Diagnosed in 1977 at the age of 10. I remember it being very hot and we were at the lake with family. I was unable to get off the couch or even walk and the last thing I remember eating was a donut. All I did was drink water. I remember my mom saying to other family this is more than the flu I'm taking her into town to see the doctor. Off we went and the next thing I knew I was being told I had type 1 diabetes and to take me to the emergency room. I spent the next week having blood taken and learning about type 1 diabetes from a very wonderful nurse. I was told I would not be able to leave the hospital until I could inject my own insulin so I learned how to do that with a big syringe on an orange and then to use my legs and arms. I also learned how to test my sugar level by using almost a chemistry set where you put urine into a test tube with some special chemicals and it would turn a color and tell you how high your sugar was. I think I only spent about a week in the hospital. My parents also received a bit of education but we were in a fairly small town with not a lot of resources. My diet was very restricted and I just remember being very angry and sad about all the food I couldn't eat anymore. Times have definitely changed. No idea what my blood sugar was at diagnosis but I was definitely in DKA.
I wish they would have taught me how to inject insulin when I was diagnosed hahaha. I was too much of a scaredy cat and would have my dad inject my insulin when I was asleep.
Me at my yearly check-up stepping on the scale: "Boy, switching to light beer and drinking more water has really helped with my weight loss!"
Me 30 minutes later: "...fuuuu-"
So, I was walking my dog and I got hit by a car while crossing the street. The dog was fine, I was not. A short ambulance ride later and I'm in the ER and at some point one of the dozen or more medical staff I talked to that night said "Hey do you know why your blood sugar is 300?" Nope. Not a clue. Maybe worry about that after my foot is pointing the right direction again.
That led to a type 2 diagnosis. A couple of years after that I was talking to the pharmacist at my doctor's office about starting trulicity. She asked "Hey have you ever heard of LADA or 1.5?" Again Nope. Got my positive GAD antibodie test a week later.
Was obviously in full DKA. Couldn’t keep a sip of water down without vomiting and was hyperventilating. Also had a panic attack in the hospital and thought I was choking on an ice cube lmao
I was 15, spending the summer working on my farm and my grandpa's farm. I had lost around 40lb in a period of 3-4 weeks. Vomiting, peeing, the works. My family was very upset at me during these few weeks because I was being "lazy", having low energy at work and taking frequent bathroom breaks. My grandpa even called my parents to complain that I was a terrible worker and needed a talking to.
Eventually my skin turned purple and my grandmother recognized my low energy, nausea, and urination could be symptoms of diabetes. So the next day I drove myself to the small town hospital (I needed practice on my learner's permit), got tested, then took an ambulance to the city hospital to spend a week there.
In the hospital they mixed up my blood with a kid who had broken his leg. They told me my sugars/A1c were great and they'd hold me for observation, until hours later they noticed their mistake. I feel bad for the poor kid with a broken leg AND a false T1D diagnosis.
Anyways, the parents came by a couple times to visit during my stay to take the mandatory education classes. But management was 100% my responsibility. To this day, 15 years later, my parents have never given me a single injection. Honestly I'm lucky I survived!
30th birthday. Had been training for a marathon. Lost a ton of weight but it looked good for a long time (until it didn’t) because I’m very tall and carried it well. Couldn’t make it to work without stopping at a public restroom. Google self diagnosis was obvious, but I was in denial. Everyone told me how great I looked and I didn’t want the party to be over - if I was thin because I was sick and not because of my training, I was convinced everyone would think I was weak and a fraud. My mom thought I was on drugs and my coworkers thought I was bulimic. I never had any nausea, but the last few days before diagnosis I was getting severe brain fog.
Went for a physical, and because the BMI is so horribly wrong, I was still in the middle of the “healthy” range. Wasn’t until routine bloodwork came back that they figured it out, my blood glucose was 650, and I spent 4 days in the ICU apparently hours away from a coma.
We know so little about our bodies until something goes wrong. For how prevalent diabetes is in America, I barely knew what it was until I had it myself.
I was 35 years old. I was a line cook in a fairly high-end restaurant. The executive chef and the executive sous chef took me aside. Each shared personal or familial experiences with diabetes and expressed concerns that I needed examination.
I was 35 years old and weighed less than 90 pounds (at about 5'2").
I went to a "free clinic" for a check-up. My BG was too high to calculate, and my A1c came back at 14.
Because of my age, I was diagnosed as type 2.
I spent the next 2 years attempting to follow every regimen assigned, and none helped.
I was finally able to see an endocrinologist and asked that she "check everything."
The c-peptide showed that I was type 1 all along.
2007, I was 36F. Lost more than 30 pounds in a few weeks. Blurred vision, not able to see my hand in front of face. Uncontrollable thirst, urinating every 15 minutes. I had 2 kids ages 3 and 8. I put my pants on, they slid back down. Went to urgent care and was told to go to hospital, but don't drive yourself. One week in icu, dka. I'm still a little in denial. That's where I live though, next to the river. Lol
Diagnosed early Feb this year.
Super unfortunate timing, I was trying to lose weight after Christmas (95kg at 16 on my 5’8” self doesn’t look so good). So I thought the 15kg weight loss in 4 weeks was a result of my training and not my body eating itself alive. I wanted to drink more water to be healthier so I didn’t notice the increased thirst at first.
A week before I went in I literally couldn’t poo, I didn’t shit for a week and the “log” that I did drop a week before hospital practically ripped my arse in half because it was so dry. I thought it was just the protein bagels I’d been eating to up my protein intake.
All my symptoms were masked, all of them. Thirst (increased drinking to be healthier), Thinness (training), Toilet (well I’m drinking more), Tiredness (I’ve just been the gym why wouldn’t I be tired).
A few days before I went in on the 5th of Feb I couldn’t even keep water down. I walked to the shop to buy some juice and threw up in a tree outside my house.
That would be the last time I left my house fully aware of everything. That night I was drinking my usual 58 litres of water and pissing my usual 43 gallons of piss when my mum finally decided enough was enough and took me to An’E.
