u/BackgroundPlace6891

I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for the best endocrinologist at OHSU (my referral was sent to OHSU, but if you have another you love in Portland for LADA type 1 diabetes specifically, please do share!) to work with for a newly diagnosed positive GAD antibodies patient, type 1 diabetes, specifically LADA, which can be trickier to work with/understand/diagnose and treat. I'm coming from 5 hours away and hoping to gain some more insight on who might be best for a case like this? Or maybe the whole endo team is amazing? Hoping so, as it's not been great care in my local Oregon area : (

Thank you for any insight or recommendations!

I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for the best endocrinologist at OHSU (my referral was sent to OHSU, but if you have another you love in Portland for LADA type 1 diabetes specifically, please do share!) to work with for a newly diagnosed positive GAD antibodies patient, type 1 diabetes, specifically LADA, which can be trickier to work with/understand/diagnose and treat. I'm coming from 5 hours away and hoping to gain some more insight on who might be best for a case like this? Or maybe the whole endo team is amazing? Hoping so, as it's not been great care in my local Oregon area : (

Thank you for any insight or recommendations!

I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for the best endocrinologist at OHSU to work with for a newly diagnosed positive GAD antibodies patient, type 1 diabetes, specifically LADA, which can be trickier to work with/understand/diagnose and treat. I'm coming from 5 hours away and hoping to gain some more insight on who might be best for a case like this? Or maybe the whole endo team is amazing? Hoping so, as it's not been great care in my local Oregon area : (

Thank you for any insights or recommendations!

I started having sudden frequent urination and extreme thirst and unexplained weight loss a couple months ago. It seemed to fit the criteria for type 1, so I requested labs for it. GAD came back high, but C Peptide also came back slightly elevated (to make things even more confusing. But I also had classic symptoms of insulinoma, with the sudden extreme hypoglycemia events in the middle of the night, violently waking me up, those episodes have finally subsided though, at least for now, so now not sure what's going on with the piece).

The original Dr who ran the labs said type 1 wasn't a possibility because of the C Peptide result. Meanwhile my frequent urination, thirst, and weight loss have continued, and overall worsening extreme weakness and fatigue.

Finally got in with my primary, she said type 1 isn't a possibility only because my h1c is 5.5 (always pretty much been my h1c, going back many years, no change there) and she said they diagnose diabetes based on the h1c, and glucose fasting test. But since all my symptoms have started, I consistently have high glucose levels on my metabolic panel, a trend I did not have before, she said that one didn't matter though. And the GAD and symptoms didn't matter, ONLY h1c and glucose fasting test. I've also had ketones in my urine, and more frequently now. Along with a slightly high beta hydroxybutyrate, and lactates (though the high lactates result was from a separate test on a different day in the ER, so not at the same time, they didn't run beta hydroxybutyrate the first time they ran the lactate test).

Also to add, I really think something suddenly triggered my high GAD antibodies, I had an insane huge flare up or infection, and then suddenly after that started having these diabetes symptoms, so could that possibly be why my h1c isn't high and has remained the same, since it's a previous 3 month average?

That Dr did finally put in a referral for the endo at least, but are there some type 1 cases that are really hard to diagnose? I'm at a loss, I've never been weaker in my life, and it's worse every day and week.

The referral is for OHSU in Portland Oregon, any insight to how good and thorough the endos are there? Any you'd particularly recommend to see, or to avoid?

I don't have symptoms of any of the other conditions that could cause high levels of GAD, only classic diabetes symptoms. So I'm at a loss. But getting nervous that no one will diagnose me correctly, or even try to diagnose me at all.