So, I was just diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes about 10 months ago at the age of 56. I constantly hear “you can’t have type 1 diabetes, that only happens to children”, even from some Drs., though I have the autoantibodies to prove it. I know I was pretty old to be diagnosed, but I was wondering if anyone else was diagnosed in my age group. My father was also Type 1 and he was diagnosed in his early 40s. . . .It might be interesting for people to post their ages at diagnosis - I searched the medical literature and could not find anywhere that this has been studied.
I was diagnosed at age 58. I was actually misdiagnosed Type 2 due to the very ignorance you describe. There is plenty of information out there about LADA (Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults - slow onset type 1) but it is not yet officially recognized.
I was dx’ed 08/2008 in ICU, DKA and 52
Hey, I was diagnosed last year at the age of 46. Here’s my story http://www.dlife.com/diabetes/information/daily_living/LADA.html
I agree. Even doctors can be terribly ignorant about things that they don’t understand. I had one tell me to my face that I was a T1, T1, T1! I told him I was diagnosed in my 30’s (am 56 now) as a T2. Then I found out both of us were correct…in a way. Many people are diagnosed as one type because of the symptoms they display. Then the picture changes as you grow older and develop new symptoms along with the old. So, now I have characteristics of T2 and T1. What am I? Probably a 1.5 or could be a 1; but I am no longer a T2. So we were both wrong!!!
Lois
I can’t say I was diagnosed at such an age, since mine was at age 5, but have seen a message from a Type 1, NOT a LADA,who had just been diagnosed at age 73.
That’s why we’re now known as Type 1s the old “Juvenile Onset” label was wrong from the time it was introduced in 1952, 4 years before my diagnosis. Seems your family just has it show up in the 40s…
I was diagnosed with Type 1 at age 35. LOTS of people on TuD were diagnosed with T1 as adults–you are in good company. The former acting U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Kenneth Moritsugu, was diagnosed at age 49. If you are interested, take a look at some of my blogs about adult-onset Type 1 diabetes. Sorry to welcome you to the group, but it’s a good place to be.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 (not LADA) at 49. My father was diagnosed with Type 1 at 35, back when it was still called juvenile onset.
Dx T2 at 47, not much of a stretch with both parents, a brother, and one grandparent on each side having been Dx T2.
Downgraded (or up, depending on your point of view) to T1 at 49, but only after an ER visit and three blood draws because neither my primary or endo were thinking T1. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call it a mis-diagnosis because a true misdiagnosis wouldn’t allow me to live two years as a T2.
Nonetheless, an increasing number of adults are being Dx’d T1 or T1.5, and the reluctance of the medical community to drop “juvenile diabetes” altogether makes it rather difficult to get research funding for LADA issues.
Type 2 at the age of 41 , jan 2003
Yes, that’s what I figured. There are a lot of us. I am a Type 1 (although I think perhaps IDDM is a better name) having had a rather dramatic onset, ending up in the ICU in DKA, with a blood glucose of almost 1400. In addition to the lack of recognition from the medical communitity, I was upset to find that there is virtually no research going on for older people. After diagnosis, I tried to enroll in a number of research studies while I was in my honeymoon period, only to find out that the upper age limit, even for Trialnet, is 45 or less. As far as I can tell, no one even knows how many people are diagnosed at what age.
i was diagnosed days before my 40th birthday.
the doctors told me i didn’t ‘fit in’ . what a comfort (sarcasm)
I was diagnosed at age 43 (now 56). My son was diagnosed at age 16 and my daughter at age 13. I was told it was highly unlikely I had T1! (I did) Even my son’s Doctors put him on oral meds and off insulin (almost killed him). Now when I go to the Doctor I always start with “If its rare or unusual, think of it as probable”. I’m a director of a large retirement community (average age 86) and can say that I’ve seen some of our patients diagnosed with T1 (never initially). The bid “D” is very much a diasese that does not discriminate! It seems to me that Doctors want to put a patients problems into a simple box and then treat. I understand their frustrations though and Diabetes seems to kick everyones —!
I fit the ‘typical’ Type 1 mold…I was 6 years old at diagnosis. My late aunt was also a Type 1 diabetic, and also fit the ‘typical’ mold; she was 9 at diagnosis.
People don’t actually change their types. Many people are misdiagnosed type 2’s when they are in fact LADA. It is also normal for people to develop different symptoms as they progress with their disease, such as Type 2’s whose pancreas stops producing insulin and they need to inject, but they are still type 2’s. Or type 1’s who develop insulin resistance, but they are still type 1’s. It’s a common misconception that “type 1.5” is “halfway between type 1 and type 2”, which is why I prefer the term LADA. LADAs ARE type 1’s, only with slower onset and later in life diagnosis.
“a true misdiagnosis wouldn’t allow me to live two years as a T2.”
It would if you were LADA, Muragaki; we have slower onset type 1 so we can go for a couple years being treated as a type 2; that’s why so many of us were misdiagnosed because a doctor didn’t think to look further than our age.