I was just diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I am 64 and am 5 foot, 5 inches tall, and weigh 123 pounds. I have never been overweight. I had surgery two years ago for a benign cystic adenoma of the pancreas and 3.5 cm of my pancreas was removed, as well as my spleen. At that time, I was assured that I was not in danger of getting diabetes since the surgery was at the opposite end from the islets of Langerhans. I have never been able to find much on this kind of surgery (non-malignant), but wonder if my diabetes is likely connected to it. There is no diabetes in my family.

Unless there was some additional problem like chronic liver disease, pancreatitis or severe malnutrition, it is very unlikely that the surgery would have removed enough of the insulin producing islet cells cells to cause diabetes. Even if it had, I don’t think that there would have been a two year gap before the diabetes was detected. If you were much concerned about this issue, you could talk to your doctor about arranging a laboratory test to see if you now have insulin resistance, which is typical of Type 2, or insulin deficiency, which would be a more likely finding after surgery. However I don’ t think that being more specific would materially affect treatment.

MS