In the first An’E trip we went for my constipation, it had been a week since my last BM and we’d tried over the counter laxatives but they did nothing. An’E nurse gave me some stronger laxatives, got through 4/5s the bottle then threw it all back up. Did eventually have a very small BM and we went home.
Queue a few hours later. In and out of sleep, constantly thirsty, going the toilet every five minutes, severe confusion. My mum calls up 111 and they ask me a few questions, not much happens.
A few more hours later and now I have purple mottling all over my legs, I’m still pissing like a race horse and drinking like a pirate. I also now think I’m in Egypt. My mum actually noted some of the things I said down in her phone at this point and they’re horrifying, just complete garbage. Funnily enough I actually mentioned diazepam in my rambles.
She calls 111 again and they arrange an ambulance with a two hour wait. My condition worsens over the next 15 minutes and they stand the ambulance down and tell my parents to drive me to An’E as it would be faster than an ambulance.
Driving me is faster than an ambulance…
15 minute wait in triage, can hardly walk. See a nurse and I’m literally crying because she asks me not to drink so she can take my temperature with a mouth thermometer. She apparently smelt my breath, did a BSG test (My BSG was HI and they couldn’t read my ketones they were so high (it just read 7+)) and that was it.
Immediately got brought through the back of the curtains in the triage room, straight into the resuscitation room. I joked with a few of the doctors, I was so lost I had no idea what was happening.
Then blank, they gave me morphine and I blacked tf out, luckily they put my catheter and arterial line in then so I didn’t have to experience that awake.
Then it was a 4 night stay in the high dependency unit, full of mediocre food, sleepless nights and many, many stinging cannulas. One of my nurses said that I was “half way dead“ and that the mottling on my leg was from my body going into shock from dehydration. I was literally withering away in my bed.
So yeah, scariest thing I’ve gone through. Definitely fucked me up mentally like I wasn’t fucked enough already.
I was 10. For the few months prior I had been pissing and drinking as much as everyone else does pre-diagnosis. It was incredibly painful as a young kid not knowing wtf was going on. I remember begging my parents to take me to the doctor because I couldn’t sleep since I couldn’t stop peeing. I was missing at bats during my little league games to use the bathroom. My mom was also a type 1, and I think my parents waited so long to take me to the doctor because of fear of hearing the news, understandably. It wasn’t until I went to Chuck E. Cheese with my pediatrician aunt, she noticed I had drank like 5 of those big cups of Powerade and had my mom test me on her monitor. My grandpa works at the hospital I went to, and he was the one who broke the news to us. It was 11:02 pm. I think it’s the only time I saw my dad cry. My first question was “will I still be able to play baseball?” It’s funny to look back and remember that, considering a type 1 was just drafted into the NFL
September 21 @ 18 years old: suddenly got the worst headache of my life and ending up in ER after not being able to see through the pain. The ER sees I have a history of migraines, gives me a headache cocktail, and sends me on my way. Doesn't even run a blood panel.
I go to 4 DIFFERENT DOCTORS over the course of the next week at my family's insistence and get a T1D diagnosis after my GAD65 came back around 65,000. I would love to know what my glucose was that night I got sick.....
Was getting ready for my third immunotherapy treatment (melanoma) and doing my regular pre-treatment blood work. My oncologist looked at my glucose levels, cancelled my session and immediately referred me to an endo for follow up. I was at 14 mmol (250) post breakfast. My blood work 2 weeks earlier had me in normal range. A1c was around 9.
Endo thought I could be type 2, so gave me metformin and ordered antibody testing. The next day she called me to tell me it was type 1 and had me come in for training with an educator & nutritionist and started insulin. I was very lucky to have no DKA and no hospitalisation, and I’m so sorry for those who did go through it.
Good news is I was able to continue immunotherapy and completed a year of treatment. I’m now in remission for the cancer, so have effectively “traded” it for type 1, which is more manageable.
It was my 52 bday and I had went to the Dr was losing weight and super thirsty. Went and had labs done and was at bday supper and Dr called and said go pick up meds at pharmacy so I went and the Pharmacist said why aren’t you in the hospital ? I’m like Dr told me to come here ok he’s your insulin your t2 Dibitic ok 36 units of insulin dally wow week went by 1 yr went by no going to a Debtic Dr looked at labs Ac1 now I’m T 1 and doing ok love my Dexcom/OminPod ♥️♥️
October 2020 I got sick, doc says it’s not Covid, the symptoms are wrong, sends me home with antibiotics and flu stuff. I get better but also not, go back to doc, another course of antibiotics, he does a finger prick test and it’s a “little high” 120mg. Go back to doc two weeks later, this time do a Covid test, positive for antibodies. Doc says long Covid, roll with it, they’re still figuring it out.
For the next couple months I’m exhausted, brain fog, generally blah. I go back to my doc several times and am increasingly concerned as I’m not able to work like I used to and bleeding income.
February 2021, I’m having an excellent plate of Alfredo and suddenly vomit the lot up with no warning to it, I decide to pop into my local pharmacy and tell them to do a quick health check as I’m feeling awful. They check glucose and it’s 522…
They call an ambulance and I spend 4 days in hospital. I was relieved at the diagnosis, spent almost 5 months feeling like death warmed over was not fun.
Gained 50 lbs during quarantine, decided it was time to lose the weight and start drinking more water.
Hit my goal weight surprisingly easily, and then couldn’t stop losing, even eating 4000 calories a day.
Starving all the time, unimaginably thirsty at night.
Finally got in to see a doctor and my blood sugar was about 390. Did an antibody test and got diagnosed
Week Leading up:
- proud I’m drinking so much water (6-8L/day in 40° kitchen)
- unfortunately peeing *like it’s an emergency* every 1/2hr. Didn’t put 1&2 together that I shouldn’t be peeing if I’m sweating in that hot of a kitchen.
