Question from Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada:

I am really confused at the moment. For the last two years I have been really sick. I vomit often, have severe stomach cramps, and had a constant period for a year and half (one week period, two days none, then it comes back again). I have had two laproscopic surgeries and the doctor said that he couldn’t see any endometriosis, but I did have some scarring on my ovaries from functional cysts. All through this time I urinated a lot, had trouble seeing – things would see fuzzy or not quite right, and lots of infections. I was not tested for diabetes once.

In October 2003, after a series of really strange infections, (cheek infection with no apparent wound, hand infection after a small scratch, etc.), the doctor decided to test me for diabetes. The glucose test on finger that day was 6.5 mmol/L [17 mg/dl] and I hadn’t eaten for about six hours. I went back the next day and he said I didn’t have diabetes, that my three month average was 7.2. I went back a couple of days later as I was being treated for my cheek infection and was on my fourth set of antibiotics. I saw a different doctor because I had to go to a drop in clinic (no family doctor in that area as I am only 22 and living in a new town). He did a prick test and I was 8.3 mmol [149 mg/dl] and I hadn’t eaten for four hours. He said that I definitely had diabetes and told me to contact my family doctor in my home town immediately. He instructed me to get a glucose monitor and to monitor four times a day.

So I did that. I normally eat healthy foods. Then, in December, I started to get dizzy spells, almost blacking out and getting the spots in my eyes again. I also have stopped having my period completely and haven’t even had spotting since October. My sugar levels are fairly low in the morning ranging from 2.9 to 3.5 mmol/L [52 to 63 mg/dl]. I have problems not being able to make sentences in my head or get out what I am saying when my sugar reaches lower then 4.5 mmol/L [81 mg/dl]. Once the afternoon hits I start getting higher sugar readings ranging from 8.0 to 20 mmol/L [144 to 360 mg/dl] and once 26 mmol/L [468 mg/dl] and once 33 mmol/L [594 mg/dl] in the past two months.

I am confused at how the three month average test works. A doctor told me that I probably wasn’t diagnosed sooner because I go low and high and they may have tested but my range was fine because with the average of it all. Another person I spoke with told me that is not correct. The doctor that told me that the three month average probably didn’t show diabetes also said the random glucose tests probably didn’t show anything as I am fine until lunch time and most of my high readings are in the late afternoons. Since most of the doctor’s appointments in the past have been before 4 p.m., nothing wasn’t ever picked up on.

I am currently not on any medication, but I do have a strict diet which I am having a terrible time following. The amount I need to eat seems to be too much. I am being told to eat two starches, two fruits for breakfast, lunch and dinner.;two fruits as a snack in the morning or late evening I get to choose; one protein for breakfast, two for lunch and three for supper; four milks daily at any meal I choose, and five fat choices. At night, I get extremely hungry and can’t sleep all night because of how hungry I am even though I have high sugar readings.

Tomorrow I see my doctor. He hasn’t seen any of the medical tests since I have been to multiple drop in clinics because of my hours at work. I am worried that I possibly don’t have diabetes and that he may treat me with medication that will cause me to go lower then I do in the morning. My father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes two months after I was diagnosed with diabetes. I assume that I don’t have type 1, but I don’t fit the type 2 profile either. Could it be something else?