Wrong Diabetes Diagnosis?

by Margaret
(Merced, ca)

A friend of mine was told recently he was diabetic. Just out of the blue. He started taking medicine and his eye sight got bad, he was told his kidneys were bad.

He stopped taking this medication and now was told his liver is bad, but wasnt a month ago. Are the doctors here just bad or are they misdiagnosing him??



Diabetes Diagnosis Criteria
by: Alba

Hi Margaret,

First, hope your friend will be good again.

Next, to say exactly if there is a wrong diabetes diagnosis, I should have other information or details from the medical record of your friend.

For instance, when you say your friend is diagnosed with diabetes, I should ask: What symptoms did he have? (thirsty, frequent urination, unusual weight loss, etc). What were his blood sugar levels ? ( fasting >120mg/dl or >140mg/dl?; A1C >7?).

You said, he started taking this medicine; I should ask: What medicine? Because I should know what drug was in order to understand if this drug has affected his kidneys or liver.

Basically, the first line of treatment for newly diagnosed diabetics is lifestyle and diet changes. If cannot manage, then start with lower doses of oral drugs.

You said: "Kidneys and liver were bad". I should know exactly what this "bad" was? Is it from the lab results or ultrasound results or what?

Usually, the first symptoms of diabetes are related to kidney problems (stones, infections, etc). After doing lab results, diabetes will spring out like that; but actually, it is diabetes that has caused these problems.

I am sorry not to help you much, but I need to have more details to determine if diabetes is the culprit or something else. The only advice I can give you is to ask your friend stop smoking or drinking alcohol , do more exercise, eat a healthy diabetic diet with selected diabetic foods . All these natural changes will help his blood sugar go down again.

However, if doctors decide for drugs, talk to the doctors why are these drugs for, what cautions you should have, what are their side effects, interactions, etc. All the best!