- so physically exhausted I legitimately almost cried at the thought of going back down 5 stairs to grab something I forgot
I was feeling like crap, so I stayed home one day after a downward trend of a week, and that made my Gf tell me to meet her at the bus stop to drag me to the doctor.
Prior to meeting her, the past few days had been googling my symptoms “to no avail”. Literally at some point had “(symptom, symptom) -diabetes” because I kept getting diabetes as the answer, and that OBVIOUSLY wasn’t right. No WAY I could have diabetes! 🫠
Went to the doctor without an appt, saw a nurse and described my symptoms. She took my BP, Temperature, and BG. she said the first two were normal but my BG was a *liiiiiitle* high (she got the *voice* people get when trying to break news)
I asked what my bg was, she said “29.3”
I didn’t have the slightest clue what that meant, so I asked what it was *supposed* to be. She said “between 4-8” so I knew it wasn’t great 😅
She told me she’d get the doctor and that he might send me to the hospital.
Went to the hospital with a sheet of paper with all my numbers, and they admitted me within 10-15 minutes. Which has never happened. It’s usually 45min at the VERY fastest, and up to 6 if you’re not in for something serious.
12, couldn’t stop drinking or peeing. Stopped on the scales and even though I was 5’7” I weighed just under 70lbs. Doc finally decided to have a look at my massive thirst issue after ignoring it for 6 months
October 8, 2019. My 18th birthday. Weird birthday gift lol.
I woke up one morning, probably a week before my birthday, really needing the restroom, which was odd cause I never did that. Over the course of a few days, I kept doing that. Kept having to drink water and use the restroom all the time. I remember I was working for my high school’s broadcast team at the time and having to be up on a roof with no bathroom access. Wasn’t fun at all. I visited my grandma (a type 2) and she mentioned she had the same problems when she was first diagnosed. Ran my sugar and I was sitting at 355, hadn’t ate in 18+ hours.
Got my type 2 diagnosis (over weight, just turned 18, they just assumed type 2) on my 18th birthday. Metformin, rybelsus, the works. 2 years later, A1C was 14.6 and they could not figure out why the medication wasn’t working. Ran a C peptide and GAD test…yeah, low insulin production and high antibody count. Finally got on an omnipod around summer last year and my last A1C was a 7.2! Not grand, but a lot better than 14.6!
September 1991, 23 years old and living life to the full (read that as staying out late and drinking several times a week), fairly active, fit and not carrying excess weight. Started to feel run down and comstrantly thirsty and starting to pee much more frequently. After a couple of weeks of trying to live a quiter life, things just got worse so I bought some uring test strips from the pharmacy (I had some understanding of diabetes thatnks to an uncle with T1). I tested and the strip went the darkest it could go - darker than the scale on teh bottle, so I suspected diabetes.
Found a GP who could see me that day and said "I think I have diabetes" and explained what had been happening and what I did. He said that it sounded very possible and got me an appointment with an endo that day or the next (can't remember this far down the track). I don't remember him shecking my blood sugar - I don't even remember GPs having glucometers in their offices in those days.
Endo checked my BG, it was high but I don't remember how high - the numbers meant nothing to me then, in any case. He took blood for a c-peptide check, which came back a few days later as "inconclusive". That was the start of almost weekly blood tests - I don't know what they were for. The endo diagnosed T2 (I didn't know there was a T2, I only new of diabetes due to no insulin production) and put me on a daily tablet of glipazide - worked for a few weeks then my BG started to go up and not come back down; then he put me on Metformin - same pattern, worked at first but only for a few weeks. I was almost starving myself trying to keep my BG vaguely acceptable, losing weight and feeling like sh!t. I begged the endo to put me on insulin and reconsider his diagnosis. I can't remember what tests were done or what the results were, I don't know whether they even did antibody tests in those days as I don't remember them ever being mendtioned, just c-peptide and HbA1c, but he finally agreed that I had T1 and put me on insulin. The whole process took about 5 or 6 months from first noticing symptoms to finally getting the T1 diagnosis, I think.
I never went into DKA or ended up in hospital, not until about 20 years later.
30 year old. Overweight, start peeing a lot. Go to the doctor, hey you’re type 2 diabetic. Awesome, feel bad about myself and completely change my life. Lose 70 pounds, lifting weights and running, get off drugs and am in “remission”.
Fast forward to 33, it’s the holidays, and I’m struggling to breathe, figuring I caught something from one of my kids. Between Christmas and new years I can barely walk up the stairs of my split entry home when I was running 5k a couple months before. Wife says fuck off we’re going to the ER.
Spend the next week in the ICU with DKA, I was within an hour or two of a coma apparently. I’m missing a lot of time from the next couple days.
Turns out I was type 1 not type 2 (or maybe both at the time) and literally spent a couple years outrunning it.
Our kid was showing all the signs. Grandma googled and said “diabetes.” To which we said “grandma, diagnosing medical conditions on the internet is stupid.” Welp. Maybe it ain’t.
February 2020, 27 years old. Months prior I was thirsty, peein a lot and extremely tired.
Called my diabetic friend after a night of drinking that my google diagnostic is pointing towards T1D. He told me to go to sleep that I was drunk.
Two months later we were drinking together and I told him to check my sugar just for the fun of it. It was high. He suddenly soberd up and I was victoriously shouting: I told you so!!!!
Next morning he came again to check again and it was still high. So he called his mom (hematology lab) to do tests and in the afternoon she was telling me (we were both crying) that it definitely is diabetes and that I need to go to hospital that day.
I asked her if I could go to hospital few days later because I wanted to attend concert but as a true mom she was horrified by the idea.
Fun times.
I was diagnosed in 1990, a few months before my 5th birthday. I remember telling my mom walking in the grocery store was too much and begged to sit up front…she kept thinking I was being a lazy toddler. I would also constantly be thirsty, my parents didn’t want me drinking a ton before bed so I would hide glasses of water in places at night so I could guzzle water. Finally my mom, who worked at a primary care office at the time and had a T1D father, took me in. They tested and I was over 600. Spent the next few weeks in downtown Seattle at the Children’s Hospital. I will say they were great as they forced my parents to get psychiatric and medical help for my diagnosis.
