Keeping Your Diagnosis on Record

Getting a LADA diagnosis takes effort, often years of it. Keeping it is a separate task, and it is easy to underestimate.

The problem is that most systems have two boxes for adult diabetes. A new doctor sees an adult on diabetes medication and, without your antibody report in front of them, will reasonably record Type 2. From then on your prescriptions and advice follow that assumption — including, possibly, a sulfonylurea.

The fix is to hold your own records rather than rely on any clinic to hold them.

• Keep the original GAD antibody report — the actual laboratory printout, showing the value and the reference range.
• Keep every C-peptide result, dated, so the trend is visible.
• Photograph both and keep them on your phone, so they are with you at any unplanned appointment.
• Keep a one-page summary: your diagnosis, the date it was confirmed, your current medicines and doses, and your last few HbA1c values.

Say it plainly at a first appointment: that you have LADA, that it was confirmed by a positive GAD antibody test on a given date, and that you have the report with you. That single sentence prevents most relabelling.

This matters most in an emergency, when you may not be able to explain anything. A card in your wallet naming your diagnosis and your insulin is worth carrying.

It also matters for your family, since autoimmune conditions cluster and your diagnosis is part of their history too.