Cancer treatment can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes. 

This is one of those truths that no one is really talking about. Similar to lymphedema, there are many factors that can contribute to making us more or less vulnerable to certain side effects.

If you were overweight before treatment, treatment may create the right conditions to tip the scale to type 2 diabetes. If you were average weight before treatment, you likely never had your A1C checked. Post treatment it is difficult to know how much the number has changed.

It is valuable to know the symptoms of type 2 diabetes, however, some of them do overlap with possible chemo side effects: thirst, frequent urination, hunger, tiredness/fatigue, blurred vision, tingling in the hands/feet, and slow healing cuts or wounds. If you start to experience any of these it may be worthwhile to have your A1C checked to rule out increased blood sugar. 

Have you experienced any of these? Are you being followed for increasing A1C values?

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