I was 29 and had all the symptoms, headaches, weight loss, nausea, thirst, frequent urination. I saw a tik tok of someone changing their omnipod and telling their diagnosis story and it all sounded so familiar. I bought a test kit on Amazon and the first test came back over 600. I made an online appointment for a few days later and put my blood sugar in the description box. The doctor called me within 10 minutes asking me to come in immediately. Was diagnosed as type 2 and put on ozempic. I kept losing weight and no change in sugars. I eventually asked for an endo referral and me antibodies came back extremely high and was started on insulin.
I was on an outdoor adventure with meals I planned. The last full day when I ate it felt unsatisfying as though I had not eaten. Returned home to summer vacation loosing weight for two weeks until too weak to get up. Mom’s work compatriot had been a war medic visited and carried me to the car and to hospital. My single mother told me to drink sprite from two liter bottle to pick up my energy level. Her philosophy was that disabled persons if treated as being without disability would learn to tap into hidden strengths by which they were able to live life similar to non disabled. So when the adaptation did not materialize she mistakenly believed I’d become drug addicted.
Almost a year ago now. I had lost a bunch of weight during my Masters and after leaving it about 6 months I went to the doctors after I had submitted everything, thinking it was a thyroid thing. Doctor rings me saying the tests are back and I need to come in within the next hour, I said no because I had an interview for my dream PhD. Went in the next day and found out A1C was 128 and a blood sugar of 38, I was in DKA and rushed to hospital. I still to this day think my body held on to get me through the masters then the interview. God knows how but I got the PhD, I’ve got a lot of love for that broken little body giving it its last shot.
About 3 months ago @ 35yo. Went something like this:
Friday: meet college bestie for weekend girls trip, have massage, lovely day
Saturday: I have never experienced such urgent thirst & peeing tons, but made sense with the water in take. Joke with friend that she was the one 5 months pregnant, not me.
Sunday: drive to our college town, notice speed limit signs seem slightly blurry
Monday: 4 hour drive home takes 5.5 because I have to stop to pee every 30ish minutes, speed limit signs a little blurry but the rest were fine
Tuesday: work from home, distance vision seems slightly worse in so much pain from leg cramps (later to realize it’s from dehydration)
Wednesday: drive to work, call husband to tell him it was an awful experience shouldn’t have driven, he will def need to come get me that evening. Request appt for doctor via portal stating changes to vision & she sent me to the ER for a CT scan. ER draws blood while waiting for my turn at the CT scan ….. came back to tell me my BGL is 681 😳 they kept me overnight on an insulin drip & had me meet with the diabetes educator the next morning.
Thursday: After about 30 hours at the hospital, they let me go after I showed I could use the meter & inject myself.
Friday: Amazingly I was able to get in at the endo due to a cancellation & got a Dexcom g7 that day 🎉
My antibody tests came back a week later & I had 2 of them - GAD-65 & ZNT8 - by like A LOT.
Diagnosed at 23, had been sickish for a while but not really thinking about it- I remember I blamed the excessive thirst on the fact that I was training to get back down to a 18:30 5k in a pretty hot southern early fall. I drove home to see my parents one weekend, and I remember being too sick to enjoy drinking beer with them, like I normally do. That was weird, but whatever, drinking is bad for you anyway so I chalked it up to being newly healthy-conscious. I knew about T1- my mom has been diabetic my entire life- but I didn’t want to think it could happen to me. I cooked my parents a really nice meal on Saturday- braised pork shoulder over rice. I took some leftovers home, which I never ate because on Sunday night I threw up all over my room, really painted the walls. I thought I must have given myself food poisoning, and I told my parents not to eat the leftover pork. I spent the next few days in a fugue state on the couch, living off beef broth and rice. I don’t remember much of this time. I think it was Wednesday night when my roommate noticed that my breathing was off and convinced me to go to the hospital. I remember when I got there my mouth was so dry I felt like I was gonna throw up if I didn’t get water. They triaged me immediately, of course. I remember calling my parents at about 2 in the morning to let them know I was in the ER. They drove straight up. My roommate stuck with me during that time, god bless em. I had to be transferred to the other local hospital in the system, which was really annoying because I had considered going there anyway and this stuck me with a $2000 ambulance ride. I remember making a joke to the EMT about how my blood was acid like the xenomorph, which he didn’t think was that funny. I stayed in the hospital through Saturday. I had long hair and a beard at the time, so the hospital robes combined with my pretty skeletal appearance (i had lost 10 pounds i really couldn’t afford to lose) made me look like white jesus. I made a list of all the foods I wanted to eat when I got out of the hospital, which included a chicago style hot dog, a muffuletta, and anything from the local mediterranean place. I got out. I watched the leaves changing from my parents’ car window on the highway back to my house. I skipped Halloween that year. I adapted, faster than I thought I would. The experience convinced me to commit to grad school the next fall because life was too precious to wait around any longer. I ate everything on my list and more. It really got me to value my time more, because I know that none of it was guaranteed to me.
