When does the Honeymoon start?

I think I was just too sweet for too long, haha.

Yeah, I thought type 1 was totally genetic (shows you what I knew about this whole realm before,) so when I googled my symptoms, I thought there was no way. I donā€™t remember feeling crappy any, but who knows, between college football and trying to graduate, there were a lot of crappy days that I probably could associate with a number of things. I think the extreme fluid intake probably saved both of us from DKA. After a month or so, I started telling my wife, ā€œI think I may have diabetes.ā€ She kept telling me that itā€™s in my head! Well, we made a nice betā€¦needless to say that is one wager I wish I hadnā€™t of won.

My boyfriend is a human doctor (albeit doing his residency in pathology). He sees me every day, and he didn't realize just how much weight I had lost.. I think he feels bad about it now, but again.. easier to avoid the inevitable bad news...

Ultimately, it was another friend in vet school who suggested I needed bloodwork done. I thought I was anemic due to girl reasons. We did a PCV (packed cell volume, rough estimate of how many red blood cells and white blood cells that you have) and then a blood smear on my blood and it looked fine to us (not that we're pros at it)... then I finally gave in and went to the doctor and everything was perfect, minus the fasting BG of 293. I should have known better and gone sooner, but did not.

Although T1 isn't totally genetic, there are genetic factors that predispose you... and a relation to diseases such as hyperthyroidism, which is present in several close female relatives in my family..

Funny you should mention your boyfriend not noticing your weight loss. My girlfriend also didn't notice the weight that was dropping off of me. She feels bad that she didn't notice it, but I don't blame her. I think it's because she saw me daily and we tend not to notice things as much when they happen gradually over time. I didn't notice it either. My sister actually pointed it out to me on new years day. "You've lost weight!" Me - "Umm... no I haven't. You need your eyes checked". Two weeks later I weigh myself and sure enough I was down 25 lbs at that time with 10 more to come off before I got to the doc. I weighed myself 3 times on different scales cause I didn't think they could possibly be correct.

Just out of curiosity, what was your C-peptide level, palomino? I know Benjamin said in another thread his was around 0.8, mine was 0.34. So I'm just curious to know where yours fell in the spectrum if they did that test and if there's any correlation to a honeymoon or lack thereof. Were either of you also tested for GAD (same as GAD-65) antibodies? I came back around 35% on that.

I knew that I had lost weight- but kept wanting to blame it on clinics (again, God, how retarded was that?). I lost about.. 23 pounds total since clinics started, 12 of it over a 6 week period in August when the PU/PD set in.

C-peptide was 1.1. However, that was not fasting; that sample was taken about 2 hours after I had eaten so that complicates interpretation... even though it's still low..

Also, I had no islet cell antibodies but my anti-GAD level was 64.7.

I guess at the ER, some of them wanted to call me a type 2... I told them I had never been grossly obese, but at my height of 5'6", I did weigh about 175lbs at one point years ago... (but there are perfectly normal weight healthy individuals that are diagnosed with type 2 as well)... but one of the docs thought I was type 1 and pushed for the antibody testing.

I didnā€™t get either test done. I have heard a bit about them. Can you tell me what each antibody is and what it means if you test positive for either?

Basically, they are just antibodies to your pancreatic beta cellsā€¦ In adult onset T1, ICA is usually negative and GAD antibodies are more likely to be positive.

GAD stands for glutamic acid decarboxylase, an intracellular enzyme normally present in the pancreatic beta cells.

I went to two different endos, neither said anything about it. I guess I was a typical diagnosis? Do you recommend getting them done?

I only found out that I had diabetes because we play with the glucometers at work when we are board... IE we used to eat like as much candy and pop as possible and then see who could get their sugar higher. I DO NOT do this anymore, but back in the day, it was fun. Now I referee these challenges. Haha. I never had any symptoms until about a year AFTER I was diagnosed.

I canā€™t recommend anything because Iā€™m not your doctorā€¦ you could ask your endo if they did them or if they plan toā€¦

It wonā€™t really change the treatment though.

My GP was the one that ran the GAD test on me. I got the full panel of results faxed to me and that's when I saw that he had the GAD run for me. At that time I didn't know what it was and he never said anything about it. Now I know 35% is out of the norm (I think <1% is normal/acceptable, but I'd have to look at the paperwork to be sure). My endo didn't think ICA and other tests were necessary for me when I asked about them since everything else was pointing squarely at T1. But like Palomino said, you can always ask!

Wow, that was a lot initially. I'm currently on 5u Lantus in the AM and 5u in the PM. My I:C ratios are all over the map.. but my TDD averages between 20-25 depending on how carbaholic I'm feeling that day.

I think if T1's get to 'honeymoon'...

LADA's get to... go on extended vacations? party like it's 1999? I dunno. Insert witty statement here. /fail.

I laughed out loud when I read this. So you were basically performing glucose tolerance tests on yourselves, LOL.

My I:C ratios are so much lower than what they expected... I don't really understand why. It's very frustrating. It's like 1:8, 1:15, then 1:10.

I know that 'YDMV' but lol, oh well.

Exactly gotta do something when itā€™s slow.

Thanks. Did you correct the 200 when you went to bed or just leave it?

I think I'll look up whether there is a correlation between GAD antibody level, the remaining percentage of islet cells, and the honeymoon period.

MY daughter is currently being followed for possible T1D. Her numbers are all over the place, somedayā€™s she remains above 150 and other days she is only a little elevated or completely normal. What was it like in the beginning for you, prior to your diagnosis? Just wanting to know if T1D is really where my daughter is headedā€¦ Thanks

@Mommy_of_2

First my understanding of the honeymoon phase is as soon as you start developing type 1 you are in the honeymoon phase, whether itā€™s been diagnosed yet or started insulin yet. The honeymoon phase is the erratic production of your bodies own insulin until it stops.

You didnā€™t say how old your daughter is? But the younger you seem to be, this happens faster versus possibly very slow in an adult and older at diagnosis.
So possible weeks for the very young versus years if you are older (possibly up to 8 years).

But what happens is at the beginning of developing type 1 you still produce insulin, and that is erratic, hence the numbers all over the place, until you donā€™t anymore. But itā€™s harder to figure out treatment because it is erratic.

But in the young it can happen fairly quickly. Did she get an antibody test done?

My daughter is 21 months, and no we have not had the antibodies test done yet. Her appt is tomorrow but she has been mildly elevated since mid june with her glucose spikes getting higher each week. For example, she was 204 just before lunch today, prior to this she was 202 after nap last week. But i have seen several 150-160, im just not sure if this is high enough to say she may be developing T1D