Hello. My son went in for a football physical May 14, 2021. 155 lbs 100% in perfect health. 5’3 almost 5’4 just turned 12. So we had to give a fresh urine sample. They tested it and everything was negative. So they came back in to administered two shots, 1 Menectra and 1 TDAP. About a week later he was asking me to feel his pulse for a racing heart beat and then a total of 16 days after the shots he started throwing up/tired/thirst and then 4 weeks after that he was in DKA 614 blood sugar/12.4 A1C and with an average of 309 they said for the last 3-4 months. Plus he had dropped 15 lbs in 6 weeks and weighed in at 140. How is it possible to have had a 309 blood sugar level for (June, May, March, and longer they said) when he tested negative for glucose and ketones that day of his physical May 14, 2021? Then I looked at his shot record and he had already just received the TDAP months earlier. Has anyone else experienced something like this?
Welcome to this weird world Debbie. You and your son never wanted to visit. I’m sorry for both of your grief.
That is indeed how Diabetes starts: you are healthy and fit one week, no sign that your pancreas is being destroyed from within: then it strikes. Glucose is normal until it isn’t.
Some factor (maybe a vaccine, or a virus, or who knows) triggers your own body to attack its own cells.
And then insulin for the rest your life.
But I think that in your son’s case, the process of autoimmune destruction was initiated long before May of 2021.
Keeping in mind that glucose becomes measurable in the urine only after blood levels of about 160-170, diabetes can be present in a concealed form at an earlier stage.
With attention to detail and good care, your don can look forward to a long and healthy life. Witness the many people on this message board who are in their 70’s
Best investment I got to manage T1TM was the Dexcom. I’ve had diabetes for 30 years, play hockey, hunt, camp, fish, do triathlons, went to medical school, ride motorbikes.
Stick around here and some good tips will come your way!
As said, it just turns up one day. There has been more than enough administered, to see a causation effect for T1, I would think it was coincidental to the vaccines.
No doubt you have looked up potentially bad side effects. An autoimmune dysfunction of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, but none referring to the pancreas including T1.
Menectra
RARE side effects
If experienced, these tend to have a Severe expression i
Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Skin Rash With Sloughing
Fainting
A Significant Type Of Allergic Reaction Called Anaphylaxis
Accidental Falls
Bell’s Palsy Paralysis Of One Side Of The Face
TDAP
RARE side effects
If experienced, these tend to have a Severe expression i
Decreased Blood Platelets
Encephalitis
Inflammation Of The Spinal Cord
A Type Of Brain Function Problem Called Encephalopathy
Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Inflammation Of The Middle Tissue Heart Muscle
Low Blood Pressure
Hives
Muscle Inflammation
An Abscess
Fainting
Seizures
A Tonic-Clonic Seizure
A Body Temperature Higher Than 101 Degrees Fahrenheit
A Bluish Discoloration Of The Skin
Apnea, A Breathing Interruption
A Significant Type Of Allergic Reaction Called Anaphylaxis
A Type Of Allergic Reaction Called Angioedema
A Hypersensitivity Reaction To A Drug
A Disorder Of The Brachial Plexus, A Bundle Of Nerves In The Shoulder
It’s been pretty much decided that one or more viruses can set off the auto immune response that causes type 1. One of the childhood vaccines actually helps lower your risk of getting type 1. and they haven’t identified the viruses yet, but they do know that the SARS virus set off a flurry of type 1 diabetes in the past, and a small percentage did gain back pancreas function. But they also know Covid sets it off too. They do not yet know if anyone gains back pancreas function like with the past Sars outbreak. Unfortunately easy enough to get Covid now and a teen might not feel sick if they had got it, or it could have been a different one who knows when.
But what happens is the body attacks it’s own beta cells that produce insulin. When we are older and get it, it’s a long process, but the younger you are the quicker it seems to happen. Sometimes you have some warning in a higher thirst level and urinating more, and maybe some lethargy, loss of weight. Unfortunately a lot of people find out the hard way by going into DKA. Especially kids. It happens that fast. In young kids it can happen in days or weeks.
You lose weight pretty quickly because you don’t make the insulin you need to utilize the food you eat. That loss of insulin is also what sets off DKA. But sporadically at the beginning your pancreas can still try to make insulin until it completely can’t. That is possibly what happened when he had his physical. But it’s also possible his blood sugar was only a lot higher the last month and that raised his average. If he had an A1c of 12,4, that’s an average over 3 months of 309, but he had a blood sugar of 614 which if he had had that for 3 months his A1c would have been 23. It doesn’t really matter if it was 1 month or 3 month process in the long run.
It will be a huge learning curve at the beginning. It does get easier.
Thank you so much. The good news is he tested about 10-15 times over the last year for COVID and always negative. I even had him tested for the COVID antibodies after this happened and he was negative.
Definitely so much to learn. Thank you for everything.
That is just how it happened for me back in 1970. Perfectly healthy the week before and a week later almost died of DKA. The symptoms came on quickly with no warning ahead of time.
And back than urine testing was the only way to try and “control” ones blood sugar. It was the only way but not very good. So having a negative urine test for glucose is really not anything to use. I still to this day wonder how we did it using urine testing to decide on insulin dosing measures.
I am so sorry you are now part of our club but with all the tools available now, it is doable. Keep asking questions, keep a positive outlook and realize things will be different but not necessarily bad, just different. My normal childhood was my normal. It was different from my siblings normal but we still all had the same childhood. My was just a little different. Good luck!
Good luck to you and your son! As many of said, often T1D has a very sudden onset in kids. I agree with people who think the vaccination is unrelated/coincidental and that the presentation is unfortunately fairly typical.
Keep in mind, A1cs are basically a weighted average that more heavily represent recent blood sugars over the past 3ish months. So if he was running normal 3 months ago but has been running 400-600 for a while recently, and likely high for more than 6 weeks given the weight loss, an A1c that corresponds to 300 makes sense. It’s not really an exact average, that’s just the easiest way to explain it.
Just know that he has so much more available to him than the rest of us.
CGM. And different insulin’s. Or an insulin pump.
None of these were around when I was diagnosed.
He has a very good chance to lead a happy life with an average lifespan.
Diabetes will always be a thorn in his side, but it’s doable, no reason how hold him back on anything.
I was a competitive swimmer through college.
Athh by the end of my last year I got by type 1. It took me a year to figure out how to swim on insulin.
My doctor told me to not do active things like swimming , but I did anyway.
I think he will be fine once he learns how to take care of it himself
There are more, I think they wanted to pick a variety for this article. It does take extra work to figure out how to do sports or exercise in general for us. But if you want too, you figure it out. Get a CGM as fast as possible, it’s a game changer for being able to monitor what your blood sugar levels are doing.