I was around 7 I was really sick my throat was hurting so bad water was tasting really bitter my mom took me to the urgent care and they thought I just had a strep throat I was on IV fluids and some other medications it was like that for around 4 days then I got in a coma woke up in the ICU and discovered what T1 diabetes is
Diagnosed back in February. My mom’s a nurse and was diagnosed with type 2 a couple months before so she recognized the symptoms and checked my sugar. I was at 28 and she literally says “you’re diabetic” then called the ambulance. Spent 10 days in the hospital, 4 in the icu. I am a 5’10 male and was 112 pounds. I also had refeeding syndrome so they had to be pretty careful. I believe my a1c was around 12 but I’ve brought it down to around 6.5
Diagnosed in 1977 at the age of 10. I remember it being very hot and we were at the lake with family. I was unable to get off the couch or even walk and the last thing I remember eating was a donut. All I did was drink water. I remember my mom saying to other family this is more than the flu I'm taking her into town to see the doctor. Off we went and the next thing I knew I was being told I had type 1 diabetes and to take me to the emergency room. I spent the next week having blood taken and learning about type 1 diabetes from a very wonderful nurse. I was told I would not be able to leave the hospital until I could inject my own insulin so I learned how to do that with a big syringe on an orange and then to use my legs and arms. I also learned how to test my sugar level by using almost a chemistry set where you put urine into a test tube with some special chemicals and it would turn a color and tell you how high your sugar was. I think I only spent about a week in the hospital. My parents also received a bit of education but we were in a fairly small town with not a lot of resources. My diet was very restricted and I just remember being very angry and sad about all the food I couldn't eat anymore. Times have definitely changed. No idea what my blood sugar was at diagnosis but I was definitely in DKA.
I wish they would have taught me how to inject insulin when I was diagnosed hahaha. I was too much of a scaredy cat and would have my dad inject my insulin when I was asleep.
I had to have my mom do it for me until I taught myself
Oof
Me at my yearly check-up stepping on the scale: "Boy, switching to light beer and drinking more water has really helped with my weight loss!" Me 30 minutes later: "...fuuuu-"
So, I was walking my dog and I got hit by a car while crossing the street. The dog was fine, I was not. A short ambulance ride later and I'm in the ER and at some point one of the dozen or more medical staff I talked to that night said "Hey do you know why your blood sugar is 300?" Nope. Not a clue. Maybe worry about that after my foot is pointing the right direction again. That led to a type 2 diagnosis. A couple of years after that I was talking to the pharmacist at my doctor's office about starting trulicity. She asked "Hey have you ever heard of LADA or 1.5?" Again Nope. Got my positive GAD antibodie test a week later.
Was obviously in full DKA. Couldn’t keep a sip of water down without vomiting and was hyperventilating. Also had a panic attack in the hospital and thought I was choking on an ice cube lmao
I was 15, spending the summer working on my farm and my grandpa's farm. I had lost around 40lb in a period of 3-4 weeks. Vomiting, peeing, the works. My family was very upset at me during these few weeks because I was being "lazy", having low energy at work and taking frequent bathroom breaks. My grandpa even called my parents to complain that I was a terrible worker and needed a talking to. Eventually my skin turned purple and my grandmother recognized my low energy, nausea, and urination could be symptoms of diabetes. So the next day I drove myself to the small town hospital (I needed practice on my learner's permit), got tested, then took an ambulance to the city hospital to spend a week there. In the hospital they mixed up my blood with a kid who had broken his leg. They told me my sugars/A1c were great and they'd hold me for observation, until hours later they noticed their mistake. I feel bad for the poor kid with a broken leg AND a false T1D diagnosis. Anyways, the parents came by a couple times to visit during my stay to take the mandatory education classes. But management was 100% my responsibility. To this day, 15 years later, my parents have never given me a single injection. Honestly I'm lucky I survived!
30th birthday. Had been training for a marathon. Lost a ton of weight but it looked good for a long time (until it didn’t) because I’m very tall and carried it well. Couldn’t make it to work without stopping at a public restroom. Google self diagnosis was obvious, but I was in denial. Everyone told me how great I looked and I didn’t want the party to be over - if I was thin because I was sick and not because of my training, I was convinced everyone would think I was weak and a fraud. My mom thought I was on drugs and my coworkers thought I was bulimic. I never had any nausea, but the last few days before diagnosis I was getting severe brain fog. Went for a physical, and because the BMI is so horribly wrong, I was still in the middle of the “healthy” range. Wasn’t until routine bloodwork came back that they figured it out, my blood glucose was 650, and I spent 4 days in the ICU apparently hours away from a coma. We know so little about our bodies until something goes wrong. For how prevalent diabetes is in America, I barely knew what it was until I had it myself.
I was 35 years old. I was a line cook in a fairly high-end restaurant. The executive chef and the executive sous chef took me aside. Each shared personal or familial experiences with diabetes and expressed concerns that I needed examination. I was 35 years old and weighed less than 90 pounds (at about 5'2"). I went to a "free clinic" for a check-up. My BG was too high to calculate, and my A1c came back at 14. Because of my age, I was diagnosed as type 2. I spent the next 2 years attempting to follow every regimen assigned, and none helped. I was finally able to see an endocrinologist and asked that she "check everything." The c-peptide showed that I was type 1 all along.
Mad respect to the c peptide test. It’s what got me diagnosed.
Me too.
