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Confused

3K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  moon 
#1 ·
I was diagnosed as Type 1 last year. A colleague at my office soon told me she was having some diabetic symptoms like peeing a lot and always feeling hungry and tired but she's never been diagnosed as being diabetic.

Soooo, I used my kit to test her blood and found her blood sugar to be really high. She's small, maybe 5'4" and 130 pounds. The first reading I took was after lunch and she was at 16.6 mmol/l. I was shocked and told her we should test more, so the next morning I tested her and she was 13.4 despite having not yet eaten that morning - only having had tea with no sugar. After her lunch, which consisted of rice, a sandwich, a banana and some chicken, she was 20.5!!

I told her that based on those three readings over 36 hours she was hyperglycemic and that would explain her symptoms. Since she didn't have a family doctor I told her she should go to emergency (This is in Canada where healthcare is free) where they could flush her out and get her setup with an endocrinologist. She she took my advice and went to the hospital. The next day she told me that the doctors admitted her but told her she was NOT diabetic despite the high blood sugar readings and the symptoms she was experiencing. Apparently her blood sugar readings were 12.8 at the hospital after 7 hours of not having eaten, a very high reading for a fasting level.

Based on my understanding of diabetes, I don't understand how they could have made that diagnosis. Isn't someone with chronically high blood sugar, by definition, diabetic? I can't help but feel the doctor who saw her made a mistake by releasing her without making an attempt to get the blood sugar down and referring her to a specialist. In my mind, she was clearly hyperglycemic. Apparently also the doctor told her to only come to emergency if her blood sugar was 30 mmol/l or higher.

If anyone has any ideas or opinions on this, I'd to know your thoughts. Thanks...
 
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#3 ·
I mean lol it still shocks me every time...why is there no international standard for diabetes?

They have international standards for envelope sizes!!!!!!!

Having diabetes cannot be different from country to country or province or state or town or different hospital or doctor's office...you have diabetes.

I do not understand why the reluctance to diagnose anyone who would benefit from information to make them healthier.

And god forbid giving people information b4 it's an issue lol
 
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#4 ·
I know in the US the definition of Diabetic is 126 on the fasting or an HbA1c of
6.5. If they do an oral glucose test it is 200 or over after drinking pure sugar. Your friend needs to go to the Diabetes Center or an Endo and retest. It sounds like the ER was just too busy to deal with her. Everything you said points to diabetes. In the meantime tell her to take all the carbs like rice, bannana, bread , cereal and pasta out of her diet.
 
#5 ·
so is this the quality of medicine that we can expect here in the US as our gov tries to nationalize our medical system too?
 
#6 ·
There is no system that doesn't allow idiots to flourish. We have far more than our share.
 
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