Type 2 after treatment for childhood cancer

[Pugmummy]

Hi everyone thought I’d introduce myself and see if there’s anyone else who has followed a similar journey to this destination of type 2 diagnosis.

It’s a long one, bare with me
I was treated for childhood leukaemia (age 13) 29 years ago. I had aggressive treatment which consisted of high dose chemotherapy, total body radiation & a bone marrow transplant. As part of the treatment I had high dose IV steroids. These have resulted in damage to all my organs including my liver & pancreas. The chemo has also damaged my heart and I now have severe heart failure. I have an internal defibrillator fitted and will eventually need a heart transplant. I was told years ago I would no doubt end up with diabetes because of the treatment. I manage to fly under the radar for a while but last year my Hba1c started to creep up from 47 to 49. I’ve felt pretty c**p over the 6 months but put that down to the heart failure & drugs but now starting to wander if it was the high sugars. The past 2 weeks was particularly bad in terms of fatigue and unquenchable thirst. My husband is type 2 so I tested my sugars over the weekend and they were continually above 17. So went to my GP’s and they tested it and was 25.5! They started me on 1mg of glimepirmide but after only 2 days of taking it I had a hypo (3.5). So they stopped that and put me metformin but said I won’t be on that long as I probably need insulin. So here I am just waiting for appointment with an endocrinologist because my GP said I’m too complex to manage. They repeated my hbc1 and said it will probably be above 120 with my sugars being so high, find out Monday.
Feeling pretty fed up, as if I haven’t got enough s*#t going in

 

[trophywench]

Hiya - you certainly have got enough going on already, I agree.

However I love your GP because he's done the very best thing he could possibly do for you - refer you straight to the experts and not mess you about for months on end trying different T2 drugs. You most likely will do one heck of a lot better on insulin from the outset - and modern injection methods are easy peasy so nowt to be scared of.

Hope you get seen pdq but in the meantime keep a close eye on the amount of carbohydrates you eat and try and cut them down however much you eat, so as not to overload your struggling pancreas too much.

 

[Grogg1]

Hi Pugmummy and welcome. You have certainly had a tough journey and no doubt your other health issues will make your controlling of diabetes challenging. I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes 12 months after finishing radiotherapy for breast cancer. My blood sugar was very high but I was only started on Metformin, though I think their intention was to gradually increase meds. Hear I am over 12 months later and on same level of meds and using diet to obtain some control of my diabetes. Out of curiosity does your husband use diet or meds to control his. If you look around on this forum you will find most of T2 try to adopt a low/lowish carb diet. This means eat more protein/fat and restrict bread, rice, potatoes and pasta.