I'm a type 2 and was diagnosed in July 2007 with a family history on both sides of my family. My daughter is 6 years old and has difficult, but not serious, medical issues most of her life. Since she was 3 she's had petit mal seizures which until recently we never had confirmation were even occurring with an EEG.
Two months ago they found some abnormal activity in her right occipital lobe and we finally agreed to put her on Trileptal (anti-convulsive) since she's also having some difficulty in school. We've been monitoring her closely for side effects and last week we noticed things like excessive thirst, hunger, irritability, and bedwetting. Her neurologist was concerned enough to order full panel of tests, including checking the Trileptal level.
Her regular pediatrician checked her blood glucose yesterday afternoon during an and it was 96 mg/dL, but asked us to take a fasting reading this morning. She was at 117 mg/dL this morning.
This afternoon we got her test results back and the Trileptal was normal, her A1C was 5.5, and one of her thyroid levels was too high. We are scheduling a glucose tolerance test and going to get the thyroid levels rechecked at the same time.
I know we're doing the right things, following the doctors' advice, and watching for the right things, but I can't help but think I'm overly sensitive and overreacting.
Hi Craig…you sound perfectly sain to me! I would do the same thing and follow the Doctor’s advice. I have twins, one has type 1 the other doesn’t. Now and again I worry about my daughter being dx’d …I am hyper-sensitive to her water intake, bathroom visits and so on. If she drinks a lot of water - I’ll ask her if she has any other symptoms. She says “nope…just thirsty” Kinda puts me in check lol
Good Luck with the tests,
Julie
I periodically check my older son’s BG when I find him drinking a lot or going to the bathroom a lot. I always feel a little foolish but better safe than sorry. Considering you may be dealing w/thyroid issues, which tend to be linked to T1D (autoimmune diseases in general seem to come in batches) you’re doing the right thing. I am concerned about the fasting BG levels you’re reporting–my son’s endo says 80 is normal for a child, and a fasting BG of 117 is a bit high for anyone, big or small. It’s possible she’s just starting to develop T1D - you may want to have her blood checked for autoantibodies and maybe also get a postprandial insulin level as well as testing for ketones. If her beta cells are under attack, she won’t be producing as much insulin as she ought to after eating and she might be producing ketones. If she’s in process of developing T1D, there’s not much you can do to stop it but by starting insulin therapy ASAP, you may preserve any remaining beta cells a little longer.
If you’ve been dealing w/T2 all your life, you may not be aware of the differences between the two diseases, so do some research–T1 can’t be managed w/diet or exercise but since you’re seeing signs already if you catch it early enough, you can avoid the ketoacidosis that most of us with T1 children deal with at initial Dx It might not make caring for her much easier but it will spare you a week in the hospital, which is definitely worthwhile.
PS are you sure you’re a Type 2? Many people with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults or LADA (aka Type 1.5) are initially misdiagnosed as T2 and only find out later that it’s an autoimmune issue. The fact that your daughter has symptoms of T1 and may have thyroid issues is making me wonder if maybe you ought to have an autoantibody screen too.
I’m 35 and was only DX’d 2.5 years ago. I never heard of LADA until a few days ago when I joined this site, but I did do a little reading on it then. I dismissed it as not applying to me because I’m overweight. Everyone in my family that’s diabetic is type 2 as far as I know.
Weight loss is the only symptom she has not shown, but she has always below 50th percentile for her weight anyway
I will definitely see her pediatrician the next time (we pick up the lab orders tomorrow for the GTT) armed with your suggestions. I know I can get ketone test strips myself will test her regardless of what he says. He said the 117 was high and cause for concern, but didn’t seem to think it was an immediate threat. He also said the 5.5 A1C was within normal range, but I read that the normal non-diabetic A1C has been revised down to 4.6.
We are getting a referral to an Endo, I just don’t know how soon that will happen. Most likely after the GTT. I really appreciate all of the information you’re sharing.
Not knowing is the worst feeling. I think you are doing all the right things. Most of the parents with Type 1 kids wouldn’t even know where to start before they got diagnosed. You are definitely ahead of the game already.
My middle child is the one with Type 1 and keep an eagle eye on the other kids. Here and there, if I see ANY symptoms, I test them. Better safe than sorry!
Do keep in mind that some medications could have side-effects like thirst, higher glucose levels?..
We got the preliminary results from my daughter’s glucose tolerance test and they are saying she had a normal result. The doctor called to tell us even though he was out of town for a death in the family and we’re planning to request a copy of the results from his office tomorrow so we can see ourselves.
He had a pediatric endo consult who told him it was a good result and to check her again in 6 months. He mentioned monogenic diabetes, but my wife was the one who talked to him so I didn’t get the complete context (whether he’s concerned she has it or not). She also forgot to ask if any of the labs checked insulin level, but I guess we’ll find out when we get the results ourselves.
Her pediatrician wants us to continue with a carb-restricted diet and to switch her trileptal from the oral suspension version to the pill form because it has fructose in the suspension liquid. The symptoms we initially saw (hunger, thirst, bed wetting, irritability) don’t seem to be as prominent since we altered her diet and started watching her closely.
I guess now I need to decide whether to accept “she’s fine, come back in 6 months” or continue to pursue additional tests as Elizabeth mentioned. We did do a ketone test and it came up as trace (ironically, I had a small accident trying to get that test done and broke a toe).
It might not make caring for her much easier but it will spare you a week in the hospital, which is definitely worthwhile.