Should I be worried? (background - I have a son 13 - with type 1)
My daughter - 18 - has a bg of 11.7 and 2+ ketones - she said she doesn’t feel well - nautious - and lately she started to take water to bed because she said she gets thirsty. (But it is extremely hot here as well - 36 deg C) She is very thin as well about 53kg’s 1.7m. What do you think?
Hi Riette,
Weight loss, lethargy and thirst are all classic signs. She should not have ketones unless she is not eating at all or on a severely restricted low carb diet. Please take her to the doctor otherwise if she does have diabetes it will get worse and worse. Sorry to here about the struggle for your family. Please keep us updated.
Be loved
I agree that a visit to the doctor is in order. Ketones are dangerous and not ordinarily found in non-diabetics or non-dieters. And that’s an out of range blood sugar for a non-diabetic (translating to a 210 or so for those of us U.S. system users).
Today Riette I had the same,my 17y old patient noticed her 11 y brother to drink a lot for days,she checked his fasting:180mg,random ;260mg,checked his ketones: nil.She gave him insulin ( aspart) and brought him to hospital.Proud of Nour ( she is in my album). So as Laura & Melissa advised please take her to hospital.
Tx you all. I phoned our specialist (who is 4 hours drive from us and our Gp’s here do’nt know anything about diabetes) He said It is high for a child - but it could be that she is ill, and 2+ ketones can also be because she has’nt eat a lot. But I should check again tomorrow morning (fasting glukose) then take her monday for A1C and C peptide test. She ate dinner now and I’m going to check her bg in about 1-2 hours. I realy realy hope it is not diabetes. She’s going of to univeristy in January and away from us - I do not want her to be alone with this!!
Keep us posted! And the fact that she has ketones means that you should be extra careful. Anything above 8 is certainly too high, even after meals. Let us know…
Uh oh. I’m really sorry.
Her post prandial was 7.9 (1 hour) then 6.7 (2 hours) Her fasting was 6.5. But she is 8.7 now! She swam and only drank diet sprite with cola tonic. Gave her some glukose sweets so that I can test her after that. I’m going to take her tomorrow for the necessary tests - the problem is it’s holiday’s and everything takes much longer!! I hate this waiting game… What a christmas gift!
Do not worry,as long as you check her BG,just watch what she eats during Christmas,no much sweets and CHO,so her BG will not go up.Merry Christmas
Update- glucose tolerance test was negative!!!
Riette,
I know the GTT result sounds like good news, but in early diabetes it is very possible to be back under 7.7 mmol/L at 2 hours and still be spiking diabetic blood sugars at one hour. Those high blood sugars are toxic to beta cells. So the fact that you were measuring diabetic blood sugars at home is still very significant, especially with the family history.
Your daughter should keep testing after meals, and if you continue to see readings over 10 mmol/L you must find a doctor who is aware that such readings, independent of GTT results are considered to be diagnostic for diabetes and who will start treatment early. Early treatment can often preserve beta cells.
I have personally seen family members do okay on GTTs when they were diabetic because they had enough insulin production left to get reactive lows that drove them below the cutoff level at two hours, but after eating meals they were always high. As much as we would like people not to have diabetes, letting doctors assure us all is well when it is not, is a huge mistake.
My first doctor told me I was “fine” despite blood sugars well into the diabetic range after every meal and I had a terrible time with infections, exhaustion, being unable to see out of my eyeglasses after eating, etc until I learned what was going on, cut way back on carbohydrates and found a doctor who was more aware of current diabetes diagnostic criteria.
The results is not at the doctor yet - we also did a A1c and C-peptide.The problem is both my GP and specialist is on holiday from tomorrow and we will only get the results by next year when theyre back
But if she only has highs every now and then my logic tells me that the HbA1c will also be low(?). So there can still be enough beta cells that produce insulin to cover carbs and sugar. My feeling is she is pre-diabetic, and it’s just by luck that we tested her now. I just wonder how long does it take for the body to break down the beta cells until its full blown diabetes?
Hey Riette,
Just a follow-up. we went to my son’s specialist on Friday previous week. He remembered me calling about my daughter (I appreciated that a lot of him - I only spoke to him once on the telephone about her) He asked how she’s doning and what bthe test results were. After I told him he said he is not happy - she spikes every now and then and said we should do the GAD and pancreatic antibodies test. He said that he is going to talk to someone in Sweden- they are in the 3 trial of human testing for a vaccine. (read here) Perhaps (if she’s testing positive) we can try to get her on it. Maybe it’s a far cry - but one has to hope 
Well she got ill again last week (2nd time in 2 month at varsity) flu and sinusitus. So I sent her to the doctor and also made an appointment yesterday at the labs. (The doctor also ordered some other tests as well) I only remembered on friday, (when the doctor asked me questions about her health and major ilnesses when she was young) that she had coxakci virus when she was about 2/3 years of age.
So now we’re anxiously (sp?) waiting for the results…
I agree with everyone here…Please take your daughter to the Doctor and keep us posted.
Cherise
Your doing the best you an and I am sorry for having to wait. It would be great if the vaccine helps her if she can get it what a wonderful thing would be. I know your wait is long but I am going to follow this as long as you update so please keep doing so and thank you for all your efforts
Be loved
Riette, sorry to hear that you are dealing with this!
Did the doctor mention starting her on insulin? Starting on insulin might enable her to have a very long honeymoon period.
Well we are still waiting for the GAD and Pancreatic Island antibodies test results. The doctor however phoned me with other bloodwork results. It shows that her red blood cells are small and that she has an iron deficiensy (sp??) but there are other counts that should also be low and high if she’s anemic. The suggestion from the pathologists is that she may have a chronic illness and further tests is neccesary. So they’re going to do some other tests and then refer it to a specialist. I told the doctor to wait for the other 2 tests before refering it to another specialist. The specialist that told us to do the GAD and antibodies test said we should start het on glucophage - it doesn’t make sense but in any case I’ll handle it when all the results are available…
OK, keep us posted! I hope that you will have answers soon!!