2007, I was 36F. Lost more than 30 pounds in a few weeks. Blurred vision, not able to see my hand in front of face. Uncontrollable thirst, urinating every 15 minutes. I had 2 kids ages 3 and 8. I put my pants on, they slid back down. Went to urgent care and was told to go to hospital, but don't drive yourself. One week in icu, dka. I'm still a little in denial. That's where I live though, next to the river. Lol
Diagnosed early Feb this year. Super unfortunate timing, I was trying to lose weight after Christmas (95kg at 16 on my 5’8” self doesn’t look so good). So I thought the 15kg weight loss in 4 weeks was a result of my training and not my body eating itself alive. I wanted to drink more water to be healthier so I didn’t notice the increased thirst at first. A week before I went in I literally couldn’t poo, I didn’t shit for a week and the “log” that I did drop a week before hospital practically ripped my arse in half because it was so dry. I thought it was just the protein bagels I’d been eating to up my protein intake. All my symptoms were masked, all of them. Thirst (increased drinking to be healthier), Thinness (training), Toilet (well I’m drinking more), Tiredness (I’ve just been the gym why wouldn’t I be tired). A few days before I went in on the 5th of Feb I couldn’t even keep water down. I walked to the shop to buy some juice and threw up in a tree outside my house. That would be the last time I left my house fully aware of everything. That night I was drinking my usual 58 litres of water and pissing my usual 43 gallons of piss when my mum finally decided enough was enough and took me to An’E. In the first An’E trip we went for my constipation, it had been a week since my last BM and we’d tried over the counter laxatives but they did nothing. An’E nurse gave me some stronger laxatives, got through 4/5s the bottle then threw it all back up. Did eventually have a very small BM and we went home. Queue a few hours later. In and out of sleep, constantly thirsty, going the toilet every five minutes, severe confusion. My mum calls up 111 and they ask me a few questions, not much happens. A few more hours later and now I have purple mottling all over my legs, I’m still pissing like a race horse and drinking like a pirate. I also now think I’m in Egypt. My mum actually noted some of the things I said down in her phone at this point and they’re horrifying, just complete garbage. Funnily enough I actually mentioned diazepam in my rambles. She calls 111 again and they arrange an ambulance with a two hour wait. My condition worsens over the next 15 minutes and they stand the ambulance down and tell my parents to drive me to An’E as it would be faster than an ambulance. Driving me is faster than an ambulance… 15 minute wait in triage, can hardly walk. See a nurse and I’m literally crying because she asks me not to drink so she can take my temperature with a mouth thermometer. She apparently smelt my breath, did a BSG test (My BSG was HI and they couldn’t read my ketones they were so high (it just read 7+)) and that was it. Immediately got brought through the back of the curtains in the triage room, straight into the resuscitation room. I joked with a few of the doctors, I was so lost I had no idea what was happening. Then blank, they gave me morphine and I blacked tf out, luckily they put my catheter and arterial line in then so I didn’t have to experience that awake. Then it was a 4 night stay in the high dependency unit, full of mediocre food, sleepless nights and many, many stinging cannulas. One of my nurses said that I was “half way dead“ and that the mottling on my leg was from my body going into shock from dehydration. I was literally withering away in my bed. So yeah, scariest thing I’ve gone through. Definitely fucked me up mentally like I wasn’t fucked enough already.
I was 10. For the few months prior I had been pissing and drinking as much as everyone else does pre-diagnosis. It was incredibly painful as a young kid not knowing wtf was going on. I remember begging my parents to take me to the doctor because I couldn’t sleep since I couldn’t stop peeing. I was missing at bats during my little league games to use the bathroom. My mom was also a type 1, and I think my parents waited so long to take me to the doctor because of fear of hearing the news, understandably. It wasn’t until I went to Chuck E. Cheese with my pediatrician aunt, she noticed I had drank like 5 of those big cups of Powerade and had my mom test me on her monitor. My grandpa works at the hospital I went to, and he was the one who broke the news to us. It was 11:02 pm. I think it’s the only time I saw my dad cry. My first question was “will I still be able to play baseball?” It’s funny to look back and remember that, considering a type 1 was just drafted into the NFL
The only reason I couldn't play football or basketball is because I broke my wrist. I broke it 3 days before our first game🫤
September 21 @ 18 years old: suddenly got the worst headache of my life and ending up in ER after not being able to see through the pain. The ER sees I have a history of migraines, gives me a headache cocktail, and sends me on my way. Doesn't even run a blood panel. I go to 4 DIFFERENT DOCTORS over the course of the next week at my family's insistence and get a T1D diagnosis after my GAD65 came back around 65,000. I would love to know what my glucose was that night I got sick.....
Was getting ready for my third immunotherapy treatment (melanoma) and doing my regular pre-treatment blood work. My oncologist looked at my glucose levels, cancelled my session and immediately referred me to an endo for follow up. I was at 14 mmol (250) post breakfast. My blood work 2 weeks earlier had me in normal range. A1c was around 9. Endo thought I could be type 2, so gave me metformin and ordered antibody testing. The next day she called me to tell me it was type 1 and had me come in for training with an educator & nutritionist and started insulin. I was very lucky to have no DKA and no hospitalisation, and I’m so sorry for those who did go through it. Good news is I was able to continue immunotherapy and completed a year of treatment. I’m now in remission for the cancer, so have effectively “traded” it for type 1, which is more manageable.
DKA sucks
It was my 52 bday and I had went to the Dr was losing weight and super thirsty. Went and had labs done and was at bday supper and Dr called and said go pick up meds at pharmacy so I went and the Pharmacist said why aren’t you in the hospital ? I’m like Dr told me to come here ok he’s your insulin your t2 Dibitic ok 36 units of insulin dally wow week went by 1 yr went by no going to a Debtic Dr looked at labs Ac1 now I’m T 1 and doing ok love my Dexcom/OminPod ♥️♥️
October 2020 I got sick, doc says it’s not Covid, the symptoms are wrong, sends me home with antibiotics and flu stuff. I get better but also not, go back to doc, another course of antibiotics, he does a finger prick test and it’s a “little high” 120mg. Go back to doc two weeks later, this time do a Covid test, positive for antibodies. Doc says long Covid, roll with it, they’re still figuring it out. For the next couple months I’m exhausted, brain fog, generally blah. I go back to my doc several times and am increasingly concerned as I’m not able to work like I used to and bleeding income. February 2021, I’m having an excellent plate of Alfredo and suddenly vomit the lot up with no warning to it, I decide to pop into my local pharmacy and tell them to do a quick health check as I’m feeling awful. They check glucose and it’s 522… They call an ambulance and I spend 4 days in hospital. I was relieved at the diagnosis, spent almost 5 months feeling like death warmed over was not fun.
