Why isn't T2 detected earlier?

I have no clue why it takes such a long time. It just needs a simple Glucose tolerance test. For this test it needs some time and around three to four test strips. If this test is conducted correctly then it is not necessary to test for c-peptide. The result will be reliable - even with the typical error of +/- 20 mg/dL for test strips. This is due to the high load of glucose consumed in this test. It does not matter if you have 180 or 210 mg/dL afterwards - it is not in the normal range for sure.

I agree with Holger, the sensitive tests to blood sugar problems early are readily available. You don’t actually need a full GTT, all you have to do is drink a soda and test your blood sugar after an hour or two. I believe that for many years the health care strategy in the US was to let people live their lives as though they did not have diabetes and then just treat the complications. It was after all only 1992 when the DCCT finally silenced critics who suggested that blood sugar control had no association with complications. But still this approach lives to this day.



I was diagnosed in 2005 after several years of blown fasting blood sugar tests. My doctor wanted to make really, really, really sure I had serious case of diabetes before doing anything. I still harbor some anger over this treatment.

I had a full physical in oct. At the end of nov. my fasting BG was over 600. In oct. when I had blood drawn for my physical my fasting BG was 86.

I had seen the doctor in May and all was well. Didn’t start feeling bad until August I had insatiable thirst, weight loss (unnoticed by me) always peed all the time so that wasn’t different, thought blurry vision etc was old age. It was pretty fast, but looking back I realize that I can rationalize symptoms that should have made me at least go to the doctor. By September when I did go in, I was pretty sick.

JUst from past experiaince I can tell yo the fact of getting kids to let them draw blood at those ages is REALLY hard. I honestly don’t think any test can stop the “surprise” you get when your kid is diagnosed

My brother was given some type of genetic test years ago and his doc said he had the genetic markers for diabetes. At that point in time he started to exercise more, he gave up all sugar except for one day a week, he cut back on complex carbs, he lost weight, and to this day he has still not become diabetic or even pre-diabetic. I wish I would have put 2 and 2 together, I didn’t think that his gene pool was the same as mine. We have different dads, but it seems that the diabetes comes from my moms side. Grrrrrrr

When I read your post about “rationalizing symptoms” it kinda broke my heart.



My beloved brother had “rusty” urine for months, here and there, off and on, before he went in and got tested. Being an R.N. he should have known better – perhaps he suspected the worse – but he put it off and put it off, telling himself it was just a mild urinary tract infection which he tried to treat himself, in part because he was “between” insurance coverage.



By the time he got tested, his kidney cancer was raging – he was dead within 90 days of his first operation to have his (primary) cancerous kidney removed – by the time of his death it had spread through his brain, lungs, spine, liver, other kidney, etc.



My beloved “baby” brother rationalized his symptoms and…well…it killed him.



I have felt until this day that maybe if he’d had a wife she would have beat him around the head and shoulders until he made an appointment and went in, but being a single guy’s guy – despite the less than traditional profession, he was into rock climbing, motorcycles and driving his three older sisters crazy with his risky stunts – he just put it off and tried to handle it himself until it was too late. He hated anyone fussing over him, preferring to backpack alone in the desert in Mexico over anything that might resemble “pampering”.



I guess we’ll never know, but his “rationalizing symptoms” may have shaved 30+ years off of his life expectancy, God rest his bright, brilliant, stubborn, chain-smoking soul. The rest of us will always wonder what might have happened if he’d gone in for tests in early February, instead of waiting until late July.

I can be difficult for people to get a C-Peptide test when diabetes is already known or suspected. For some reason, doctors don’t want to order this test. My doctor said it wasn’t covered by my insurance.

I knew I had diabetes a year before I was diagnosed but couldn’t GET diagnosed because I didn’t meet the arbitrary cutoffs. It took BGs averaging around 250, and being highly symptomatic to get diagnosed. If the current recommendations for diagnosis using the A1c had been used at that time, I wouldn’t have been diagnosed until I went into a coma!

Most GP will do a fasting BG and that is the last thing to go bad. My wife has an A1c of 6.0% which could be a bad sign for a non diabetic. So we tested her post meal BG but because modern 5 second meters are so inaccurate it is hard to tell if the blood sugars are really bad.

It is not as clear cut as being admited to ER with DKA. Some type 2 progresses slowly.

My T1 snuck up pretty quick and took my self and the whole family by surprise, only around 2 weeks from when I first noticed something strange was going on, to being in the hospital.

Did you call & ask your insurance? I have been told things weren’t covered and knew that they wre because I had them done before.

Hi -

According to my wife’s CDE, a “pre-diabeteic” with an A1c of 6.0 should do all of the things that a Type 2 should do. Carbs should be reduced and spaced, an effort should be made to lose weight especially around the middle and exercise should be increased.

Maurie

She eats very low carb naturally and her BMI is 22. yes twenty two.

The very definition of bad genes!! Have they checked for antibodies (LADA)?

I suspect you may be right Kelly. He has made some other insurance mistakes recently. He seems to be a good doc, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Nobody knows everything. He caught me when most docs would not have. My fasting and A1C are in the normal range. I have prediabetes. I only have a fasting over 99 when I exercise while fasting. An OGTT confirmed the Dx.

I did get a C-Peptide done a few weeks ago. I ordered it on line. It was 1.6 with a reference range of 1.1 to 4.4. My fasting glucose at the time was 89.

would not a type 1 or LADA with antibodies get worst over time ?

Wouldn’t a type 2 get worse over time? I’m not an endo but your wife is an unusual case so I was wondering about other possibilities.

Yes, a LADA would deteriorate, and fairly rapidly compared with a Type 2 (but slowly compared with a Type 1). Classic Type 1 is obvious because of the onset of DKA.

Your wife could be a thin Type 2. They DO exist, you know! There are so many different possibilities of what can go wrong in Type 2, and while obese Type 2’s are the majority, they aren’t everyone. I had an uncle who was thin all his life but got Type 2.

The only thing you can do for your wife is to check BGs occasionally 2 hours after meals with an ordinary amount of carbs. If she shows over 140 but under 200, then she may be prediabetic; if she’s over 200, she needs to be checked out by the doctor sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, eating and exercising as would be appropriate for a Type 2 might just keep her BGs in control, and never come to the point where she has to be diagnosed by a doctor. That’s not such a bad plan, either.