I get everyone's point on the folks who ask questions here before they are diagnosed...but a website like this one really saved my butt just before I was diagnosed.
My situation was that I was caretaker to my mom who was in the last stages of cancer...I took a leave of absence during her last two months. In that time period, I wasn't eating as much as I normally would...nor was I eating out in restaurants. As a result, I lost weight. NOt a big concern at the time.
After I lost my mom, I picked up my exercise regimen again, and threw myself into work. Continued to lose weight, but figured that was due to stress. I traveled to Europe and while there finally began to put the pieces together....lost 25 pounds, but was eating two desserts a day (insatiable hunger)...and 'finally' realized that my thirst was just a wee bit abnormal (2 liters of water in a night along with about 4 during the day suddenly struck me as odd)....
I logged onto a website and exchanged some great notes with some folks that helped me limp back to the States, where I was diagnosed with an a1c of >13. (I'm guessing the only thing that kept me from keeling over was the fact that I was exercising every day). Honestly, I was scared, alone and had no idea what to eat or how to go about checking my blood sugar myself (the things we are so accustomed to, the average non-diabetic has NOOOOOO clue about)...having someone respond to my post telling me to reduce my carbohydrate intake and drink lots more water to avoid dehydration was pretty darn comforting.
While the list of symptoms is a great thing to have as a sticky, you can't underestimate the impact of hearing someone who has been there...and come out the other side. It surely helped me out!
I agree that not everyone who asks is actually diagnosed...and that it can get tiresome, but as a community this one has been pretty nurturing! (so I suppose this can be taken as a lame thanks to everyone whose ever replied to any of my learning curve questions!)
