For me, I have diabetes. Okay, on my medical reports, it says ‘pre-diabetes’, not ‘Type 2’. And I guess the goal is to not step over that arbitrary line. I don’t know.
I can’t conceive how being T2 would change my lifestyle. I’m already doing everything I would be doing if I was ‘diabetic’ instead of ‘prediabetic’. I’m already on the maximum dosage of metformin. Does the label matter?
In my head, I have ‘diabetes’. I don’t have ‘not quite diabetes’.
Someone who doesn’t have diabetes doesn’t have to check their sugars or avoid starches or eat on a schedule. I do all these things, so I can’t tell myself, ‘I don’t have diabetes’.
I totally agree with you Laura. As far as I’m concerned, if your BGs are higher than they should be, you ARE diabetic. I don’t see that there’s a middle ground there!
It worries me that some people don’t take a diagnosis of pre-diabetes seriously. YOU are the odd one out there Laura, and an excellent example for others, well done! I think pre-diabetes is a wishy-washy term that is easily ignored. It doesn’t inspire many people to learn about it, deal to it, or consider their future.
Too many doctors diagnose Diabetes using a fasting test. It is possible to have REAL diabetes with a near normal fasting, and to be told you are Prediabetic when you are diabetic.
Keep measuring your blood sugar AFTER meals, and keep it under 140 mg/dl at all times, lower if you can. A just published study found that people with fasting blood sugars of 100-110 mg/dl often became diabetic BY FASTING GLUCOSE STANDARDS within 29 months.
So get started now acting like a REAL diabetic and you may be able to stay “prediabetic” for a long time. I’m at 9 years after diagnosis by Postmeal bgs, and have never yet had an officially diabetic Fasting Blood Glucose, though my PPs were in the mid 200s after each meal 9 years ago. That’s because I’ve been obsessed with keeping my blood sugar normal, and it has worked very well for me.
I use insulin for those post-meal spikes, and when I go off it now and then, my fasting bg is a LOT BETTER than it was 2 years ago when I started it and far better than when I was diagnosed.
I agree that it is possible to have diabetes with normal fasting glucose. My fasting has always been between 75-85 and my two hour PP numbers are also low. However my one hour BG was usually around 180 even with a relatively small amount of carbs. My initial A1C was 7.2 but the first endo I saw told me I didn’t even have impaired glucose tolerance or prediabetes but was completely normal! I asked to get tested for antibodies and am positive so am now officially diagnosed with LADA. I started testing often and doing a low carb diet before I was diagnosed and reduced my A1C to 5.8. That was part of the reason the endo didn’t think I had a problem.
I had gestational diabetes with both of my pregnancies. I dealt with that ok. Now I have prediabetes and Im on metformin. To me this is a life sentence. I consider it diabetes. Just like you said we now have to do all of these precautionary things that diabetics do. We don’t do them for fun, we have to. I read a couple of websites that say damage to the body can already occur in pre-diabetes. I am just as bummed as if the doc had sad T2 instead. I feel ya!
I find this confusing I have been diagnosed diabetic type 2, though control is through diet and exercise not meds. It seems to depend on what the individual doctor thinks.
I’m about the last one would come too for advise. I’d be happy to put my 2 cents in. If you have that word Diabetes attached to any word take care of your self as if you have it. . A year ago I was admitted to the hospital after a TIA They told me I had full blown type 2 It took me about a month to accept the reality I got it and it ain’t going away so better start doing what i should of done a long time ago and start taking care of my self and start reading carbs exercise regularly.and eating right. It’s been a year now I’m living with it and have accepted it as part of my new life style. Well there was a change and a new doctor came into the picture. well you know the story lets do a full physical ,the full blood work everything. Too make a long story short He says “I don’t have diabetes” I was doing the dance of joy I even celebrated with a candy bar or two. Later on that night I was thinking things through and I decided i feel better now , I’m eating right & why should I give up and go back to the way i was before. So I decided even tho i don’t have diabetes officially, actually i do in my mind so I’m going to continue to check, poke and read and adjust so I know that things are right,and so that I don’t have to here those words " You have Diabetics"
take care
If I wait for the doctor to diagnose me with diabetes, I would probably have more complications. By home testing I found my fasting BG although <100 the post meal BG was as high as 200. My doctor of many years was totally unconcerned so I fired him and found a new one who is willing to work with me. So far I have been able to keep my BG below 140 by eliminating carbs - not always easy, but it works. I don’t care if I am called diabetic or prediabetic because, as far as I am concerned, the treatment is the same. From what I have seen, prediabetes can cause health problems as severe as diabetes.
