Recent notice to shield (Feb 2021) and history of gestational diabetes

[HelloViroids]

This has popped up on a few other threads and had blindsided me today so thought I’d make a thread in case others want to discuss.

I had gestational diabetes but have since been tested for type 2 diabetes and don’t have it. I know my risk of type 2 is increased though. I’ve now have notice to shield and (separately) link to book vaccine.

I have no other significant risk factors (overweight but not obese, ethnicity more risky - but NOT asthma or any other respiratory conditions or similar), so I am assuming the GD must be the reason I am now being treated as CEV. Someone pointed out on another thread that gestational diabetes is a factor in the algorithm being used to add people to the list (digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus/risk-assessment) - but I had thought that would be current GD not historic?!

Just wondered if anyone else has been surprised by this - or if anyone has had GD but NOT been told to shield? I wasn’t expecting lockdown to get worse at this point

@minipie there are definitely delays with the post. I got my letter yesterday but email was last week.

@minipie It also says that people who had already been declared to not need shielding prior to this change wouldn’t be included, so if your friend has conditions that the GP is aware of they may have already done that before all of this kicked off, meaning they wouldn’t get a letter.

@RhubarbCrumbling, you are right to put it down as type two in the absence of recent hba1c. But if you get a normal hba1c, then you would no longer put yourself down as type two. So hba1c is the first step but until then you should be in the shielding category as a precaution. There is a new flowchart to help GPs follow all this. Not sure if it’s been posted upthread but I’ll add it here too in case not.

Sorry, tagged wrong person! @RhubarbCrumbling please see my post above. Is your diabetes check at GP? If not, worth getting in touch with them possibly to flag this

The flowchart I mentioned

Sorry, no need for me to have posted those. @Nosideeffectsatall already shared them! (They just hadn’t loaded on the thread on my phone)

I've just got a text from my GP asking me to go for blood test tomorrow so they can remove me from the shielding list (of bloods come back ok)

I’ve just seen this flowchart and my bloods were 5.3 which looking at American figures is prediabetic and looking at the flowchart above puts me at risk. I didn’t know that made me prediabetic until now.

@GoneCrazy American diagnose at a lower threshold than the UK.

What was the 5.3? Fasting?

@GoneCrazy An hba1c of 6-6.4 is prediabetic in the UK, not 5.3!

Having heard nothing from my GP I contacted them, and I'm being sent for a blood test (I got my old home monitor out and got some borderline fasting readings). I'm still waiting for an appointment though which is annoying as I need to sort childcare.
I'm feeling really nervous about it, even though there are far worse conditions out there.

@GlumyGloomer What were your fasting reads?

5.3, I think I had a 5.5 too. Stupidily I didn't keep a record, but I've been battling a lot of denial over this.

@GlumyGloomer Those aren’t diabetic numbers. 5.3 isn’t even prediabetic. 5.5 is prediabetic (just!) but I wouldn’t trust a home monitor and lab results are usually lower. Don’t worry. GD numbers are a lot stricter than normal.

I went for my appointment today expecting just my hba1c test but the nurse took 3 bottles of blood and said they are also going to check for anemia, cholesterol, thyroid and lots of other things to. She did my height, weight and BP too and asked a few lifestyle questions. Basically gave me a whole health MOT.

Thanks @Doireallyneedaname, that's good to know. I thought healthy would be 4s.

My sister was quite surprised to get her letter telling her to shield. She had GD with both pregnancies, but no sign of diabetes since (although she hasn't had any tests), and no other health issues at all. She's a healthy weight and non-smoker. Possibly her area is classed as deprived, but that's not a given. She got her vaccine invitation in the same week, which she wasn't expecting so at least there was a up side. It all seems quite arbitrary, but it must have affected so many. She's a teacher too so would be having difficult conversations with work had she not had the vaccine.