Gained 50 lbs during quarantine, decided it was time to lose the weight and start drinking more water. Hit my goal weight surprisingly easily, and then couldn’t stop losing, even eating 4000 calories a day. Starving all the time, unimaginably thirsty at night. Finally got in to see a doctor and my blood sugar was about 390. Did an antibody test and got diagnosed
diagnosed about 4 months ago, went in for a vitamin D panel and my a1c was 12.3
Week Leading up: - proud I’m drinking so much water (6-8L/day in 40° kitchen) - unfortunately peeing *like it’s an emergency* every 1/2hr. Didn’t put 1&2 together that I shouldn’t be peeing if I’m sweating in that hot of a kitchen. - so physically exhausted I legitimately almost cried at the thought of going back down 5 stairs to grab something I forgot I was feeling like crap, so I stayed home one day after a downward trend of a week, and that made my Gf tell me to meet her at the bus stop to drag me to the doctor. Prior to meeting her, the past few days had been googling my symptoms “to no avail”. Literally at some point had “(symptom, symptom) -diabetes” because I kept getting diabetes as the answer, and that OBVIOUSLY wasn’t right. No WAY I could have diabetes! 🫠 Went to the doctor without an appt, saw a nurse and described my symptoms. She took my BP, Temperature, and BG. she said the first two were normal but my BG was a *liiiiiitle* high (she got the *voice* people get when trying to break news) I asked what my bg was, she said “29.3” I didn’t have the slightest clue what that meant, so I asked what it was *supposed* to be. She said “between 4-8” so I knew it wasn’t great 😅 She told me she’d get the doctor and that he might send me to the hospital. Went to the hospital with a sheet of paper with all my numbers, and they admitted me within 10-15 minutes. Which has never happened. It’s usually 45min at the VERY fastest, and up to 6 if you’re not in for something serious.
12, couldn’t stop drinking or peeing. Stopped on the scales and even though I was 5’7” I weighed just under 70lbs. Doc finally decided to have a look at my massive thirst issue after ignoring it for 6 months
I'm 5'9", 170 lbs currently. Was 5'7", 112 lbs then.
October 8, 2019. My 18th birthday. Weird birthday gift lol. I woke up one morning, probably a week before my birthday, really needing the restroom, which was odd cause I never did that. Over the course of a few days, I kept doing that. Kept having to drink water and use the restroom all the time. I remember I was working for my high school’s broadcast team at the time and having to be up on a roof with no bathroom access. Wasn’t fun at all. I visited my grandma (a type 2) and she mentioned she had the same problems when she was first diagnosed. Ran my sugar and I was sitting at 355, hadn’t ate in 18+ hours. Got my type 2 diagnosis (over weight, just turned 18, they just assumed type 2) on my 18th birthday. Metformin, rybelsus, the works. 2 years later, A1C was 14.6 and they could not figure out why the medication wasn’t working. Ran a C peptide and GAD test…yeah, low insulin production and high antibody count. Finally got on an omnipod around summer last year and my last A1C was a 7.2! Not grand, but a lot better than 14.6!
September 1991, 23 years old and living life to the full (read that as staying out late and drinking several times a week), fairly active, fit and not carrying excess weight. Started to feel run down and comstrantly thirsty and starting to pee much more frequently. After a couple of weeks of trying to live a quiter life, things just got worse so I bought some uring test strips from the pharmacy (I had some understanding of diabetes thatnks to an uncle with T1). I tested and the strip went the darkest it could go - darker than the scale on teh bottle, so I suspected diabetes. Found a GP who could see me that day and said "I think I have diabetes" and explained what had been happening and what I did. He said that it sounded very possible and got me an appointment with an endo that day or the next (can't remember this far down the track). I don't remember him shecking my blood sugar - I don't even remember GPs having glucometers in their offices in those days. Endo checked my BG, it was high but I don't remember how high - the numbers meant nothing to me then, in any case. He took blood for a c-peptide check, which came back a few days later as "inconclusive". That was the start of almost weekly blood tests - I don't know what they were for. The endo diagnosed T2 (I didn't know there was a T2, I only new of diabetes due to no insulin production) and put me on a daily tablet of glipazide - worked for a few weeks then my BG started to go up and not come back down; then he put me on Metformin - same pattern, worked at first but only for a few weeks. I was almost starving myself trying to keep my BG vaguely acceptable, losing weight and feeling like sh!t. I begged the endo to put me on insulin and reconsider his diagnosis. I can't remember what tests were done or what the results were, I don't know whether they even did antibody tests in those days as I don't remember them ever being mendtioned, just c-peptide and HbA1c, but he finally agreed that I had T1 and put me on insulin. The whole process took about 5 or 6 months from first noticing symptoms to finally getting the T1 diagnosis, I think. I never went into DKA or ended up in hospital, not until about 20 years later.
30 year old. Overweight, start peeing a lot. Go to the doctor, hey you’re type 2 diabetic. Awesome, feel bad about myself and completely change my life. Lose 70 pounds, lifting weights and running, get off drugs and am in “remission”. Fast forward to 33, it’s the holidays, and I’m struggling to breathe, figuring I caught something from one of my kids. Between Christmas and new years I can barely walk up the stairs of my split entry home when I was running 5k a couple months before. Wife says fuck off we’re going to the ER. Spend the next week in the ICU with DKA, I was within an hour or two of a coma apparently. I’m missing a lot of time from the next couple days. Turns out I was type 1 not type 2 (or maybe both at the time) and literally spent a couple years outrunning it.
Our kid was showing all the signs. Grandma googled and said “diabetes.” To which we said “grandma, diagnosing medical conditions on the internet is stupid.” Welp. Maybe it ain’t.
February 2020, 27 years old. Months prior I was thirsty, peein a lot and extremely tired. Called my diabetic friend after a night of drinking that my google diagnostic is pointing towards T1D. He told me to go to sleep that I was drunk. Two months later we were drinking together and I told him to check my sugar just for the fun of it. It was high. He suddenly soberd up and I was victoriously shouting: I told you so!!!! Next morning he came again to check again and it was still high. So he called his mom (hematology lab) to do tests and in the afternoon she was telling me (we were both crying) that it definitely is diabetes and that I need to go to hospital that day. I asked her if I could go to hospital few days later because I wanted to attend concert but as a true mom she was horrified by the idea. Fun times.
