# Hello



## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 3, 2015)

I posted on the food thread earlier, but thought I should say hello properly 

I'm Juliet (well, online I am), I've had type 1 diabetes since 2011 - diagnosed at the age of 44, which baffled the consultants a bit as there are no auto-immune diseases in my family.

But I also have ME, which is a multi-systemic neuro-immune disease, and is probably what led to the diabetes - it has led to other things too.

I live in the Cotswolds, and not being well enough to work, I'm a kept woman 

I love gardening when I'm up to it, photography, and making greeting cards, some of which I sell to friends to raise money for ME research.


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## HOBIE (Sep 3, 2015)

Welcome to the forum.  I have worked in Cheltenham years ago. I did a shop out there when the Gold Cup was on.  It was electric the atmosphere with all the Irish being there.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 3, 2015)

Thanks for the welcome, Hobie 

I don't know Cheltenham very well, I'm afraid - we only moved here last year, and before that we were in Cambridge.


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## Ralph-YK (Sep 3, 2015)

Welcome from a newbie and newbie type 2.


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## KookyCat (Sep 4, 2015)

Hello and welcome 
I was diagnosed with type 1 last year aged 40 so welcome to the late bloomers club!  Unlike you though i do have a family history of autoimmune, we're collecting one of each, so far we have rheumatoid arthritis, Chrohns, Coeliac, Ankylosing Spondylitis, type 1, and a late breaking thyroid


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## Flower (Sep 4, 2015)

Hello and welcome The ClockworkDodo


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## Bloden (Sep 4, 2015)

Hello TCDodo and welcome. I was diagnosed aged 41 with no family history. My dad thought it was very funny (he's a doctor, weird sense of humour!).


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## Mark T (Sep 4, 2015)

Welcome to the forum TheClockworkDodo


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 4, 2015)

Thank you all for the welcome 

Interesting to meet some more people who were diagnosed with type 1 as adults - from the way the consultants reacted to me you'd have thought they'd never seen anything like it before, but I've heard of other people who've been diagnosed late since then too.

Juliet x


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## Northerner (Sep 4, 2015)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Thank you all for the welcome
> 
> Interesting to meet some more people who were diagnosed with type 1 as adults - from the way the consultants reacted to me you'd have thought they'd never seen anything like it before, but I've heard of other people who've been diagnosed late since then too.
> 
> Juliet x



Hi Juliet, welcome to the forum  I've been on this forum for nearly 7 years and I can tell you that being diagnosed T1 as an adult is far from uncommon - we have loads of members of the 'late bloomers' club! I was diagnosed aged 49, the only possibly auto-immune condition in the family I'm aware of was my father who suffered from psoriasis.

Type 1 is quite rare in the population as a whole, there are about 250,000 in the UK, and it is usually associated with children (used to be called juvenile diabetes), but it can strike at any age. Unfortunately, this often leads to a misdiagnosis as many healthcare professionals have a fixed idea of it.


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## stephknits (Sep 4, 2015)

Hello and welcome from another late bloomer!  I was 42 at diagnosis and like Northerner mentioned, wrongly diagnosed Type 2 at first cos of my advanced years!


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 4, 2015)

Thank you both for the welcome 

Goodness, I think I now know more people who were diagnosed with type 1 as adults than I do people who were diagnosed with it as children!

No question of a wrong diagnosis with me - I was rushed to hospital with DKA, underweight, and with antibodies sky-high, so they were pretty sure it was type 1 to start with, they just couldn't work out why.


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## Pumper_Sue (Sep 4, 2015)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> I posted on the food thread earlier, but thought I should say hello properly
> 
> I'm Juliet (well, online I am), I've had type 1 diabetes since 2011 - diagnosed at the age of 44, which baffled the consultants a bit as there are no auto-immune diseases in my family.
> 
> ...



Hello Juliet and welcome to the forum,
I'm slightly different as diagnosed as a child over 50 years ago, was diagnosed with ME over 4 years ago the diagnoses is in doubt now though as had some MRI's done and it's looking more likely that I have MS and not ME. Either way I am fatigued the whole time.

 Like you I love card making as well though


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 4, 2015)

Hello Sue, and thank you for the welcome 

It must be really frustrating when you can't get a definite diagnosis - I know a few people who've been sent back and forth (several times) between ME and MS services by consultants who couldn't work out which they had.  There are abnormalities with MRIs in ME too, though I don't know how similar they are to those found in MS.   Do you meet the ICC, or MS equivalent, or is there just too much overlap between them?


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