Would like to know what your numbers were when diagnosed and were you told prior that you were prediabetic before real diagnosis? If so, how long were your numbers high during the prediabetic state before you were actually put on Insulin?
What were your fasting glucose numbers, A1C, Insulin and C Peptide?
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I was never told I was prediabetic. I was diagnosed when my eyesight suddenly began to do strange things. Unfortunately I donât remember what the numbers were, but except for c-pep (which was not tested), they were sky-high because the D had been developing for some time before there was a symptom dramatic enough to get my attention. A1c was well into double digits and fasting was correspondingly 'way up there.
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Well, I was diagnosed with Type 1 as a kid, so no prediabetes for me. I had symptoms for perhaps two to three weeks before I was diagnosed (sent to emergency by my doctor). I donât know what my blood sugar was at diagnosis, and I donât believe a c-peptide test was done back then, but I do know my blood sugar and ketones were dangerously high. I spent four days in the hospital, and after starting insulin and being discharged my numbers for the first week at home (before meals only and before bed) were like this:
(mmol/L)
Oct. 11: â --- 20.2 29.2
Oct. 12: 17.7 32.0 23.3 25.9
Oct. 13: 10.8 26.4 14.1 19.0
Oct. 14: 6.8 28.2 17.7 22.0
Oct. 15: 7.8 17.9 16.2 15.4
Oct. 16: 13.0 25.4 15.7 23.5
Oct. 17: 9.5 30.5 20.8 28.8
Oct. 18: 10.5 19.3 23.7 27.5
(mg/dl)
Oct. 11: â --- 364 526
Oct. 12: 319 576 419 466
Oct. 13: 194 475 254 342
Oct. 14: 122 508 319 396
Oct. 15: 140 322 292 277
Oct. 16: 234 457 283 423
Oct. 17: 171 549 374 518
Oct. 18: 189 347 427 495
Since this was before the days of bolusing for meals, I shudder to think how high my blood sugar must have gone after eating (and shudder even more to think how high it must have been before starting insulinâI wish I had that number, just out of curiosity!). This continued for about three weeks as my insulin dose was gradually increased, and then I hit the honeymoon stage that lasted two to three months before my numbers went crazy again.
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I had a quick onset of diabetes at age 24. I donât know the BG number from the doctorâs office, but my BG numbers at the hospital ranged between 390-514.
There was no discussion of pre-diabetes in 1976 and I did not have an A1c, insulin, or c-peptide test. I was actually diagnosed with a urine test. I will have my first ever c-peptide test when I get to Medicare in 2017 because it is required for coverage of my insulin pump and pump supples.
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I was never told I was pre-diabetic, but I think had my BG numbers been checked annually, they might have shown some problem for quite a few years. My A1C at diagnosis was 9.8 and my fasting BG was 200. I didnât have C Peptide checked, but my insulin was on the very low end of normal.
I was put on bolus insulin immediately and didnât need basal for another 18 months.
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I was diagnosed at age 8. I come from a family of type 1âs so my symptoms were caught fairly early. At that time (1987) the BG strips we used didnât give exact numbers, you just matched your stick to a color chart to find your range. When my parents checked my BG at home it came back in the 200-240 (at bedtime) range if I remember correctly.
My dad took me to his endo the next day, they had rush blood-work done and I remember the doctor going over my blood sugar, A1c, and all the other results with my dad, but I donât remember the exact numbers and info. It all confirmed type 1 but I was otherwise healthy. I donât remember how much insulin I was taking just after diagnosis but I do remember I was on Novolin 70/30, and I think I took it twice a day (morning/night).
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I had rapid-onset Type 1 at age 35, so there was no pre-diabetes state (I had a physical one year prior, and fasting BG was normal). My blood sugar when hospitalized was 619 mg/dl. An A1c was done but I never wanted to know what it wasâI was too horrified at what I perceived to be âdamage done.â
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I was diagnosed a little more than a decade ago. My doctor told me that my fasting blood sugar was high and then did an A1c test. It was like 8.6%. He told me that my fasting blood sugar had been over the diagnostic threshold for several years but we wanted to make really, really, really sure I had diabetes before he told me. I still harbor some anger over this.
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Wow. Thatâs all I can say, Brian. Wow. This is as close to speechless as youâll ever see me. 
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I was Dxâd at age 16 waaaay back in 1965, following a terrible ordeal with a pilonoidal cyst.
Donât think they were doing A1câs at the time, but my BG was in the 400âs. This was soon followed by a 2 week stay at the hospital, learning the fine art of âshooting upâ on oranges. In those days they had no glucose meters, no B/D disposable syringes, and, of course, no CGMâs. My mom had to boil a huge glass syringe in a pot on the stove.
Well, we sure have come a long way, and, just as importantly, I survived.
Letâs give s shout out to life!
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I was dxâd at age 29 as Type 2 after dealing with a severe skin infection (had boils all over my legs) that lasted for over 2 weeks. Other symptoms include excessive thirst, fatigue, insatiable hunger & unintentional weight loss. The final nail in the coffin was when I started noticing ants around the toilet bowl immediately after Iâve taken a pee. My A1c upon dx was 9 & was put on oral meds. After 3 yrs of having this terrible disease, I still havenât undergone a c-peptide test (none of my endos suggested it).
Just got hospitalized a month ago because of severe throat infection accompanied by recurring fever & chills. It was only then that I learned that my A1c has remained the same for 3 years! My new endo suspects that Iâm now Type 1 because I also have Graves disease. Iâm now on insulin (Humulin-R 3x/day, Lantus at night).
