To be worried about Diabetes?

[WorriedAboutTeenMama]

Sorry posting here for traffic as I am so worried at the minute and could do with some thoughts from you lovely lot!

My DD13 for the past month has been really 'off'. I will bullet point symptoms below to stop me going on! But for context she is autistic (high functioning) so doesn't communicate well when it comes to feeling poorly. She has previously had appendicitis and didn't show any sign of discomfort until it burst! She is an extremely sporty girl, plays football several times a week, eats plenty of fruit and veg, only drinks water and plenty of it. She has always been thin and tall too.

So here are the symptoms she has experienced the past few weeks:

• Extreme tiredness to the point where she will only play her football then its lying down shattered (very unlike her she is usually bouncing off the walls!)
• She has had two 'collapsing' episodes now during football training, the first one being 2 weeks ago where she went shaky and dizzy and collapsed, followed by a headache, blurred vision etc. Took her to A&E straight away who said its probably due to the heat and activity level, only tested BP and temp sent away. Another episode last night and we have been told she seems much slower than usual in training.
• Since then she has had many bouts of dizziness and shakiness during sport but also when she isn't active. She has to physically lean on the wall and grabs hold of something as she feels so unstable
• She has been getting numbness in her arms randomly
• She feels generally weak and has so little energy for anything other than football (this is an obsessive interest of hers!) For example we went on a break last weekend and she didn't want to go swimming, didn't join in playing on the field, kept going dizzy when we were on a walk etc
• She said she is filling her water bottle up at school a lot more than she used to but I haven't noticed at home so much because she has always had a bottle of water in her hands.
• I can't say I have noticed her peeing more either

She has been to A&E as mentioned above, the doctors a few days after A&E as no improvement who said probably a migraine and then the doctors yesterday who dismissed migraine and ordered the blood test for today, on the blood form it says Hbac1 - Suspected Diabetes Diagnosis, but then its also got iron, calcium etc so probably just looking for everything. Both times her BP has been normal.

I never even thought of diabetes but after googling she is displaying symptoms but the lack of noticeable thirst and more peeing is making me doubt it could be this.

Anyway, does anybody have any experience of what this could be? We initially thought it could be related to her cycle but it has happened far too often in between so ruled that out.

She is in bed at the moment, I have let her stay off school as was really weak and dizzy last night and just needed sleep bless her.

TIA x

Thank you all so much! It’s so worrying but I’m also keeping an open mind that it could be lack of VIT.D or Iron and feel reassured that the doctor only saw her yesterday and surely would have done the glucose or ketone test there and then if he thought it was actually diabetes? Husband took her but said he told him everything.

Really appreciate the responses and advice - I will be keeping a close eye on her and test as soon as the kit arrives. (Unfortunately I have epilepsy so not currently able to drive or would have been straight to the pharmacy to just buy one now!) she is too weak to even walk into town so want to get to the bottom of it now.

thanks again and I’ll keep you posted x

Type 1 diabetic here.
This can be resolved in 10 seconds with a finger prick test. Take her now. And demand it gets done. Sounds like either type 1, anaemia or something along those lines. Why they didn't test when you first went I'm not sure, but the longer it's left the more dangerous it will be.

Normal reading is 4-7 for a non diabetic. Lower than 4 is a hypo. Higher than 7 shows diabetes or pre-diabetes.

Get a test. Our son was diagnosed at 16 and was on insulin but still manged to die from it aged 31. It's a very dangerous condition.

When my son was experiencing some T1 diabetes symptoms the GP sent him for a blood test the following day. Diabetes was only one of the things he was being tested for.

48 hours after that appointment (24 hours after the blood test) the GP called me and told me to take him straight to A&E that moment. He was in DKA and very poorly.

I knew DS was a bit ‘off’ but I had no idea how dangerously ill he was. I’d definitely push for the doctor to consider diabetes urgently.

@JoWawa i am so sorry to hear that 💐 . I admit I know nothing about diabetes but seeing the responses to this thread has made me realise how serious it is. X

Get thyroid bloods especially if it runs in the family.

You can buy urine dip tests at the chemist too which can be useful.

Mum of a T1 here. Fingers crossed for you. Do make sure that she washes, rinses and thoroughly dries hands before testing. Washing in warm water helps blood flow too.

OP just want you to bear in mind blood glucose will naturally vary during the day and a finger prick test will only show what it is right now. So whilst one test that shows it is way too high or way too low can identify a problem, one test showing in a normal range at a random time doesn’t necessarily mean you can rule out diabetes.

HBA1C on the other hand shows the average blood sugar over a number of weeks.

Good point Nowyousee. And crazily at my son’s dx, his blood glucose was sky high but his hb was reasonable!

@Bimblesalong good tip thank you - do you mind me asking what your DC symptoms were?

@NowYouSee ah ok it all sounds so confusing! I will keep that in mind thank you!

If you look at the diagram on this page hopefully you’ll get a slightly better idea what I mean
https://www.diabetescarecommunity.ca/healthy-living-landing/diabetes-monitoring/continuous-glucose-monitoring/

You can get a two week free trial of the Libre2. You'll need to buy a sticky cover.

if you have access to a smart phone you tap them to get a blood sugar reading without having to do a pin pick test.

This gives an idea of blood sugars over an extended period and may be good evidence to take to the doctor.

Unmonitored diabetes could be very serious. Hope you get an answer soon OP.

This does sound like T1 diabetes OP , I know several younger people with it and one guy in his 60s - none of them were peeing non stop upon diagnoses but all were thirsty and losing weight and dizzy and had eye issues

I’m so sorry to here this@JoWawa this is my worry it never stops even when they are adults.

Any luck?

I hope you managed to get her in to see someone
It does sound like it could well be T1 The dizziness etc could be explained in anaemia, but the symptom which jumped out at me is the blurred vision
The hba1c will give a picture of her sugar levels over the last 12 weeks
I'm actually surprised she's never had a finger prick test done
Hope she's ok

My DH recently went to the docs with extreme tiredness, thirst and peeing. Doctor did blood test, blood sugars were very high and his ketones. he was immediately sent to the hospital and treated on a drip for hydration and Insulin injections.
I would have thought if they were really concerned diabetes was a possibility she would/should have been tested there and then.
Side effects of diabetes are extremely dangerous and can't see why they wouldnt test if they thought that.

Thanks everyone,

So we haven’t been to the doctors as we did our own glucose test and it came back at 6 which after Googling is normal range so ruled out the possibility of diabetes. Like a pp has said if they were seriously concerned it was that think they would have tested there and then.

She is still very weak, tired and dizzy etc. She had her bloods done today so will see what the results are hopefully before the weekend.

Thanks for all the comments and support it’s really been useful xx

Glad it wasn’t a high reading that’s totally normal in range but do a couple more and just take note
hope you get to the bottom of the problem poor DD

@Bagpuss2022 thank you - shall I take some after she has eaten? Feel so helpless poor little mite just so horrible seeing her so weak and fragile x