March 14, 2016
Aches and Pains
Question from Jackson, New Jersey, USA:
My 12-year-old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 in August 2015. For the first month or so, she did well and felt well. Then, she started having other symptoms such as low grade fevers (99.9), headaches, stomachaches, frequent sore throats and fatigue. The pediatrician had done blood work which included Lyme disease and mononucleosis, which all came back normal, as have tests for celiac and thyroid issues. She also recently began a lot of twitching in her sleep, both when she first falls asleep and then later during the night. The pediatrician attributes the symptoms to anxiety and diabetes. She is currently on Lexapro for the anxiety, which coincided with her diabetes diagnosis, and sees a therapist. The endocrinologist says its not related to diabetes and the pediatrician should deal with it. Do any of these symptoms sound familiar with other diagnosed type 1s? Any idea what direction I should go?
Answer:
For sure, it is not the diabetes but also not the anxiety. Anxiety may be associated with headache and sleep problems, as well as fatigue, but not temperature elevations and not sore throats. I might suggest that you ask the therapist to have a conference call with the pediatricians and the diabetes team. It is good that celiac and thyroid problems have been checked and ruled out. Rarely, adrenal insufficiency called, Addison’s disease, also can co-exist with type 1 diabetes and this, too, might be checked with simple blood tests for adrenal antibodies and blood cortisol levels. I often do nonspecific tests like complete blood count and differential, sedimentation rate and CRP (C-reactive protein) since that may give a clue if there is any inflammation going on.
SB
