So I’m part of the D club. I’m a 33 year old female and went to the hospital because I felt I was going to pass put. Turns out my blood sugars were 468. Of course I had weight loss…sunken eyes…and incredible thirst and seeing every two hours week’s before. All the common sign a. ER doc sent me home before any confirmation of blood work (gotta love ERs) and told me to follow up with my primary care.
Looked online at my tests to see my blood sugar and a1c. Almost scary to type…12.8…
Followed up with my primary care and my c peptide score is 1.2 gad was 1930. Yes…1930…range 0-5.
I was started on 10u levemir night and morning. My diagnosis was three weeks ago.
I do have a few questions. I have been extremely low carb and my sugars still spike over 200 after a small lunch. I brought this up to my Pcp and she wasn’t concerned. How long does it.take or did it take for you to normalize with insulin. I was not prescribed fast acting. Just basal. Because I’m a type one…should I have a fast acting?
Second…my c peptide was low end of normal and when this test was taken…my blood sugar was 174. I also had trace ketones a week after the Er. My doc says type 2 but for all the hours of research…I belong in the 1.5/1 club. Is it ever worth a follow up c peptide or should I just count on my pancreas slowllllllly getting worse.
I can say I’m glad I’m feeling better but some days it makes me pretty down. I don’t have a hx of type one and no one understands. Nice to meet you all.
Welcome to TuD, have you had a follow-up since your diagnosis three weeks ago? Why does your doc say type 2 with a GAD so high? My PCP diagnosed me as type 1 with a positive GAD (not add high as yours) but my endo thinks type 2…
Anyway, I think you should be bolusing with fast acting, the basal won’t help too much with spikes after meals.
Maybe get a referral to an endo if your doc is not responsive.
Thanks for responding! I agree that a fast acting insulin is needed at this time. I have not had a follow up…my next appointment is in 3 weeks. I am patiently waiting for that appt. and hopefully can get.referred to the only endo we have in town.
Why does your endo think type 2 with antibodies present?
Move away from your primary care doc as quickly as possible and get into an endo or diabetes specialist. The sooner you start to work with someone with experience and knowledge with diabetics, the sooner you will be able to work out the very personalized treatment plan we each need to manage our condition. I
I’m glad you found us but sorry to have to welcome you to our club.
Many PCPs are simply not competent to do diabetes diagnosis. I had one PCP admit to me that they wouldn’t order the antibody tests because they didn’t know how to interpret them. As others have said your best bet is to get to see an endo. And you need to check whether you actually need a referral. If you do there are some things that you can do to make a referral happen. You can enlist the endo’s office in helping to make it happen. You can enlist a local CDE in helping you. Or you can even enlist your insurance in waiving the referral requirements by simply telling them that you think you will have to go to the ER again. They would much rather pay for an endo visit than an ER visit.
And a trick to get into seeing an endo is to try to make an appointment but then to ask to be put onto a wait list for the next available appointment. And tell the scheduler that you are totally flexible, even if you aren’t. Endos will their schedules with regular appointments months ahead and people end up have to cancel and reschedule their appointments all the time.
Thank you tatty and Brian for taking time to respond. I really appreciate it. My next appointment with my PCP is May 18. I think you’re both right to get into the endo and will call next week to get on a waiting list. I’m fortunate at this point to have great insurance…not having to use it for ten years. I believe a referral is needed and will work on that.
Today is a good day. Seems I have more good than bad in regards to my mental state. Positively speaking I do feel better and it’s nice to know what the neck is.going on with me. And my spouse…who is trying to be supportive says…“at least you’ll eat healthy” haha. Not like I didn’t before.
I like to have control so it’s super hard to be patient. I shall try as I don’t have a choice.
I agree w Brian. you need to see an endo asap. Tell them to put you on the cancellation list, so they’ll call you if someone cancels, you can take their appointment time.
getting a CDE is a great idea. Here’s how to find one
they can spend more time with you than an endo in most cases.
As everyone else says, you need to make an endo your primary diabetes consultant, the sooner the better, for all the reasons given above.
And you sure sound like T1, but that’s a call for a qualified endo to make based on test results and experience.
But even if only temporarily, you need fast acting insulin REGARDLESS of what your diagnosis turns out to be. (Is that enough emphasis? I’m still not sure.) If you are spiking into the 200 range after a meal, you need a way to correct those highs. That just doesn’t happen to non diabetic people on a regular basis. You are entitled to normal blood sugars just like the rest of humanity. If that’s not happening, you need the tool to fix it.
Thank you for the link Marie. I used the website and found a place. And THANK you David you are right. My PCP said not to worry but it literally makes me sick and I can FEEL it when my sugars are high. I feel like my feet hurt and blood rushes to my head. Plus get super sleepy and can’t concentrate at work. It’s not fun and I DO worry.
Update. Sorry. I really don’t have many people to talk to. My family is amazing but they don’t get…yet…my husband has started to talk to me about it and my parents are super supportive. But at the end of the day I feel alone.
I got a call from my PCP telling me about my abnormal labwork. I knew on Friday because we can check it online. I was referred to the only endo in town ans waiting on a call.
Today I had a salad no dressing and my sugars were 195 post lunch. By the time I got home I felt really so checked again before dinner…258.
I can’t wait foe my appt. I’m still not on fast acting and I know I need it. Anyway today was okay…I have a high stress job so I’m thinking that takes a toll. Plus raising two beautiful children. Thanks for reading.
Assuming for the sake of discussion that you do get prescribed insulin, you’ll discover pretty quickly that knowledge is power when it comes to using it safely and effectively.
Managing diabetes with insulin is a somewhat unique experience. It’s one of very few medical conditions (actually at this moment I can’t think of another) in which the patient is personally responsible for self-administering and managing a powerful medication. So if you go down that road, the more you know, the better off you will be. Self-education is key to learning how to get the most effect with the greatest safety.
. . . all of which is a long, roundabout way of saying, there are some extremely helpful books you’ll want to read. Here are two of the best:
Gary Scheiner, Think Like A Pancreas (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2011)
John Walsh et al., Using Insulin (San Diego: Torrey Pines Press, 2003)
