Winterwind, I had to google that, I've never heard of it before Type 1.5... Keep up the good work :-)

Kidney stones, as is gout, are caused by too high a concentration of uric acid, but certainly calcium oxalate can be a major factor. This part I know well. I have tried to analyze my daughter's problem, and I think that it is actually a hypercalcemia, which can cause a number of diabetic-related complications. Thanks for the advice, blarman.

Thanks for the advice, iroseland.

My understanding of kidney stones is that their composition is indicative of the cause. A kidney stone caused by diabetes would consist mostly of crystallized sugar, while some other kidney stones form from calcium. I don't envy anyone having to pass one, but if you can have a lab analyze it afterwards, it can be valuable insight.

If your daughter is gaining weight, that is usually an indicator against diabetes. Because diabetes is actually the body's inhibited state from being able to metabolize sugars and carbohydrates (the basis for most foods), it would be highly unusual to exhibit weight gain. That being said, the finger-prick will be far more authoritative.

Wait until at least an hour after eating, but the normal blood sugar range should be 120-180 or so. Anything over 200 and doctors usually call that "pre-diabetes" and want you to eat better and exercise more. Anything above 300 (especially if the meter says "high" and you are almost certainly diabetic.

As always, get a professional consultation from a licensed physician - mostly just so that insurance will accept your claims!

Normal range for blood ph is 7.35 to 7.45. But, at your age, the more useful data will be in urine ketones which on the strip would be something beyond trace. It can be misread since you will unload keytones when losing weight normally. If its a diabetes thing they will spike higher and stay there. Normal weight-loss keytone numbers are pretty mild compared to bad keytoneacidosis. So, getting blood sugar data becomes pretty key, a big part of that being the a1c number. Your doctor might find some use in knowing things like waking blood sugar and what your blood sugar is 1 hour after mealtimes. If things are getting risk looking my best advice would be to find an endocrinologist and get the specialist on board sooner than later. Since its pretty easy for them to get a handle on your state and then either come up with a control plan. Even in the case of early onset type-2 once you are there you now know that this is a risk and that risk while never going away you can at the minimum control how exposed you are to the risk and stay our of the danger zone..

I do have both gout and kidney stones, too. My daughter is always drinking water and constantly urinating, but does not have the fruity breath. She is actually gaining a little weight despite not eating all that much. She doesn't have any infections. However, she is irritable all the time and bloats a lot right after every dinner, regardless of what she eats. We got the diabetes test kit just this weekend.

No, they haven't done a c-peptide test yet. I have actually used c-peptide as one of my reagents. My urine pH has been 5.5 for quite a long time. My blood pH is not that low, but I definitely have some ketone-acidosis. I am not sure about my younger daughter.

I think you mean ketones or blood-alcohols that are the bi-product of the incomplete metabolism of fat. They can be responsible for kidney failure - just like in real alcoholics. These are commonly tested for using an A1C test, which you can even buy at the drugstore and conduct yourself.

Here are a couple of symptoms regarding the onset of Type I Diabetes to look for. Keep in mind that the reason they call Type I "Juvenile" Diabetes is because the onset typically happens before one is twenty years old.

1) Is the person always drinking water and constantly urinating? (My two-year old would drink 16 oz of water at a time and ask for more.)
2) Does their urine smell "fruity" and have a fluorescent yellow color (almost like antifreeze)? This is a strong indication of high concentrations of sugar in the urine.
3) If feminine, do they suffer from persistent yeast infections (due to the extra sugar in the urine)?
4) Are they losing weight (especially muscle mass) despite eating well?
5) Does their breath smell like fruit-flavored gum? (This is another sign of too much sugar in the bloodstream)
6) Are they irritable all the time and irrational much of the time (result of brain not getting enough sugar).

For a more medical diagnosis, you can pick up a blood glucose meter from any store and do a standard finger-prick test. These are highly accurate and very cheap. Or just find a Diabetic who has one and ask to get tested. If your result is over 300, you should seek immediate medical attention and confirmation of the diagnosis.

You can also take an A1C test (of your urine). While the A1C is more of a long-term test, it also is highly indicative of blood chemistry problems associated with diabetes.

Keep in mind that only a doctor can make a positive diagnosis (even though all they do is another finger-prick test).

Well said.