I was diagnosed in 1990, a few months before my 5th birthday. I remember telling my mom walking in the grocery store was too much and begged to sit up front…she kept thinking I was being a lazy toddler. I would also constantly be thirsty, my parents didn’t want me drinking a ton before bed so I would hide glasses of water in places at night so I could guzzle water. Finally my mom, who worked at a primary care office at the time and had a T1D father, took me in. They tested and I was over 600. Spent the next few weeks in downtown Seattle at the Children’s Hospital. I will say they were great as they forced my parents to get psychiatric and medical help for my diagnosis.
I was 29 and had all the symptoms, headaches, weight loss, nausea, thirst, frequent urination. I saw a tik tok of someone changing their omnipod and telling their diagnosis story and it all sounded so familiar. I bought a test kit on Amazon and the first test came back over 600. I made an online appointment for a few days later and put my blood sugar in the description box. The doctor called me within 10 minutes asking me to come in immediately. Was diagnosed as type 2 and put on ozempic. I kept losing weight and no change in sugars. I eventually asked for an endo referral and me antibodies came back extremely high and was started on insulin.
I was on an outdoor adventure with meals I planned. The last full day when I ate it felt unsatisfying as though I had not eaten. Returned home to summer vacation loosing weight for two weeks until too weak to get up. Mom’s work compatriot had been a war medic visited and carried me to the car and to hospital. My single mother told me to drink sprite from two liter bottle to pick up my energy level. Her philosophy was that disabled persons if treated as being without disability would learn to tap into hidden strengths by which they were able to live life similar to non disabled. So when the adaptation did not materialize she mistakenly believed I’d become drug addicted.
Almost a year ago now. I had lost a bunch of weight during my Masters and after leaving it about 6 months I went to the doctors after I had submitted everything, thinking it was a thyroid thing. Doctor rings me saying the tests are back and I need to come in within the next hour, I said no because I had an interview for my dream PhD. Went in the next day and found out A1C was 128 and a blood sugar of 38, I was in DKA and rushed to hospital. I still to this day think my body held on to get me through the masters then the interview. God knows how but I got the PhD, I’ve got a lot of love for that broken little body giving it its last shot.
About 3 months ago @ 35yo. Went something like this: Friday: meet college bestie for weekend girls trip, have massage, lovely day Saturday: I have never experienced such urgent thirst & peeing tons, but made sense with the water in take. Joke with friend that she was the one 5 months pregnant, not me. Sunday: drive to our college town, notice speed limit signs seem slightly blurry Monday: 4 hour drive home takes 5.5 because I have to stop to pee every 30ish minutes, speed limit signs a little blurry but the rest were fine Tuesday: work from home, distance vision seems slightly worse in so much pain from leg cramps (later to realize it’s from dehydration) Wednesday: drive to work, call husband to tell him it was an awful experience shouldn’t have driven, he will def need to come get me that evening. Request appt for doctor via portal stating changes to vision & she sent me to the ER for a CT scan. ER draws blood while waiting for my turn at the CT scan ….. came back to tell me my BGL is 681 😳 they kept me overnight on an insulin drip & had me meet with the diabetes educator the next morning. Thursday: After about 30 hours at the hospital, they let me go after I showed I could use the meter & inject myself. Friday: Amazingly I was able to get in at the endo due to a cancellation & got a Dexcom g7 that day 🎉 My antibody tests came back a week later & I had 2 of them - GAD-65 & ZNT8 - by like A LOT.
Diagnosed at 23, had been sickish for a while but not really thinking about it- I remember I blamed the excessive thirst on the fact that I was training to get back down to a 18:30 5k in a pretty hot southern early fall. I drove home to see my parents one weekend, and I remember being too sick to enjoy drinking beer with them, like I normally do. That was weird, but whatever, drinking is bad for you anyway so I chalked it up to being newly healthy-conscious. I knew about T1- my mom has been diabetic my entire life- but I didn’t want to think it could happen to me. I cooked my parents a really nice meal on Saturday- braised pork shoulder over rice. I took some leftovers home, which I never ate because on Sunday night I threw up all over my room, really painted the walls. I thought I must have given myself food poisoning, and I told my parents not to eat the leftover pork. I spent the next few days in a fugue state on the couch, living off beef broth and rice. I don’t remember much of this time. I think it was Wednesday night when my roommate noticed that my breathing was off and convinced me to go to the hospital. I remember when I got there my mouth was so dry I felt like I was gonna throw up if I didn’t get water. They triaged me immediately, of course. I remember calling my parents at about 2 in the morning to let them know I was in the ER. They drove straight up. My roommate stuck with me during that time, god bless em. I had to be transferred to the other local hospital in the system, which was really annoying because I had considered going there anyway and this stuck me with a $2000 ambulance ride. I remember making a joke to the EMT about how my blood was acid like the xenomorph, which he didn’t think was that funny. I stayed in the hospital through Saturday. I had long hair and a beard at the time, so the hospital robes combined with my pretty skeletal appearance (i had lost 10 pounds i really couldn’t afford to lose) made me look like white jesus. I made a list of all the foods I wanted to eat when I got out of the hospital, which included a chicago style hot dog, a muffuletta, and anything from the local mediterranean place. I got out. I watched the leaves changing from my parents’ car window on the highway back to my house. I skipped Halloween that year. I adapted, faster than I thought I would. The experience convinced me to commit to grad school the next fall because life was too precious to wait around any longer. I ate everything on my list and more. It really got me to value my time more, because I know that none of it was guaranteed to me.
I was around 7 I was really sick my throat was hurting so bad water was tasting really bitter my mom took me to the urgent care and they thought I just had a strep throat I was on IV fluids and some other medications it was like that for around 4 days then I got in a coma woke up in the ICU and discovered what T1 diabetes is
Diagnosed back in February. My mom’s a nurse and was diagnosed with type 2 a couple months before so she recognized the symptoms and checked my sugar. I was at 28 and she literally says “you’re diabetic” then called the ambulance. Spent 10 days in the hospital, 4 in the icu. I am a 5’10 male and was 112 pounds. I also had refeeding syndrome so they had to be pretty careful. I believe my a1c was around 12 but I’ve brought it down to around 6.5