Ok so I am new to this system (tribes I mean). The first tribe I looked at was this: since I was diagnose in August 2002 at 17 this has sort of been one of my number one intrests. I was diagnosed after loosing about 30 lbs in 2 weeks ( I weighed 120 and I am 5'11" you could see the coroners of my forehead). I was going through a gallon of juice in an hour - it was all typica, and lke everyone else they could not explain how I was still clear and coherent, the dr. said I should be in the icu, but I was just fine other than these just odd symptoms.
I was reading through some of the posts and a few things caught my attention, so instead os posting all over the place I decided to just write it all out here. 1: About test kits - blood sugar monitoring on the arm is not always as accurate, actually it is generally only considered comparable to finger testing if the arm stick is fasting (ex: first thing in the morning). Also there is always a range with every monitor that is considered acceptable - most monitors come w/ a sugar type substance that will test your montior to make sure it is still in the accurate range. This is why usually endos. will not make a person's target 120 cuz of the error range on monitors. 2. They have been doing a lot of of experiments with islet transplants from cadavers - but recently in Tokyo they transplanted cells from a healthy mother into her daughte who has since been insulin independent. They are doing experiment at UCSF - but the process is still highly experimental. The person still will have to take imuno suppresents in most cases, and also in the live donor transplants it is considered as dangerous as a liver transplant. The donor could potentially die or develop diabetes themselves, and there is no guarantee that the recipent will become insulin indpendent or for how long. 3. lastly, many diabetics increasingly have no family history. Thsi is what most confused my family and myself when I was diagnosed. I was slender. athletic, and ate well - plus there was zero family history. Reasearch is showing more and more that type 1 can be an autoimmune disorder or do to polutants etc.
Does anyone have problems with frequently being ill? I have great numbers, and essentially am allowed to eat and do whatever I want - I just have to carb count. I am active and busy in college. I am always sick though! I feel like I am constantly coming down with something from sore throats to the flu and anything else. It is ridiculous, plus once I get sick i stay that way, and frequently a cold knocks me out worse than my friends. Plus since they think I have diabetes as a result of an autoimmune disorder I can't take immune system stimulants. Does anyone else have a similar problem, and if so how do they manage it? I can not constantly be sick like this! It is getting to the point where even my friends don't believe I am ill - it makes me feel like such a slacker!
I was reading through some of the posts and a few things caught my attention, so instead os posting all over the place I decided to just write it all out here. 1: About test kits - blood sugar monitoring on the arm is not always as accurate, actually it is generally only considered comparable to finger testing if the arm stick is fasting (ex: first thing in the morning). Also there is always a range with every monitor that is considered acceptable - most monitors come w/ a sugar type substance that will test your montior to make sure it is still in the accurate range. This is why usually endos. will not make a person's target 120 cuz of the error range on monitors. 2. They have been doing a lot of of experiments with islet transplants from cadavers - but recently in Tokyo they transplanted cells from a healthy mother into her daughte who has since been insulin independent. They are doing experiment at UCSF - but the process is still highly experimental. The person still will have to take imuno suppresents in most cases, and also in the live donor transplants it is considered as dangerous as a liver transplant. The donor could potentially die or develop diabetes themselves, and there is no guarantee that the recipent will become insulin indpendent or for how long. 3. lastly, many diabetics increasingly have no family history. Thsi is what most confused my family and myself when I was diagnosed. I was slender. athletic, and ate well - plus there was zero family history. Reasearch is showing more and more that type 1 can be an autoimmune disorder or do to polutants etc.
Does anyone have problems with frequently being ill? I have great numbers, and essentially am allowed to eat and do whatever I want - I just have to carb count. I am active and busy in college. I am always sick though! I feel like I am constantly coming down with something from sore throats to the flu and anything else. It is ridiculous, plus once I get sick i stay that way, and frequently a cold knocks me out worse than my friends. Plus since they think I have diabetes as a result of an autoimmune disorder I can't take immune system stimulants. Does anyone else have a similar problem, and if so how do they manage it? I can not constantly be sick like this! It is getting to the point where even my friends don't believe I am ill - it makes me feel like such a slacker!
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Re: Overview:
Wed, May 18, 2005 - 8:06 AMInteresting, I didn't realize that there was still a debate about this. I was always told it was an autoimmune disorder and I was diagnosed almost 15 years ago.
They did ask about my genetic history, as that can obviously be a factor that increases risk, but said that the onset was probably caused when I developed the flu. That is the difference between type 1 and type 2: type 1 is an autoimmune disorder and type 2 is a metabolic disorder.
Are you under a lot of stress or living in a dorm? Doing anything that you know is unhealthy (smoking or around people who smoke, drug use, not enough sleep, etc.)? I know that you probably already know this, but these factors can have a HUGELY different effect on people who already have compromised immune systems. I no longer get sick very often, but I definitely notice that I develop successive colds when I'm say, traveling in Europe and playing in clubs where there is no way that I can escape being exposed to a gazillion people smoking.
Do you take daily vitamins? Drink a lot of water? Use herbal immune system boosters? Make sure that when you first get sick you rest/sleep as much as possible? I know all this stuff is hard when you're in school, but it can definitely help.
