Remember that the information presented here is not intended to replace the care of your own doctor. Before making any changes in the management of your own illness, you should consult your physician or other qualified medical professionals.
Question
I am 34 years old and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes two and a half years ago. At first, my control was very good, and I got my HbA1c down to 5.9% from 8.1% . I then fell off the wagon so to speak. I didn't visit my doctor for a year and didn't check my blood sugar regularly. When I finally went in, my A1c had gone to 13%.I was referred to an endocrinologist and am starting insulin due to my low production of it. How quickly does someone progress to insulin dependent diabetes? I realize I was not in complete control, but it's hard for me to think that only six to eight months knocked out my pancreas as many people go years without knowing.
Answer
You are correct, that it is unusual to have type 2 diabetes deteriorate so fast. However, there's another condition where rapid progression to insulin-dependence occurs in people originally thought to have type 2 diabetes, that it sounds like you may have. It's known as LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults). If your endocrinologist has not tested you for antibodies, you may want to ask that these be done to confirm this diagnosis.Had you been monitoring, you would have noticed the rising glucose levels. However, you would NOT have been able to prevent this from occurring. You were lucky you did not go into diabetic ketoacidosis.