I also have gluten intolerance. I don’t have celiac disease. Again, it does not matter to me what label is used as the treatment is the same. 100% elimination of wheat, barley and rye for optimal health.
they used to call it “boarder-line diabetes” but that suggust it could go either way - now they call it- “pre-diabetes” which suggusts it will only go one way -
Isn’t saying I’m pre diabetic like saying I’m a little pregnant. You either are or you’re not! If ’ you BG is running higher than normal ,then you are in the early stages but you are still a diabetic . This means you have a head start on making healthy choices and preventing complacations!
I think pre-diabetes is also insulin resistance. I have been diagnosed with insulin resistance for years, but since I was always passing my GTT I ignored it. Then I had a doctor with a clue, who did a GTT and checked insulin also. Through the roof. Still I wasn’t really given much to DO about it except take Metformin. Another clueful doctor did a HbA1C and diagnosed diabetes based on that. So basically I think that pre-diabetes or insulin-resistance should not be used, but only ‘diabetes’ – the others are too easy to ignore!
Even though I’ve managed to reverse my type two from ‘full blown’ back to ‘pre-diabetes’ (or even back to ‘normal’, if you’re just looking at my raw numbers), I would never, ever consider myself anything but diabetic. It might lull me into returning to the lifestyle that brought me here. Actually, this has been one of the most interesting journeys of my life. It’s taught me an entirely new way to look at things. Getting my body back into good health, while not easy, has fixed or improved many problems that I thought I was stuck with for life. Like obstructive sleep apnea, acid reflux, fibromyalgia, chronic back pain, and many others. I don’t think I could return to the old lifestyle if I wanted to. I’ve actually learned to enjoy being diabetic for all the good things it’s taught me, and the blessings I’ve received as a result of my patience, persistence, and positivity while battling it.
Congrats Mr . Peachy …awesome journey you took …and thanks for sharing .
signed Mrs. Peach , type 1 for 26 years and NO side effects at age 68 plus …I took my journey and was able to continue…Life is GOOD
Thanks Mrs. Peach. From my perspective, T1s have it even tougher. You deserve a big pat on the back as well. At 58, it’s finally starting to sink in that life is about overcoming challenges. I’ve said before that overcoming depression and fibromyalgia made the diabetes seem relatively easy to deal with. So what this whole thing has taught me is how to put things into perspective. One of my early inspirations, while recovering from depression, was meeting a quadriplegic who fell down some stairs and broke his neck… at 20 years of age. Last time I talked to him, he was well on his way toward getting a master’s degree. I think meeting him was instrumental in getting me to stop feeling sorry for myself, and to start digging my way out of the rut.
I think the Pre-Diabetes term is mainly meant to scare people into acting, too bad it doesn’t always work. Kudos to you for making a change when you were first diagnosed. I was diagnosed with PCOS and Pre-Diabetes in February of 2007 and was put on metformin to control both of those conditions. I listened for the first month, and quickly dropped 15 pounds, but I didn’t take it too seriously and just couldn’t STAND those sugar substitutes and diet sodas. UGG!!! So I fell off the diet, and my progress stopped. Then when I changed jobs and was no longer on insurance, I stopped taking the metformin too and quickly gained everything I lost back plus more. I just wish I had taken it seriously. I mean honestly, my mom and ALL of her siblings have diabetes, and my aunt’s is so bad that her kidneys have failed. I just didn’t want to take the effort to change.
Now, two years later, my husband and I got on this health trip this year and started exercising and eating right, and I have started losing weight again. This got me wanting to keep an eye on my BG levels, so I tested my BG with my mom’s meter a few weeks ago and it scared me. Luckily, all the times I’ve tested recently I haven’t gone over 190, and my at home A1c test was only 6.1, so I think I may have caught it in time to keep from any damage being done, but I do think I may have crossed that line into diabetes (BG is typcially around 156-168 two hours after eating and I woke up at 128 one day). I am continuing to make the changes though, and continuing to lose the weight, but it will be a long journey (I need to lose another 123lbs). I just wish I would have listened sooner. I am going to do my own fast test this weekend and if it is even above 110, I’m going to the doctor and get back on metformin. Might try to get on insurance before I go get officially diagnosed though, because otherwise, I’ll be waiting a year before they pay for anything. UGG! Luckily, I am only 26, so this journey won’t be as difficult to get under control as it was on my mom being diagnosed at 50 after becoming disabled.
