I failed my second 2-hour glucose tolerance test. Failing two tests makes a diagnosis of diabetes even more official. The chart here shows my October 2005 test as the thick red line, and my test 4 months earlier as the thin, light red line for comparison.
Fasting blood sugar: 71 (normal)
1-hour blood sugar: 217 (diabetic)
2-hour blood sugar: 221 (diabetic)
In addition to having my blood sugars measured during this test, I paid to have my insulin levels checked. This insulin measure showed that rather then being a Type II diabetic, meaning my body was producing plenty of insulin but my cells were insulin resistant, I was an early Type 1 diabetic, meaning my cells were sensitive to the signal of insulin, but I wasn’t producing enough of it to handle sugar loads. My endocrinologist observed that my pancreas was red-lining already in its production of insulin, and this was likely to be stressing it, which would lead it to burn out. Here are my insulin levels during the test:
Fasting insulin level: 3.0
1-hour insulin level: 3.0
2-hour insulin level: 3.0
