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Symptoms labelled as anxiety- what could they be?

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CharlotteScr

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hi there, i am a parent of a newly diagnosed T1DM, she just turned 16 and was diagnosed in Feb. We've just had a pretty awful appointment with the consultant- i was very upset but now I am just angry- and I hope you may have some calm and wise words for me! This is the issue:
After a spell of feeling much better after diagnosis, over the last 6 weeks she has progressively begun to feel worse and worse, feeling out of breath, nauseous, palpitations, hot, sweaty, headaches, tired etc. The consultant believes this is anxiety and advised yoga..... however i just don't buy this. She is a very calm person, has dealt well with the diabetes and has a sensible attitude to it- neither OTT nor ignoring it. (She has what seems to me a natural reaction of sadness and anger to her diagnosis, without seeming excessively either.) Her blood glucose is pretty well-controlled I have seen her have these spells of nausea/paleness etc and she is talking normally and calmly, just looking and feeling dreadful, even with blood levels of 8. She has had a blood test and her thyroid function is normal, and she is not coeliac. Any ideas on what is going on?? I am willing to hear that you agree with our consultant! Just feel very powerless and am desperate to help her feel well again
 
It’s always frustrating when symptoms are dismissed as stress or anxiety. They sound like hypo symptoms but you say her blood sugar is normal. Could it be dropping fast? Sometimes that can cause unpleasant symptoms. Or could it be false hypos (feeling hypo at normal blood sugars because your body has got used to high sugars so normal feels wrong to it?)

Has she had her thyroid tested? Type 1s are more prone to thyroid issues, and some of those symptoms would fit.
 
Thanks Inka- she has had her thyroid tested and its apparently fine. They do look and feel like hypos- sometimes they are dropping fast but i also think there may be something in the false hypos idea- her sugars are running higher because when she was running lower she felt terrible all the time. thank you- i will look into that!
 
CharlotteScr said:
Thanks Inka- she has had her thyroid tested and its apparently fine. They do look and feel like hypos- sometimes they are dropping fast but i also think there may be something in the false hypos idea- her sugars are running higher because when she was running lower she felt terrible all the time. thank you- i will look into that!
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You might be right about false hypos but it may not have anything to do with diabetes.
I'd be visiting the GP about this.
 
Thank you very much pm 133, that is a good point. (And thats what my daughter said bless her. She is disgustingly sensible!) In any event i am not inclined to think yoga will sort it out as suggested by the consultant....🙄
 
Having done yoga for 30 years off and on...it is really good though...just thought I'd say that. I have nothing useful to add to your post otherwise...sorry.
 
Yes I'm sure that would help too- me probably as well 😉 Thank you all somuch, you cannot imagine how much of a relief it is to chat with you about this
 
This is probably a bit of a long shot but some people have experienced reactions to their insulin.
There are other types of insulin available which should could try.
 
Oh no really? There's so much to learn about this. I will look into that. Thank you
 
Welcome to the forum @CharlotteScr and I am sorry to hear about your daughter’s diagnosis.

My thought was whether it would be worth trying a different insulin, as @helli suggested, especially if this has been evident from the start. There are alternatives to both basal (background) and Bolus (quick acting/meal) insulins.

If your daughter’s levels are well controlled, it could be a sharp drop leading to a false hypo. Does she have access to a Libre. This is a sensor which can monitor her levels all the time and show her the results when swiped by a phone or reader. This gives us a much fuller picture of what is going on. It might be worth asking her team if she could trial this.

This could also be nothing to do with Diabetes. Emotionally it is currently a very difficult time for all Y11students, and the uncertainties around their assessment this year are making things more difficult.
It could also be another physical issue. So often if you have T1 other things are often tagged onto the Diabetes. So contacting the GP would help to do some checks.

I hope that you can follow up some of the suggestions. Do keep in touch and come back with any questions that you have.
 
Thank you very much, this is very helpful. I will look into all of this- it helps to have a list to tackle rather than flailing around which is what we feel I have been doing up to now! I am willing to be proved wrong on it being physical rather than psychological (and i realise these are linked, esp in endocrine disorders) but i do feel this has a distinct physical root, and it is feeling like rubbish which is making her miserable, rather than the other way around! I will definitely let you know how we get on- next stop the GP!
 
Hello and welcome to the forum.

It's just a suggestion but could you and your daughter keep a diary as to when the symptoms appear?
This might or might not pin point what is happening.
Hope your daughter is soon feeling better.
 
The effects of dehydration crossed my mind - with your daughter being newly diagnosed, was she prompted to drink before, and has she got out of the habit of drinking in the weeks since?
I could be something to ask about, or offering a glass of water when she begins to feel the symptoms, along with a quiet sit down might help to reduce them as they sound pretty unpleasant. I am sure they are real, but could be minimised.
 
CharlotteScr said:
Thank you very much pm 133, that is a good point. (And thats what my daughter said bless her. She is disgustingly sensible!) In any event i am not inclined to think yoga will sort it out as suggested by the consultant....🙄
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Yeah, I'm not a medical doctor but I am pretty sure Yoga isn't used to relieve headaches, nausea and breathlessness.
I think your consultant is stepping outside their sphere of knowledge when what they should have done is direct you straight to your GP. They have a tendency to do that sometimes. I've had my own run-ins recently and posted about that too (at some length).

Good luck with this. Let us know how you get on.
 
pm133 said:
Yeah, I'm not a medical doctor but I am pretty sure Yoga isn't used to relieve headaches, nausea and breathlessness.
I think your consultant is stepping outside their sphere of knowledge when what they should have done is direct you straight to your GP. They have a tendency to do that sometimes. I've had my own run-ins recently and posted about that too (at some length).

Good luck with this. Let us know how you get on.
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Yes I think you are right. My husband said the same - you wouldn’t accept a diagnosis of diabetes from a psychologist so why accept anxiety from a diabetologist.... I have booked a visit to the GP and we will see where we go from there. I should have been prepared for it really, but I was so taken aback by the doctor, who had never met my daughter before, having decided before we got on the call that her symptoms were psychosomatic (his words).
 
When my anaemia is bad I have all of those symptoms so that is my usual suggestion. Blood tests will answer that easily.
 
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