17 year old son, GP or A&E?

[Imamumgetmeoutofhere]

My son is 17, almost 18. For the last 3 days he’s been peeing a lot more than normal and drinking a lot more than normal. This morning I found him asleep on the sofa and he said he had been too tired to go up the stairs to bed, but feels ok in himself today, just wiped out.

I said take him to A&E as these sound like possible diabetes symptoms, husband think it sounds like a UTI and has done an e-consult and urine sample for him at our surgery.

Am I over panicking? Or should I be trusting my judgement and taking him to A&E?

Thanks in advance

You are very aggressive.
I do have diabetes. Had it for years now.
And you are right you have to know if low blood sugar or not.

They won’t have low blood sugar. They’ll have very high blood sugar. You may feel people are being aggressive but you are not giving accurate info for someone who may have undiagnosed type 1.

Well it worked for my relative who is type 1.
Please can you leave it. The OP whose thread this belongs to has not combed through and decided to hound people whose advice she felt was wrong.
You have made your point.

Then maybe you should advise the British Medical Journal of your relatives’ success in recovering from DKA by being fed sugar when the body can’t actually utilise sugar because of the lack of insulin. That’s miraculous and surely headline news.

And I was responding to your own replies, so yes we’ll leave it there.

I do think replies on posts like these need a flair like on some sub reddits.

Example - I have no medical expertise - I would say GP

And - I have first hand experience of managing type 1 - head to A&E sounds like textbook DKA.

Although I don't think it would work as there's an expert a few posts up who thinks undiagnosed type 1 might need carbs to feel better.

I think whether they’re offered or not is healthcare trust dependent and a bit of a postcode lottery unfortunately. The three T1D I know of local to me all have them, but a work colleague who lives elsewhere has never been able to get one which is shit really, but as you say it does become routine and will mean if it’s an option for your son in future it’ll be a bonus rather than a necessity.

you have no clue what you are talking about. Even if someone is having a hypo, they need fast acting sugar, not cake or a biscuit!

Cakes and biscuits for a person showing classic signs of udiagnosed diabetes and being in DKA?

I’ve heard it all now.

Well precisely. At our GPs booking a same day appointment outside the hours of 08.00 and 08.05 is virtually impossible and the waits, first for the phone to be answered and then for a call back from a clinician can be very long. And anyway being admitted directly to a ward as GP referral is a thing of the past in our nearest hospital, and I am sure many others as there are never any empty beds. So even if you get referred in by your GP you're going to go to the ED and you're likely to wait just as long to be seen.
It's not like it was when I was a junior doctor when we'd get a phone call from the referring GP and the patient came directly to the ward with a letter. Then being admitted via your GP definitely did save time and reduce pressure on the ED. Maybe there are some hospitals that still function like that, but none of the ones I have been in in the last decade, either as staff or a patient do. At our hospital everyone is triaged and seen by the ED team initially regardless of how they got there.
There is an issue with people using EDs inappropriately though to be honest, I do have some sympathy with patients who go there incorrectly but out of desperation because they can't get a GP appointment, but the OP isn't one of them. I know a lot of senior ED doctors and I can't think of a single one of them who would complain about someone like the OP's son arriving in their department. The story was highly suggestive of new T1 diabetes, which particularly in children and young people can deteriorate very quickly and unpredictably - I've admitted many patients with similar stories to ICU over my career. It wouldn't necessarily be "wrong" to go to the GP depending on the availability of services but it is a situation that needs rapid assessment by someone who knows what they are doing and in many areas the best place for that will be the ED.
@Imamumgetmeoutofhere I hope your DS is getting good care and that things get on a more even keel soon.

Unbelievable, why would you give someone with high blood sugars cake and biscuits?
You say you are diabetic, I’m guessing very poorly controlled if you think giving biscuits and cakes to someone in DKA is appropriate.
The misinformation on this thread is unbelievable, especially when you come away with “im a diabetic so i do know”!

Be careful going onto a pump immediately, what usually happens is that the person honeymoons so they produce some insulin this can be anything from a week to years and it can cause lows. We opted for injections so we could find the right insulin to carb raitos first. Xx

Why would you give a diabetic cake and biscuits if in DKA?! Wtf.
When my son was in dka he wasn’t allowed to eat until his insulin drip had brought him back into range and had swapped over to pens. This is worrying if you think it’s okay for someone in dka to eat massively high carb foods as a diabetic, do better.

Oh op another thing seek out the Juicebox podcasts, they are free to listen too.
There’s 100s of podcasts and they cover literally everything about diabetes. It’s really useful. X

I don’t know if this is UK wide guidance but we had to show we could manage injections for 6 months before we were even added to the waiting list for a pump which makes sense because if your pump fails you need to know how to look after yourself with pens. I think some very young children go on them very quickly though because injections are so distressing for little ones.

@Imamumgetmeoutofhere be sure to ask about the new delaying treatment. I don’t claim to know anything at all about it but it’s worth asking if your son is eligible. I’m about to have my other child screened in the ELSA study so we can be on the front foot if it’s found they’ll be diabetic one day.

Only if they were hypoglycaemic (low blood sugar) at the time, @Monty36 - and even then cakes/biscuits are not the best option. In the case of hyperglycaemia, cakes or biscuits would surely make things worse, not better.

This is helpful if someone has a diabetic hypoglycaemia. As you will know, that arises because insulin administration isn't an exact science and too much insulin drops blood sugar.

An emerging diabetic will have hyperglycaemia. They will be confused because their body is using all their fluids to flush out the excess sugar, so they're dehydrated, and if they are in ketoacidosis their brain is literally being pickled.

Exam invigilator here; exams have finished for now but it’s worth noting a student can have a phone in their exams for the purpose of monitoring blood sugar levels.

If anyone is reading this and wondering if they would pick up signs of diabetes, the 4Ts is a helpful thing to remember:

• Thirsty
• Toilet
• Tired
• Thin

If you notice one of those things on their own, it could be a virus, a bacterial infection, overdoing it, etc.

If you notice two or three, or all four, you need to get seen urgently.

My (then 15 year old) son was diagnosed with diabetes after going into DKA in January 2025. It was so overwhelming at the time and absolutely terrifying, but I can say that after the initial shock wore off, within a few weeks we had adjusted to this “new normal”. Hang in there - will get easier! And with continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, it is so much easier to manage these days. See if you can find someone to talk to. One of my son’s classmates is diabetic, and after talking to his mum it really helped. I also looked online (Reddit was particularly helpful) to read up more about it. And feel free to message me.

You’re type2 aren’t you?

Exactly.
and the poster you quote is doing nothing to prove their superior knowledge and everything to prove how a small amount of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Im on a facebook group for type 1 Diabetes and a poster swore she controlled her "Type 1 Diabetes" by diet alone no need for insulin🤔

They used to try that before insulin was invented. 100% mortality rate, of course.