Other terrible symptoms with onset

Hi All!
I have a friend recently diagnosed with LADA. She has been having terrible headaches and dizzy spells since diagnosis. She feels HORRIBLE and has even gone into urgent care a few times. The latests is that they think her body was in ‘starvation’ mode. She had ketones in urine so that explain feeling physically like crap. She can’t drive or anything yet. Normal life is impossible at the moment. She had a VERY quick VERY sudden onset of diabetes (as opposed to mine- I had a very long honeymoon period). I’m just wondering if any of you had smilier experiences? She has a great endo. and diabetic team that are trying to figure this all out and they’ve tested and ruled out other things it could be. I was just more curious about others’ stories on here. We are all so difference even if we do share the same disease. I keep telling her being a diabetic is tough, but not that tough!!! I mean it doesn’t make me feel like I have the flu everyday of the week.

Yes, I did (I was 28), and from other occasions when this topic has come up it seems to split about 60/40, long onset vs short/acute. Her case sounds very much like what I experienced. Felt (at first) like a mild hangover–vague nausea, headache that doesn’t go away but keeps getting worse–and within two-three weeks goes from “Is this really a thing?” to “Oh my god what is this?”, adding in weird vision problems, extreme irritability. Then that other thing, which at the time I had no clue was even related: constant gnawing thirst and having to pee again when I’d just gone a little while ago. It was actually my mother-in-law, who worked as an Occ Therapist in nursing homes, who recognized what it was and told my wife to get me to a doctor stat.

So yes, it absolutely CAN feel exactly like what your friend is going through.

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this is a topic with many replies (you can click the large “summarize” button to shorten it. @Melitta knows a lot on this subject.

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Hi, do you know what insulin regime your friend is on, and was she in DKA at diagnosis? I had rapid-onset Type 1 diabetes at age 35, and I was in DKA. In my view, it probably takes longer for an adult to recover from DKA. Also, if your friend has ketones, that means high BG, and of course that feels awful! Best of luck to your friend!

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I went into dka-in icu- serious complications. I went to doctors for years. 2 years before dka it could’ve been diagnosed easily and I could have avoided all of It. Then I was not hospitalized when in an obvious emergency and then released with a dvt-then back for 5 more days. It has been a nightmare and I have felt like crap since being put on insulin. My vision also went totally blurry when they lowered my Bg- it took 4 months to improve but it has not gone back to what it was. I was essentially disabled for the first 3 months or so-I couldn’t drive or do much etc.

I would guess your friend did have symptoms for a while and ignored them maybe. Once you get to dka territory things can happen fast. I’m sorry she is having such a hard time- I hope she normalizes eventually and feels better. I have found being too thin is very bad for my Bg management and diet is very important for me. I had to eliminate gluten for cross contamination and all grains and lots of other foods.

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