What could also be brought up is the contrast to many Type II Diabetics - who allow their abuse of diet to control their lives. My wife's uncle recently died because he refused to treat his Type II Diabetes with even a modicum of diet and exercise. He knew the costs of his actions and eventually got exactly what he wanted.

have they done a c-peptide test yet? Its the big difference between type-1 and type-2. In a type one the c-peptide levels will drop till there are no islets producing. In a type-2 that will not happen as the islets dont die off but the body becomes less responsive to the available insulin. Ok, the other big difference is that with type1 is that one day everything just stops working and you blood sugar skyrockets past 1000 you are dumping mass quantities of keystones the blood ph drops and you are now headed for end-stage ketone-acidosis. It will be pretty obvious when you get there.. With type 2 its a length of time with elevated blood sugar and some fairly bad looking a-1c numbers. The good news is if you catch it early the elevated blood sugars will have a lower chance of causing long term damage and depending on the state of how bad the numbers look the modern oral meds are pretty good at getting things back under control. It happened to my boss last year, then he got on the oral meds that caused him to have a more energetic outlook on line and that caused him to start being active which caused a fairly dramatic weight loss and he was then able to get off the oral meds.

As far as I have been able to tell diabetes and objectivism go hand in hand. Lets also look at the small sample of numbers here... A number of type 1 's and for once being one for only 34 years makes me look like the noob.. 8^) The thing is that if you are a type one and want to live you have no choice but to approach every day using the scientific method, and as much brain power as you can come up with. It also teaches you ( mostly the hard way ) that you have to be able to be 100% reliant on yourself and then also get the best help that you can possibly afford. I have made it pretty clear to everyone around me that I will never be a type one on medicare or medicaid. As I require the ability to control my disease and do not require the assistance of some brain-dead bureaucrat.

LOL. Thumbs up!

We could fund the government and have enough left over to start paying down the debt if we could just find a way to tax political stupidity.

I don't think that incentive is working anymore. Easier to not get married and get more gov entitlements as a single mom and bigger tax credit too that way. FAIL.

I am what my doc calls a "latent diabetic" - that means that if I pay attention to what I eat and how I exercise, my blood sugar is normal. The is not due to the application of sugar, either internally or externally.

I think you making the changes to control your sugar levels are extraordinary and you accomplished the results you were shooting for. I am fortunate to be one of the 10% of T1's that have no complications, but I do think it has a lot to do with how you live your life and the control you strive for. I had a wonderful endocrinologist that respected my efforts and, yes, I agree with you, no obcare or taxes are going to help this problem. Congratulations on your achievement :-) Well done.

It does make me want to ask how the Nutrasweet/Equal lobbyists got so much power.
Of course, both were formerly part of Monsanto, perhaps the looter mentality comes naturally.

Couldn't agree more. Perfectly stated.
Rewarding the government with higher revenues is not a solution for ANYTHING.

Trust in DC is very much lacking :-)
Trying to maintain those tight sugar levels is one of the things that scared me most. Fortunately, as a T2, I had a chance at changing that.
and, I had a Dr that was also an ND. Once he saw I was committed to changing what needed to be changed, he was very helpful. Most MD's aren't so helpful. They figure most people won't put forth the effort to change their lifestyles so they simply teach them how to manage their ailments.
As much as I believe all the sugar and HFCS, et.al is the cause of a lot of our health problems, I don't believe taxing is the way to achieve behavior modi faction.

I am borderline diabetic. My younger (16 year old) daughter is starting to exhibit some diabetic symptoms, but the doctors are unsure whether that it is the proper diagnosis. All of my father's family died of diabetes or has diabetes.

Given how many people on this post are themselves or are related to diabetics, I have started doing some work to print tissue scaffolding. This isn't optimized yet, but the next stage is culturing with Islet cells to deal with insulin issues. That is a couple of years off right now.

Keep your glutenous power mongering off me and my personal decisions, period! My health, which means my life, is NOT the gov's business. Ever!

Trust in the gov't agencies ?? Being a type I for 44 years, I have found that trust in my doctors and my own desire to be healthy through educating myself and exercise were best. Let's not forget the companies that have pioneered the now available mechanisms that have made good control so much easier...and of course, are being taxed like the sugary soda soon will, of which I also use to raise my sugar when it drops way too low, which happens a lot when you are keeping stringent levels.

...“From a public health point of view, it makes a lot of sense to tax the sugar, which is the most harmful part of these drinks,” said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health....

So...artificially sweetened soft drinks would be cheaper. Oh...that's good. (sarcasm)

There are many Gulchers who either have Type I or a child with Type I. My mother just passed away recently. She had Type II. I agree with Robert. It is not pretty