It can be very frustrating and reminds me of my journey. I wasn’t skinny, not obese but not skinny and I was misdiagnosed I believe because of that. I even asked to be tested and I wasn’t and just told no you’re a type 2.
I had been a vegan who ate very healthy swam 75 laps 5 days a week in a gym pool, very active and yet my sugars kept going slowly up. It becomes very frustrating when you do everything “right” and it’s not working. In my case I was LADA and with LADA it is like that, it’s a slow decrease of insulin production. So changes in diet, weight loss, added activity will sometimes control it until it doesn’t.
There is more than one antibody test. It’s just most of the time you are positive on a GAD test, so a lot just test that. So you probably need the rest done. But there are a few cases where you will test negative on all antibody tests but don’t end up making insulin. My DE, diabetic educator is one of those. It’s just kind of, we don’t know why group.
The C-peptide test becomes critical because if it comes back low or low normal it is a sign of type 1. If it comes back high or high normal it is a sign of type 2. The C-peptide test can vary with results some as sometimes you can make more insulin etc.
But it becomes invaluable because if you are testing high you know it’s type 2 as your body is making plenty of insulin but it’s not working well. If you test low you are not making enough. There was a study that said only 5% of type 2’s are lacking insulin production. But that only usually happens after a long time of overproduction and the theory is your pancreas wears out. One of the other theories is some might have actually been type 1’s misdiagnosed. They think eventually a type 1 can stop making antibodies because you have nothing to attack anymore. But that only happens after a very long time, years and years. You would have had to been on insulin by that time.
Whether you are a type 1 or not, in the long run more information should be able to help you know how to treat it. And if not, it’s about trying to get your BG’s levels at “right” levels. And you might have to experiment with what works.
Good luck with your journey! I remember the frustration well. I was happy when I was diagnosed a type 1. Not because I was a type 1, but because it explained so much in my case. I then knew what I had to do to control it.
Here is a lists of tests.