On Twitter, Google +, Facebook, TuDiabetes, Tumblr, etc., I always see blips from other diabetics stating that they are celebrating their diaversary. That is, the anniversary of their diagnosis. Sometimes they choose to be happy about it, taking the road of “I’ve survived this long and am still so very healthy”, etc. Sometimes the celebration is no celebration at all, “X years with this ■■■■■■■ disease”.
The thing is, I don’t know my exact diaversary. The exact date of my diagnosis was not something myself or my parents made note of. Now that I look back, I wish I knew. I would love to be able to say “I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on April X, 1988”. All I know is that I was nine years old so that makes it 1988, and that it was just after Easter, so that makes it in April.
I’ve gone through all the old paperwork I have from my childhood, but surprisingly, I have very little medical records. Most of it is school stuff. I don’t think I can contact my diagnosing endocrinologist’s office. I don’t know what it was called or even if it still exists. Also, I’m fairly certain my diagnosing endo is retired and possibly even has passed away. I do remember his name,though, and even have a distinct memory of what he looked like. It’s funny what memories get scarred into your mind. He was a very nice doctor, but he had very frightening news to give me. Anyway, I’ve moved a lot over the years and changed my insurance provider and doctors many times (and even went several years without insurance) so my medical records are scattered and jumbled.
Is there any way there is still a record out there of the exact date my diabetes diagnosis was confirmed? A record I can get my hands on? I’m not sure how that all works.
It’s hard to pin down my Dx. In 1973 the military gave me a Glucose Tolerance Test because my BG was not in normal range on a standard deployment blood test then they sent me back to my company without any farther explanation. Then in 1987 I took a insurance physical and my fasting BG was 168 mg/dL again noting else was said but a few mouths went by and I was unable to function my wife drove me to see a doctor and he tested my blood sugar, it was over 800 mg/dL and the doctor said the reason your so sick is you have Diabetes…“I was just skin and bones by then”
I always say 1987 was my Dx because I have the actual lab papers from 1987 but I’m a LADA and my BG troubles
started to surface back in the 70’s.
Yeah, same here, though I can narrow it down to the month. I know it was 1983, my senior year in college and it was around the beginning of Christmas break, so somewhere around the second week of December that year. That timing is actually kind of relevant because it was around exam time that my symptoms started getting to the point where I know something was haywire but didn’t know what it was. I was just feeling more and more awful, like a bad hangover, only without the heavy drinking part, and going on day after day. But since it didn’t seem like anything definite I was mentally writing it off to end-of-term anxiety. It was my first year in a special program where you are essentially a grad student while still an undergrad–taking grad seminars and such–and I was super stressed about being able to cut it, and I was sure it was just all that that was making me feel so crappy. But it started getting really weird how severe it was, even after exams, and there seemed to be something seriously funky with my eyes, plus this odd seemingly unrelated thing of having to pee ridiculously often and always being so thirsty…
Back then they still called it “juvenile” diabetes. I was in this one seminar with a terrific visiting professor, a Brit, who later became my dissertation advisor. He had gone back to York at end of term and I had to write to him explaining why I needed an extension on the seminar paper. He wrote back that the extension was no problem, and regarding my diagnosis, “It must be even more annoying to get the juvenile kind.” It’s perhaps worth mentioning that the course was “Medieval Comedy,” and the professor was pals with Terry Jones of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (who I got to meet, years later). That whole Brit dry wit thing yeah.
This is your chance to play detective! I would start with a Google search of your diagnosing doctor’s name. Maybe add the town name to narrow the search. Most doctor practices are sold/passed on to another doctor when they retire. You may be surprised about what written records may still exist.
Another idea is to see what records may have been kept at the pharmacy you used. I would also check with any insurance company that may have paid medical claims.
Or you could save yourself the effort and just pick a day. Be aware that Easter moves on the calendar from year to year. The Roman Catholic one is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. Check a calendar for the year you were diagnosed to find out the date of Easter that year. It can occur in March as well as April.
I’m the same, I don’t know the exact date of my diagnosis. I know that I was 9, which means it was 1991, and I do remember that it was around my parents’ birthdays (which are both in early October). I still have my original logbook, which I’m pretty sure my parents began the day I got out of the hospital. The logbook starts at dinnertime on October 11, and I know I was in the hospital for four days, so I’m pretty sure I was diagnosed on October 8. But that’s just a guess, not based on any type of official record. Still, in my blog and other places I’ve picked October 8 as my diabetes anniversary, and I’d actually be kind of sad if I find out that date is wrong.
