the Drs though - and I daresay you won’t be the last!

Several members here demonstrate that the neat little ’type’ boxes are only the vaguest indication - and that often a person’s diabetes has other ideas entirely!

Hope the Semaglutide works well for you, and you can begin to settle into your newly confirmed ‘official probable’ diagnosis. 😛

Thank you for your reply.

I still don’t understand how my HbA1c can have shot up to 135 (which set alarm bells ringing at my GP surgery & I was sent for a MRI scan of my pancreas because they thought I might have pancreatic cancer because of that reading and other blood indicators that rang alarm bells - that was such a scary time) and it’s now so well under control. My diabetes consultant, who seems to be excellent, can’t even explain what’s happening to my body.

On my Metformin regime of 1 tablet 3x a day, my morning fasting reading is usually between 6.6 & 7.9, occasionally a little higher if I haven’t been able to sleep. But after breakfast and by lunchtime my reading is down to between 4 & 5 (more usually 4 or 4.5). I really struggle to get my head around it all, and as all this has happened since lockdown in 2020 the only face to face meetings I’ve had are with the healthcare assistants when I have my blood tests. I’m hoping to learn lots from this forum.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I really struggle to get my head around it all, and as all this has happened since lockdown in 2020 the only face to face meetings I’ve had are with the healthcare assistants when I have my blood tests. I’m hoping to learn lots from this forum.

I can imagine! It has been a really tricky time to get a diagnosis with diabetes, and so many of the usual things that would have been part of people’s introductions to their diabetes management have not been able to happen.

It’s tricky not knowing quite which form of diabetes you are living with, but two books that often get recommended on the forum are

Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker

and

Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas (suitable for people with T1 of all ages)

But I’m not sure if either of those will really apply to you?!

Glad you dodged the pancreatic cancer - of all the cancers out there, that’s one you want to steer clear of.