Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Diabetes Diaversary / Diagnoses Dates - Can They Have A Cyclical Twist?

I’ll never forget being in a dressing room years and years ago and the Sales Woman rushing back to my changing cubby with the harshest of lightening and with more clothes for me to try on. 
She saw my insulin pump clipped to my hip and and of course she asked me if it was a beeper. 
When I explained that it was an insulin pump and I that wore it because I had t1 diabetes, she nodded her head knowingly and asked me when I was diagnosed. 
When I told her Halloween, but had exhibited signs earlier, I’ll never forget her response. 
Sales Woman: Diagnosed in the fall, that makes sense. September and October seem to be the golden time for so many diabetes diagnoses. 
And the following went through my head: 
  1. I had never really thought about that or noticed it 
  2. I didn’t know how to answer her and I think I said something like: I’m not really sure.  I don't know, maybe? 
And I thought about her words for a long time after she spoke them. 
And for some reason weirdo reason I had a flashback of that conversation today and I’m not sure why. 
Probably because there’s a slight chill in the air and people people have been posting an inordinate amount of pumpkin and fall type pictures on Facebook as of late and have the irrepressible urge to make soup from scratch and wear my cool boots. 

 And then of course there’s the whole 37 year Diaversary around the corner, thing. 

So here are my questions for you guys: 

Have you noticed that you/your family members with diabetes share similar Dx dates with others in the DOC and beyond?   
Do you think that some Diabetes Diagnoses can have a cyclical spin? 

And lastly. Do you remember your Dx date? 

OK, I’ll start, I was dx’d on Halloween and over the years I’ve met many people dx’d in September and October.  And most recently, during last week’s #DSMA chat when I learned that  @Diabetesevryday and I shared the same Diaversary.

FTR: So was Bennet's son!

And according to my Google skills, a 2009 Finnish study found a correlation involving winter months having a higher number of newly dx’d people with diabetes. 
Here's something to marinate on: Finns have the highest diagnoses rate of Type 1 Diabetes.
Sidebar: I'm seriously starting to wonder if my family is part Finnish? 

In 2010,  DiabetesMine wrote a really interesting post about Diabetes diagnoses and the Ice Age Theory, which included the Finnish study and thoughts from Dr. Moalem’s book: Survival of The Sickest. It’s a good post, be sure to check it out! 

And please feel free to share any of your observations on the subject! 

FTR: I wrote this post because I'm really flipping curious about all of the above so I figured I'd blog about it~. 

17 comments:

Rachel said...

I was diagnosed August 11th... it was hot. I had been showing symptoms for most of the summer.

It is a really interesting theory though and like the Diabetes Mine article said it doesn't cover all cases.

Tonya said...

Dxd 6 years ago on 10/6/08

Jen said...

My middle daughter was dx'd 6-13-05 and my eldest daughter was dx'd 6-1-12.

Dawn said...

My daughter was dx'd 4/24/2005

John Manganiello said...

I was Dx'd in July, with Type 1, 40 years ago. My Grandmother, and a Cousin both had Type 1 also, but I'm not sure of their Dx dates.

eml210 said...

Dx on April 16, 1997

Unknown said...

my daughter--12/20/2010

Anonymous said...

My daughter was dx'd at the end of Aug - it was Florida and hot, but she had been suffering from symptoms all summer, but she was away from me with family, so she wasnt dx'd until she shared with me that she had a yeast infection that she had had all summer (at age barely 11), and I took her in to get checked for that.

Laddie said...

November 9, 1976 for me. So close to October:-)

Anonymous said...

November 23rd.

Unknown said...

My daughter was diagnosed 1/5/10 but had symptoms since November .

Arctic Mom of 2 said...

My son was diagnosed November 26, 2009.

WalkingTheDragon said...

Mid October for me

Unknown said...

My daughter was diagnosed 10/11/12 - very interesting

Unknown said...

My daughter was diagnosed 10/11/12, very interesting

Stacey said...

I don't know about the seasons (Benny was dx'd Dec 4, 2006) but I do think many people are diagnosed during or right after holidays. Maybe all the food, the family is finally taking a break from school, etc and realizing how bad things are or just stress. We were right after T'giving and I know many people dx'd at Easter, during Xmas break and, like you, Halloween. who knows?

Anonymous said...

Son diagnosed Jan 26. But he had been ill for at least a month.
I have read winter...but for that you will need to ask people which hemisphere they are from.