I also have no idea what my blood sugar was at diagnosis nor whether I was in DKA, although I do remember that I had ketones and that they were monitored closely. I’ve been thinking of trying to track down my records but, like you, I’m not sure they would still be around after 24 years. My parents don’t remember any specific details when I’ve asked them, either.
I know my exact date… Much more recent than some others here. Knowing the exact date doesn’t provide me with a lot of satisfaction though because the question just shifts to “how long was this going on prior to diagnosis” which I will probably never know…
I don’t think any of us will really know how long the process was going on. Research shows that even in kids, the autoimmune process is going on years and years before symptoms develop, and symptoms in kids tend to progress really fast. As far as I remember, and from what my parents tell me, my symptoms came on very suddenly and I only had symptoms for two or three weeks before I was diagnosed (with blood sugar high enough that my doctor called my parents an hour after I got blood drawn and said, “You need to take her to the hospital immediately, her blood sugar is high enough that she could go into a coma at any time…”). Yet, I’m sure the autoimmune attack must have been going on long before that.
What bothers me is not having any idea how much damage may have already been done to my body by it before it was recognized. I had fasting levels in the 400s when diagnosed… And had just started to show symptoms like weight loss and thirst. Who knows maybe I had been in the 200s-300s for months? Years? Prior to that and never showed symptoms… I was a thin, athletic, Caucasian male in my 20s-- there was no thought that it ever should have been looked into until I started showing symptoms. Seems like a1c screenings and random bg screening for all patients routinely should be justified-- not just patients they consider to be in high risk groups.
Huh, never heard that. The part about symptoms developing really fast fits what I remember, though. I’d had a really nasty cold in late September that lasted into October, and my symptoms started shortly after that. Always wondered if that was the trigger. Like I said in my other response I had no idea what it was but I know I started feeling awful and trying to ignore it for like a month or six weeks before it got bad enough that I had to get help. I find it hard to believe it was developing slowly before that because it was such a distinct thing when it started, even though I couldn’t figure out what it was because it felt different from anything I’d ever experienced.
This site is about children, but it has some good information on how the autoimmune attack takes a long time to develop, even though symptoms can come on really fast, such as this image:
My kids are both enrolled in the trialnet study-- hoping to shed some light on those questions, and from there determine if there’s anyway to intervene once the earliest precursors are detected…
My diabetes was slow onset in an adult. I experienced slow healing wounds, symptomatic of extended hyperglycemia, in the year before diagnosis. With my limited understanding of the human body, I am aware that many of our functions are over-designed. We can get by well on just one healthy kidney, for example. I think that the rush of diabetes symptoms that send us to the doctor or hospital may just be the metabolic tipping point in a process that started long before. I think I started down the road to diabetes at least one year before my diagnosis.
Yeah Easter that year was on April 3rd. The only reason I remember that I was diagnosed around that time is because I wasn’t allowed to finish my Easter candy. So I must have been diagnosed within a week or so after Easter.
The date isn’t really important, I just would like to know. I do know my diabetes was a pretty rapid onset because I was having symptoms for only a week or so before my diagnosis. But seeing as my mom was a nurse and my dad a type 1, they noticed the symptoms before I got to the outright sick point. I just had thirst (cotton mouth) and peeing a lot…and fatigue.
I would also love to know what my BG was at diagnosis! I have no idea. I do know I wasn’t in DKA because my parents caught the symptoms pretty early. My mom is a nurse and my dad a type 1, so they caught on quick.
I think a lot of people might take it as a significant date because it answered a big question, “What’s going on?” And also because it was the date when their entire life changed.
I don’t find the exact date of my diagnosis to be an important thing. It’s just something I am very curious about. I like to know everything I can possibly know, and knowing that I don’t know something about myself kind of annoys me. LOL
I’m the same way, I’d like to know my BG at diagnosis just out of curiosity, nothing more. I do, however, tend to use my diabetes anniversary as a date to reflect on my life with diabetes (usually in a positive way).
I’m more curious about when my diabetes actually started as opposed to the very late date that I got the diagnosis. my life changed when my pancreas began to fail
