Depending which test I take I'm either a Type 1 diabetic or completely normal 
It fooled my GP well enough in to sending me to a specialist who took a look at the two tests along with my medical history. His verdict was that it was fairly normal for someone in my position and that I wasn't diabetic 
The confusion arises from the fact I had acute necrotising pancreatitis about 5 years ago - it was particularly grim and nearly finished me off. I was in critical care for 11 days and hospital for over 3 months, taking 6 months off work to recover. I had an operation known as a necrosectomy whilst in hospital to remove the dead area of pancreas - I was told at the time that I have somewhere between 5% and 50% of healthy pancreas remaining. We now presume its nearer the top end of that estimate as I wouldn't be this well otherwise With my itty bitty pancreas I fail the glucose tolerance test miserably as its simply not able to produce enough insulin quickly enough to lower the blood sugar level quickly. However, looking at my HbA1c results we know my long term blood sugar levels are normal - in fact the specialist pointed out mine were better than his In effect I can produce enough insulin to get by if my diet is good, but things like energy gels aren't a brilliant idea
The downside of all this is I'm at increased risk of pancreatic cancer and both secondary type 1 and type 2 diabetes in later life, so I have to look after myself. No more haribo binges for me
And yes, despite all this I still have to pay for my prescriptions
It fooled my GP well enough in to sending me to a specialist who took a look at the two tests along with my medical history. His verdict was that it was fairly normal for someone in my position and that I wasn't diabetic The confusion arises from the fact I had acute necrotising pancreatitis about 5 years ago - it was particularly grim and nearly finished me off. I was in critical care for 11 days and hospital for over 3 months, taking 6 months off work to recover. I had an operation known as a necrosectomy whilst in hospital to remove the dead area of pancreas - I was told at the time that I have somewhere between 5% and 50% of healthy pancreas remaining. We now presume its nearer the top end of that estimate as I wouldn't be this well otherwise
With my itty bitty pancreas I fail the glucose tolerance test miserably as its simply not able to produce enough insulin quickly enough to lower the blood sugar level quickly. However, looking at my HbA1c results we know my long term blood sugar levels are normal - in fact the specialist pointed out mine were better than his In effect I can produce enough insulin to get by if my diet is good, but things like energy gels aren't a brilliant idea The downside of all this is I'm at increased risk of pancreatic cancer and both secondary type 1 and type 2 diabetes in later life, so I have to look after myself. No more haribo binges for me
And yes, despite all this I still have to pay for my prescriptions 
