To think this is the start of type 1 diabetes

[NeuroSpicyCat]

Hand hold please.

My 13 year old son informed me tonight that he wet the bed last night.

This has never happened before.

His late father had Type 1 diabetes which started around this age.

My son also has a sore tummy (that comes and goes) and sore calves (that come and go).

He seems to have low mood also.

He's always been really thin.

My husband (his stepdad) is driving to A&E with him right now. I’m staying home with the other 4 children. (I can’t drive).

I’m autistic and scared. I’m so worried for him. AI said he is highly likely to be diagnosed given his symptoms and family history, and he’s likely to be urgently admitted to hospital.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Wow! First Aid courses are pointless now too!

This. Advocating for faffing about with equipment you know little or nothing about in terms of interpretation of results is no substitute for getting proper and timely medical advice. Home first aid kits should be basic - plasters, bandages, antiseptics and paracetamol. Anything else should be left to the professionals.

Thermometers? Our doctor advised us to get the others. We were told post COVID an pulse oxy meter is a basic now. Even 111 asked if you have one and what the reading is when we phoned with a chest infection.

But they are symptoms - especially with the family history and the bed wetting, even if it is once and it could happen again. The typical symptoms are the 4Ts - tired, toilet, thirst, thinner - but as a mum of 2 type 1 daughters, there are a range of things that can be symptoms. With my eldest, she had severe stomach pain and wet herself twice. She was very thin at the time but very active, and we were on holiday so very much out of normal routine. I thought it was a uti and took her to the doctor who dipped her urine and finger pricked her due to high glucose in her wee. We were sent to hospital immediately and she was diagnosed within a couple of hours.

We discovered my second girl had all the antibodies through testing (trialnet study, now finished in the UK) and she was diagnosed within two years. She was diagnosed coeliac first, and the more acute symptoms of diabetes presented within days some months later. Not particularly typical symptoms either, she was really poorly with a cold and just didn't bounce back, then had one episode of wetting in the day. Nothing that anyone else without any history would act on but when I finger pricked her at home her bloods were over 20 and she was diagnosed that night.

So my message to OP and anyone with any of the 4Ts in particular, is don't wait, get checked out. OP you have done the right thing sending your child to hospital. Better that than too late. GPs aren't always on the ball either so A&E or if you know someone with a finger pricker take a few readings. There is a study called ELSA for children and T1DRA for adults that can tell you what antibodies you have, so if this is a false alarm, it might be worth looking into that - just search it on Google and you will find it easily.

Take care OP. If it is diabetes there sure are hard times but you can do this xxx

If you're not in the UK, what makes you think commenting on what she should have done is appropriate?

the system is fucked. It's not the patients fault, if you have a child you are worried about A&E is appropriate, waiting until your GP surgery can fit you in, is not good/safe advice.

the system needs fixing, not the parents getting medical help.

This is absolute rubbish. T1s can adjust their insulin, whether they use injections or a pump, allowing them to eat and drink what they want, when they want as long as they bolus for it. Obviously a healthy diet is recommended, and carb counting can be useful but more because you may need to account for carbs rather than because you can't have them.

All sorts of factors can affect blood sugars - exercise, stress, trauma, other medical conditions, heatwaves (or cold snaps), alcohol etc - so regular blood sugar testing, either by fingerprick tests or via a Libre, is vital.

Not what l said. At all. You’re advocating for people to do first aid courses so they know what a diabetic emergency looks like. It’s not recommended for lay people to deal with diabetic emergency at all. In cases where the patient is unconscious it’s 999 every time. Where they are awake you call for appropriate help and in the meantime give small, timed amounts of sugar and look for improvement and hand over to professional care as soon as possible. That’s it.

here if would be pointless. They would make an appointment with the DN, could be days/week.

I hope he's okay and you've got some answers, one way or the other.

Hope your DS is OK OP.

I suddenly wet the bed once when I was about that age. It turned out to be caused by anxiety because I was being severely bullied at school. Just another possibility if T1 is ruled out, especially as you say he has low mood.

A thermometer is a good idea, yes l agree, and easily available. But a pulse/oxymeter is no more necessary than a blood glucose machine, unless you have certain conditions affecting oxygen levels, in which case NHS issue them. It’s overkill.

I'm surprised that her son's diabetes 1 is managed only by insulin without a strict control diet. I don't know how old is her son but long actin insulin can stop being effective without diet control, which often means needing fast acting insulin and in a minority of cases, until it no longer works because kidneys have failed due to the condition.

There are several factors with diabetes 2, the majority of which are lifestyle. The reason why most of our societies have experienced an incredible jump in this type is because we consume too much sugar, lead mostly sedentary lives and are overweight as a result. There are also factors like genetics having a play as well but for the majority, diabetes 2 is controlled by medication or long acting insulin without having a strict diet.

This is not the case with diabetes 1. It's a very serious condition, mostly inherited through genetics which needs a health team to follow up and a strict diet/meal times around the time the insulin is injected.

I've said all I can in this issue and won't be commenting further to individual posters.

So nice to see all the T1Ds & T1D families banding together on here. Now sign the petition please… 💙

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/728677

Are you able to quote the posts from the poster who says that they are an Endocrinologist so that we can see what they actually said. Thanks.

Have you ever done a first aid course? It teaches you the signs to look for of someone deteriorating, they are not conscious or unconscious. Are you sure you have actual experience here?

You dont need strict control diet with type one! There is such thing as corrections & adjusting carb to insulin raitos & basal. You need to read up on type one and educate yourself further.
You can eat whenever you want as well, theres no such thing as strict meal times. What an earth? Please do not comment on things you lack understanding of. That may of been the way 40 years ago but times have changed!

My OH, also T1, has never heard of this diet...

This is just nonsense. Most people adjust insulin for what they’re eating and keep a close eye on blood sugar. A strict diet is not necessary or advocated - just normal healthy eating.

Lots of dismissive posters need to read your post & realise just how wrong they are!

Forgive me if I dislike people giving false medical advice 🙄

Op please don’t feel guilty for getting him checked. When I took my Dd to the gp he checked her blood, highest the
monitor read was 29.9, hers was reading high, which meant it was higher than that.
Within 15 mins she had been taken by ambulance straight to the children’s ward and was given her first dose of insulin with 30 mins of being in the gp’s surgery.
The hospital will not judge you for checking your child for a life threatening condition.
Some of the posts on this thread minimising this horrible condition are awful

Not according to my doctor. We were told everyone should have one, they are easily available, tescos have them on the shelves. Clearly our doctors have different views. I'm going to rely on my doctor rather than someone who posts on Mumsnet.

Wrong about what exactly? There is a lot of hyperbole on this post about a boy who wet the bed once.

Thank you. Its something I will always adovcate about, I never want to see another family go through what my son did. It was terrifying, he ended up having a seziure before they managed to get him on a insulin drip.

That is not what the OP described. She described an occasional stomach ache sometimes which comes and goes. That is not the stomach pain you see with DKA. Also, OP says he is thin but has always been thin, he is not thinner. He has none of the 4Ts. A single episode of bed wetting with no increased thirst or urination. The heredity of T1D is very low - less than 10%.