They told me I had Type 1 Diabetes but I really had Type 2

Main Category: Diabetes
Article Date: 23 Jul 2004 - 16:00 PDT

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Paul Tubiana had been living with insulin dependent diabetes (type 1) for 21 years. He was diagnosed at age 7. The reason that he had been an insulin dependent diabetic was in large part due to the fact that on initial diagnosis the pediatric endocrinologists at a major hospital did not do two things:

1. A C-Peptide test.
2. Administer antibiotics.

Here is his story. Written by Paul Tubiana

I really have type 2 diabetes and that is what I had at age 7, just like older people who get type 2 diabetes. This is an important fact because type 2 diabetes is a curable condition, but instead of investigating the cause of my high blood sugars, I was put on insulin and told that I would have to take shots for the rest of my life. This is where the vicious cycle of insulin dependency began. One thing is certain: I have only been overweight while on insulin. There was no interest on the part of the doctors to find the truth and grossly unscientific assumptions were made about me to arrive at this diagnosis. This simple misdiagnosis cost me my entire childhood and made my life a nightmare. The only explanations that I received from doctors were:

-- Your pancreas does not work.
-- We don't know what causes this.
-- You should just accept what you have and live with it.
-- You are not doing enough to control your blood sugars.

I knew from day one that the doctors were wrong, but the burden of proof was on me. And so it took me 21 years to prove it, by solving this mystery. I knew something was wrong because I felt something that went against my feeling of well-being. They were the experts. They failed to do their jobs properly and scientifically to arrive at an accurate objective conclusion, given the tools they had available to work with at the time. And they being the experts meant that I had nothing of value to contribute to my own well-being.

They never talked with me as if I were a human being. They really did not ask me anything, nor did they discuss my condition with me. I felt excluded. I was treated like an object without a life or a soul. They were free to do as they pleased with my body. They knew it all. Who was I at age 7 to argue with these intelligent, well-educated, long schooled professionals, who claimed to know my body better than I did?

After 9 years of visiting these doctors, I got fed up and decided not to see them anymore, because they were more concerned about whether or not I had a girlfriend in my freshman year of high school than finding the truth about my diabetic condition. I saw many other doctors subsequently, but the original misdiagnosis stuck to me and no one bothered looking any further except me.

CONTINUES…………………. www.diabetescasestudy.com