[ElaineM]

I am like you. I had a very bad reaction the first time I ever had a cat (ct) scan. It was very scary. That sure created alot of action in the cat scan dept too !! People came running from everywhere to help. They kept me at the hospital for several hours to make sure I recovered before they let me go home.
I am allergic to the iodine in the cat scan injection. The next time I had a cat scan they gave me predisone pills and benadryl pills. I had to start the predisone the night before and take the benedryl about an hour before the scan.
After that they switched me from plain cat scans to pet/ct scans that do not require the same contrast injection. I also did not require the extra medicines. In addition to a contrast injection that does not create problems I got two tests for the price of one. (Pet and Cat).
You can also try an MRI. They require a contrast injection, but the injection does not contain iodine.
I wonder if ultra sounds would give enough information for you and your doctors? They do not require any contrast injections. They can be done on most parts of the body from the chest to the pelvis.
Also there is another kind of Cat scan contrast injection without iodine, but I don't remember the name. Ask your doctor or the cat scan dept for more information. They might also be willing to do the cat scan without the contrast injection sometimes. We tried that once. The pictures came out clear enough to see. I guess that depends on the quality of the cat scan machine or the radiologists actually doing the test. 64 slice cat scan machines give better pictures than older machines do.
The best of luck with T DM1. I am happy you are able to get it now.