T1 Question

Type 1 and LADA
22

My diseases progression mirrors the one I described, with gradual beta cell loss over time, but it was long ago when I was 17 - I’m 60 - and the only trigger that I’ve read is I could consider, other than the standard autoantibody one, is stress.

I entered a detox unit for a short-term mental health issue for two weeks, although not drug-related. My health was fine, but after getting out, a short time later, I asked to go back in - nothing scary, just didn’t feel right. They redid my urine and they found sugar, and that hadn’t been there before, with a GTT to confirm.

From what I remember, my BS was never insanely high, at first high-hundreds, then later in the 200’s, but the doctor, by specialty a neurosurgeon, gave me drugs for Type 2’s, even though on appearance, at 6’4" and 170 lbs, one would assume a Type 1, and if he did treat me correctly I believe he might have preserved my pancreas, at least a bit. I went off to college, and the endocrinologist I was given, somewhat accusatorially, told me I had to go on insulin, if not in 6 months then in 2 years. I wasn’t fighting him, but I did not take care of myself back then.

Anyway, after about 18 months i had lost 35 lbs and was sitting on bones. I looked like I was in Auschwitz, no disrespect for the people that truly suffered, just skin and bones. I was hospitalized and put on insulin. After that, well, you know how it goes…

23

It’s hard to know what triggered it. You might think it’s flu but is it really?

I had a very fast thinking doctor who swabbed my nose when I was in the ER. And I still had the virus.
I had coxsakie b virus.
It is well known to trigger the immune response for type 1.

I read an article about covid sparking the same thing in other people recently.

Really any virus could do it. It’s our overactive immune systems that go haywire and kill off our beta cells.

24

No viral infection in my case, and no other extended family members with T1D.

Was diagnosed in February, in kindergarten. Mom noticed weight loss, despite being hungry all the time and drinking lots of water, no prior viral trigger.

One speculation was that T1D was related to my mom having to stop breast feeding due to infection, a theory that has been disputed as possible tie to T1D.

25

As I faintly recall from 49 years ago, I think that I had strep throat (which I think is bacterial rather than viral). Shortly after that … like 3-4 days … I began the peeing drinking cycle. Although I lost 14 lbs over the next 10 days, it was not until my vision got blurry, that I got myself into the student health center. That was as a 22 year old first-year grad student.

Am I sure it was bacterial? No! But certainly, in my mind, being sick was clearly the trigger.

Stay safe!

John

26

I think the problem here is that people are associating an immediate event with Type 1 diabetes. It doesn’t work that way. Regardless of the trigger, the effects typically are not seen for 2 to 3 years later. Granted, there might be instances when an illness can cause rapid beta cell loss - I don’t know of any, but … - the one-to-one relationship that people see is either an effect of having Type 1, or unrelated, but that flu-like illness brings people in front of doctors and then it gets diagnosed.

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27

I believe that I was a healthy kid until I started showing all the signs of diabetes in the late summer in 1959 when I was 8. Even though my mom took me to the pediatrician twice because I lost 20 lbs and had all the constant peeing and thirst, no one checked my blood, until I was nearly comatose and hospitalized. They kept me 3 days and released me with almost no training.

No previous illness that I know of.

28

I’ve heard the breast feeding theory before.
And out of 4 kids in my family, I was the only one who didn’t breast feed because my mother was sick and by the time she recovered I was happy with a bottle.
That’s not a scientific relationship really but it’s food for thought. Most of a child’s immunity comes from breast milk when babies are under 3 months.
Then they slowly add their own as they are exposed.

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29

And in the old days…
There weren’t prepared infant formula. Not sure what I was drinking from bottle, maybe.evaporated milk ? (1960)

Maybe this…

“If you were not breastfed as an infant, you were fed a formula created by mixing 13 oz of evaporated milk with 19 oz of water and two tablespoons of either corn syrup or table sugar. Every day, parents prepared a day’s worth of this formula, transferred it to bottles that they had sterilized in a pan of boiling water, and stored it in a refrigerator until used. In addition to formula, infants received supplemental vitamins and iron.”

At one point, my mom read article regarding diabetes more common in children not breast fed. Asked her doctor, and told it did not likely cause it.
But none of my many siblings has diabetes, and all were breast fed.

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30

Similac has been around since the 20s. It was in a can. My mother just told me the brand name and my birth announcement had an ad for it too.

Don’t know what was in it. But I was born in 66.

Still it did t have anything to enhance my immunity.
That’s the real rub when it comes to breast milk. You can add all kinds of vitamins and nutrients, but it’s never going to be the same.

31

I was born in 1951, and was not breast fed. I made sure to breast feed my son for many reasons. He is 32 and isn’t a diabetic.

Is there any truth to the study that breast feeding helps protect children from developing diabetes.

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32

Here is one article regarding it.

https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/35/11/2215

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33

When my mom took me to doctor, he smelled my breath (ketones) and sent me straight to hospital. My mom described my symptoms of peeing frequently and being tired all day. My mom thought it might be UTI, and had never heard of childhood diabetes, thought only older overweight people got diabetes.

In her mid 50s, normal weight, my mom was diagnosed with Type 2, now almost 90.

34

My pediatrician felt horrible about not figuring out that I had diabetes. He offered to quit his practice. In 1959 he just hadn’t seen diabetes before.

Wow, your mom is living a long life with type 2.

35

Did you get to practice injections on an orange?

I was in hospital 10 days, with constant IV for fluids and then forced to drink several glasses of water per day. Meanwhile, Mom was learning to do injections on orange. She had 2 sisters who were nurses (one being her twin), and she thought how ironic that she ended up having to give ME injections.

36

For myself, 7 days, and after a few days the nurse came in to let me do it myself but first into an orange, and I was so enthusiastic, I goofed and injected into my unextended thigh, right into the muscle. Oops!

Gained 10 pounds in a week, which was good, and over some time gained 20 more to get back to normal weight. Similar to @Marilyn6, no training to speak of, and if I hadn’t discovered fitness 2 years later I would likely be in a terrible state. Because of fitness, and all the reading I was doing, I turned toward an ovolacto diet and took better care of myself. It certainly wasn’t the medical system, although I later found doctors that had nurse educators as part of their practice.

37

I was diagnosed on labor day Friday afternoon and the diabetic educator was off all weekend.
I was in ther 3 days till my ketones were gone and I felt better.
The nurse would show me how she injected me and then on the last morning told me to do it.
So I did and that was the extent of my training.
They just told me take NPH and sliding scale for my Regular.
It took several minutes to get the reading on a strip that I compared to a color chart.
After wiping the blood and wiping more. Man I hated it.
At that time I would more often than not just guess my insulin needs and went with that.
I was able to feel my highs and lows back then.

38

Disney World is a viral infection.

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39

If it wasn’t before, it sure is now.

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40

It’s been empty for a long time. I bet it’s completely safe to go. Only there are no people allowed

41

My daughter was diagnosed T1D about 2 weeks after having the H1N1 flu. Coincidence? I used to assume so.
Not anymore.