[Tony]

I have type 1 diabetes for 8 years now. up until a year ago i thought had type 2. Change of dr. is what change that thought. My first said i had type 2

I'm now on the insulin pump i take 30 to 40 units a day.
My last hba1c was 8.7, tring to lower that.

Tony

[rainbow]

What type of diabetes you have depends on whether or not your body makes insulin. If it makes no insulin at all, you have type I. If it makes insulin but your body can't use it, you have type II.

Doctors are trying to get away from the old terms "juvenile" and "adult onset" diabetes because younger and younger people are getting type II.

[Tony]

And how do we know if your boby makes insulin? Is this when the pills don't work for you any more?

[rainbow]

If the pills ever worked for you at all, in your entire life, you do not have type I. If you have type I, pills do not work. Never, ever. Pills only work if there is insulin in your body.

If the pills worked at one time but do not work any more, that does not mean you started out with Type II but then changed to type I. It just means that for whatever reason, the pancreas got pooped out and stopped making insulin, or that the pills just didn't do the job and you needed insulin injections because the pancreas didn't make enough insulin to do the job. Not being an endocrinologist, I can't say what type a person has with exact certainty.

Type I comes on very suddenly. Type II develops gradually.

How can you tell if you have insulin in your body? That I do not know. I assume there is some sort of test for it, a blood test of some sort.

Sometimes I wonder if there is some sort of intermediate type of diabetes that has some characteristics of both Type I and Type II!

[Tony]

Sometimes I wonder if there is some sort of intermediate type of diabetes that has some characteristics of both Type I and Type II!



I did here something about that at one time. But i forgot the name of it.

[Tony]

Diabetesforums will tell us in time which type of diabetes is more popular, 1 or 2.

Hello, this is my very first time in a message board . ) I am a Type 1 diabetic for 34 years. I started out on insulin but in the last year and a half have been on a pump. I LOVE IT. My A1c tests for the year and a half have been between 5.3 and 5.8.

I wonder about Type I and Type II diabetes--they say Type II is caused from being overweight but I know A LOT of people who are pencil thin but older and have type II and then on the other hand, I know a lot of people who are obese who do not have diabetes, so not sure exactly what happens. (I have always been very petite and short)

They are looking into germs and thinking maybe something in childhood causes diabetes but that is only a theory at this point. Like measles or chicken pox....and why do a lot of women get diabetes in the last 3 months of pregnancy?????

I also have 3 friends who were not diabetic and all three were in different car wrecks and all three now have diabetes (after the wreck)--what happens to the pancreas or body in shock or trama or is it just a coincidence.

Thank you very much...Suzie

[rainbow]

Type I is an autoimmune condition. Mine was caused by a virus, not by vaccines.

The thing about Type II and weight gain is that insulin resistence causes weight gain. So it's really the opposite way from what most people think. Insulin resistence causes weight gain, and most people with Type II have insulin resistence, so Type II causes weight gain, not weight gain causes Type II.

And Type II is genetic, so anyone with a family history of Type II is likely to get it, overweight or not.

That's interesting information--thank you for the info. ~Suzie

[Rebecca]

I am new here, but I have read some of the posts here, and I saw the question, on how do they know if your body produces insulin or not. There is a blood test that can determine if your body is producing any insulin or how much. it is called a C-PEPTIDE and that can determine if and how much insulin that the beta cells in your pancreas is producing

Rebecca

[padir]

hello all,

i am a type 1 diabetic since oct 97, i am nearly 21 years old and live in ireland, unfortunately in ireland we are well behind in diabetes technology. there is no sign of a pump becomming the norm yet.

i am taking 4 injections a day and my last hba1c was 7.6 (pretty ok for me i can tell you)

is the pump as good as they say ?? or is it just something new

Hi Rebecca & Welcome

I'm learning alot here and have had this disease 34 years ;-). I knew I didn't produce any insulin but never thought to ask any doctor how he knew. Happy to know about the peptides.
Thank you for the information.
Suzie

Welcome. Wow -you take a lot of shots. I took shots for 33 years and for the last year and a half have been on an insulin pump--I LOVE it. I am sorry you do not have the technology in Ireland. I hope some day you may. It is a lifesavor for me. I didn't have trouble with my diabetes until my late 40's.
I started dropping in my sleep every other night and would go into seizures. then I would have blood sugars of 300 and an hour later would drop to 30. This was almost every day. No amount of shots would help. My doctor tried different types and I still dropped. I'm suprised my brain is still working but hubby says that is debatable )
The pump is great YES. I am on a MiniMed pump-You can go to the site http://www.mimimed.com and see about it. What I like is you set the pump to your lifestyle and you have a steady flow of insulin going thru your body and you don't have the rise and fall of insulin peaks....and when you eat you add more insulin to match the carbohydrates in your food by a touch of a button.
If I over exercise or do too much I do drop but it is not like it was before. Also, my food digests better and I like that. For the year and a half my A1c tests have been between 5.3 and 5.8.
I wish you the best.
Suzie

[Gina]

Hello everyone...
Im gina a 26 old type 1 diabetic...I have been having problems getting onto this site ...but finally am here ...yaaaay Anyway I was diagnosed last year...November 25th 2000...a day I will never forget...At first I was very depressed about having diabetes...for almost 8 months i was in some sort of depression...the diabetes was really controlling my life...actually it was the first endo i had that was making me crazy ...he was telling me i should be able to handle having diabetes after only having it two months...blah blah ...so i dumped him like a hot potato and got a new doctor who changed my life....any way a year later almost to the day November 27th...I started pump therapy and totally love it!!! I wish everyone who has type 1 would be on it ...it makes you almost have a normal life...not that its not normal but i guess maybe just easier...Im so happy to have found this site...to exchange ideas with other people dealing with the same things I am ....
Hello again
~gina

Glad you are doing much better and hope you do well on the pump. Living with diabetes is not easy but the pump does make life alot better. The only thing I don't like about the pump is, if it stops in the night or you possible do not get the carbo right and your blood sugar rises--you get or at least i do --get ketones fast. but it is easy to get my sugar down with the bolus.
One thing does strike me as odd. I count my insulin and carbos different then most everyone. If anyone else does it this way--please let me know. This is how my doctor and MiniMed prescribed it for me-but it may be this way because I had such radical highs and lows.
The amount of basal is based on the amount of insulin I took daily with shots.I have four different basal rates. I count the carbos I eat for my bolusfor food, Say I have 40 carbos for breakfast. I divide that number by 20--ALWAYS use 20 for dividing carbos ---no matter what the number. So I 40 divided by 20 is 2. for my meal. Now --my sugar ratio is 80 to 140 but I am allowed to go to 170 at night because I still drop in my sleep but not too low now. That means my level of sugar when I test should be between 80 and 140 during the day. At night It can go to 170 and will be OK. If at any time it is over these amounts --say I do a finger stick before a meal and it is 220-I subtract 120 from 220 which gives me 100. Then I divide 100 by 65 which is 1.5 but I bolus 1. to cover the high sugar. Then bolus my regular carbo count for lunch by 20. Say 60 divided by 20 is 3. It sounds confusing but works great.
Most everyone I know divides like tony said in his post.
Thanks
Suzie