Still adjusting to my new normal.
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I had a nasty glucose tolerance test less than 30 days before I was dxâd. After drinking that gross stuff for and testing for 4 hours, I was normal. less than 150.
Of course that was in 1974.
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Rapid onset T1 at age 28 in 1983, no âpreâ anything. Dx was âjuvenile diabetesââI guess the T1/T2 thing wasnât that well disseminated yet. I donât actually know what my numbers were but I sure was symptomatic as hellâurination/thirst, couldnât focus my eyes properly, persistent headache and nausea. Dr told my wife âIf you hadnât brought him in this afternoon you probably would have had trouble waking him in the morning.â
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Yep. My parents were told the same thing, that if they had waited a day longer to take me to the doctor I could have been in a coma.
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My fasting glucose was something like 400, a1c was 11+. C peptide was around 0.6 with a bg of 400 (c peptide varies tremendously with bg level in normal metabolism-- low c peptide with high bg = trouble).
There was no discussion or thought ever before that day that that I might have even been at risk whatsoever.
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I was diagnosed in 2010. I had a blood test and the dr. said I was diabetic and I said I couldnât be. I ate low GI and was not madly overweight. He called the pathologist and this gentleman said I was not diabetic. But the dr. fixed me, he sent me for one of those horrid glucose tests and I turned out to be diabetic!
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No prediabetes here. Iâd had annual FBG tests along with my annual physical for decades with the FBG bouncing around in the 80s and 90s through 2010. In 2011 my cardiologist ordered a fasting lipid test, and since it had been a year since my last FBG and I knew I was due for one, I called my PCP and asked her to order a FBG at the same time so I wouldnât have to fast twice. The FBG came back 289. Oops!
I got a call from my PCP saying she wanted me to have an A1c the next week. It came back 11.5. Though I got the results of that over the phone, I wasnât able to get an appointment to be officially diagnosed for another three weeks. So I bought a meter and started testing at home on my own, since I knew what those results meant.
My PCP gave me a diet to follow, an 1800 calorie diet with far more carbs than Iâd been normally eating. I tried that for two days - and my BG shot up to 548 two days in a row. I ended up going to the ER, was treated and released. The doctor then treated me as a type 2 for a year and a half on oral meds. In addition, I had to starve myself to keep my BG at or under 7.0. I got down to 105 pounds from the 122 I was at diagnosis.
I was finally referred to an endo, who tested for autoantibodies. Results: IA-2 9.5 (reference range under 1.0) and GAD65 22.1 (reference range 0.0 - 1.5). C-peptide was 2.6, but it was not a fasting test, so the reference range is inapplicable. The endo put me on insulin.
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Here is my now-13 year-oldâs diagnosis story, a version of which I originally posted on the Parents of Children with Diabetes Forum:
My 11 year-old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on January 24, 2014, exactly one-half year to the day after her 11th birthday. We were quite fortunate that she didnât develop DKA before diagnosis. Two factors came into play that resulted in her early diagnosis. Firstly, I am a physician (not specializing in Endocrinology, however) and recognized the signs, and second, my daughter was bed- and wheelchair-bound after having had major orthopedic surgery on December 18, 2013 (shout out to Dennis Roy, MD, the best pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Shriners Hospital in Portland, Oregon!). Because my daughter was not able to walk at the time, she depended on me and her father to bring her food and water, so I noticed early on that she was drinking ginormous amounts of water and asking for the bedside commode frequently. By the third day or so, I told my then-husband that I suspected our daughter had developed T1D. He took her to see her pediatrician that morning (as he was [and still is] unemployed) while I went to work. While my then-husband and daughter were on their way home from the appointment, her pediatrician telephoned me to let me know that, although my daughter was not in DKA, a direct admission to Doernbecherâs Childrenâs Hospital in Portland, Oregon, was being arranged. If memory serves, her BG was 600-something and her A1c was 12.7 at diagnosis. During the hour-long drive to Portland, I had time to answer my daughterâs questions about diabetes. I explained to her what T1D is, and what this meant for her. She handled this reasonably well, I think in part because one of her close friends at school, who also has a physician parent, has three siblings with T1D, so my daughter was familiar with some of what having Type 1 diabetes involves. By hospital day two, she was doing all her own injections. She only cried once, when we were being discharged and reality struck hard that her T1D was coming home with us as a permanent âfamily memberâ.
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Weird, I did the same thing. Didnât cry or get upset at all during my entire hospital stay. But then as we were walking out of the hospital to go home it hit me that diabetes was coming home, too, and then I cried.
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Ok, I think I may be the only one who had signs of âpre-diabetesâ before being diagnosed. I know this is not the norm. Just sharing thoughâŚI used to work as a personal trainer at Life Time Athletic, where I was trained to be a âHealth Coachâ and we did finger stick tests to educate members about blood sugar, triglycerides, cholesterolâŚetc. We practiced on each other to get comfortable with the process and when I did mine fasting I was 116. Everyone, including me, was kind of shocked. We all assumed Iâd be fine and decided that I was just under a lot of stress (we had been studying the effects of chronic stress on blood sugar, so that was our best guess). Just for the record, I worked out 3-4 times a week, ate chicken and vegetables like it was my job (it kind of was), did yoga, and got plenty of sleep.
3 years later, Iâm in DKA with an a1c of 10 and diagnosed as type 1.
Itâs important to mention that my coworker also had a âprediabeticâ fasting BG at around 115 or so and has been totally fine ever since. He was also my boss and the director of our entire personal trainer program so maybe stress actually does elevate your BG, haha. At least temporarily? Who knows.
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