neuropathy?

Special DTK wrote, " I am celebrating 48 years of diabetes this Christmas 2011. I have often worried about developing neuropathy in my feet. The problem that I am experiencing at this time is a periodic shooting pain in the little toe of my left foot. It is not a burning sensation that most people talk about when they have neuropathy. To all of you who have been told you have neuropathy, what do you think is the problem and who should I see about it? Thanks for your advice."

 

I am a Type I diabetic.  I was 9 years old when diagnosed.  My PGP is treating me for the diabetes as the Endo and I do not get along.  The fault was not all the Endo's but I get tired of being told how important it is to keep your A1C at a particular level. Believe me I know all to well the importance of that.

I have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis as well and there are days that my body feels as if it is going to break in half I hurt so bad.  I have begun a program for weight loss that requires you to not only watch your calorie intake but your fat calorie intake as well.  So far I have lost 10 lbs.  I realize that as I lose weight there is a possibility that some of my aches and pains will lessen.

As far as the medications that I take, it is a list!

1.   lisinopril hctz

2.   vytorin

3.   bystolic

4.   humalog insulin (sliding scale)

5.   lantus

6.   cymbalta

7.   metformin

8.   levoxyl

9.   vitamin D supplement

10. valium (only as needed for meuniers disease and dizziness)

Any recommendations offered are greatly appreciated.

 

I seem to have developed slightly lower feeling recently on my left leg just above the knee, but my feet and toes don't have any problems. I have great circulation in my feet too, no tingling feeling. This lower level of feeling is confusing me, but there is no burning sensation or anything either. It feels like having a light plastic bag on the left side of the thigh in a narrow area and it has lasted a few weeks in varying levels. However, I would only notice it if I put my hand on it and the feeling has come back slowly over the last 3 weeks. I'm starting to think that any sharp pressure amplifies it, like in this case lifting my right foot on the knee, that I was doing a lot. Always the right foot on the left knee. Never had this before though.

I know I have shin splints and insulin resistance. My muscles very quickly develop lactic acids in this condition, so maybe it's more related to that. I was just evaluated by a foot doctor and she didn't find anything related to neuropathy. She did diagnose me with shin splints, and she did darn my shoes, so I got new ones though. However, that was a week before I noticed anything on the side of my knee/thigh. Feels like it might just go away over time. I have a scheduled doctors visit in less than 3 weeks.

Jim, how do you know the neuropathy is due to diabetes and not problems with the spine?

I associate little electic jolts of pain with blood circulation problems. It comes and goes if I happen to block some major vein because of sitting badly etc. It also goes away very quickly and that I would consider normal. I just had my feet checked earlier this year and the nurse didn't even bother taking a closer look with some scanner because she could feel I have great circulation by holding my ankles. I didn't have any numbness during the checkup, I only noticed it a few days after the last visit. The good news is that my shin splints are not as bad as they were back then, and also my back problems have also subsided more or less. I have a doctors visit this monday and this would be the annual check up, so I've had blood drawn for the usual tests and maybe some more this time.

Well, my doctor thinks it's nothing. Not neuropathy at least. I told her it's getting slightly better now. She mentioned that people who have just been diagnosed with diabetes can have some temporary peripheral numbness. However, I was diagnosed with diabetes 22 years ago. So, I guess I'll just wait and see. I've only lost a fraction of feeling after all and only notice something strange if I put my hand directly on the side of the thigh.

Another unexplainable problem I've had was dizziness or lightheadedness during the night. I couldn't really tell which because I was half asleep in bed, but it woke me up and I felt like I was about to pass out. It happened on a few nights in a row, but I told the doctor I then halved the doze of blood pressure medication in the mornings and on the next night, I didn't have any problems and haven't had any since, even after raising the doze back to full tab. I also had headaches. This problem she took seriously and has me going through a 24h monitoring of blood pressure. I've had a 3-day blood glucose monitor strapped to me once, but this is new.. If that doesn't bring anything up, then she would like me to visit an ear doctor. I've had the same medication for years and had no problems.

Yes, I did actually test it once immediately after I was woken up by the dizziness. 7.0 mmol/l is not a low. So, I went back to sleep.

The feeling has almost completely returned to my thigh, but darn that was kinda scary. It lasted 2 months and I still don't know what caused it.

I've returned the blood pressure monitor. Nothing special happened during the 24h I had it on though. No dizziness during sleep or anything, but the monitor kept waking me every 30 minutes. I tested a few things, even went out for dinner with that thing strapped on to me. I had a little hypoglycemia experience.. curious to see does that affect blood pressure, probably not. I had to keep a log book/diary with medication and everything that might affect blood pressure or what was I doing at the time. My doctor is going on a summer vacation, so I won't hear the report until a month later.

Yeah, you have to be careful with these kinds of exercise so you don't go too low.  Be careful.  You do take something with you to keep your blood sugar up, right?

Years ago I worked in a social services setting and as part of my job I took people to various doctors. On one of those occasions I had taken one of our clients to a group therapy session and while she was in the session I sat in the waiting room. Across from me was someone else waiting who started acting "strange". At first I thought it was a mild seizure but when I went over to investigate I found the medical alert bracelet that said diabetes, and I knew what happened, so I interrupted the session and told the doctor what was going on and this guy's wife ran out with some glucose tabs but the doctor stopped her and had the guy drink a coke instead saying it would work faster since it was a high sugar liquid.

I don't know how fast the tablets would have worked but within 1-2 minutes this guy was talking, alert, coherent, etc. The doctor took a few readings. The first was 27, 2-3 minutes later he was up to a 65 and within 15 minutes he was sitting at 98. (American readings). At that time anything between 100-120 was considered normal and well controlled.

Afterward everything was under control I talked to the doctor about all this since it was my first live experience with this sort of thing and he told me that in his experience that regular sodas are the best, plain sugar is second, and fruit juices are number 3 with glucose tablets being number 4 and "food" being the last on the list when it comes to "emergency" situations.

He explained that the sodas are full of simple sugars and being in a liquid allowed them to be broke down and absorbed a lot faster than "solid" carbs and that sugars in fruit juice are more complex and take a bit longer to be absorbed and used. He went on explaining the pro's and con's of everything for about 20 minutes. I asked him what to do if someone was in the very "early" stages of a hypo situation with slowly crashing BGL and he said in that case give a small amount of something with simple sugar and then follow up fairly quickly with a meal that will keep the sugar levels up at a proper level and stop them from crashing again.

I wondered how a psychologist would know so much about diabetes and he said besides learning about it and seizures, etc in order to protect his patients he had a daughter who was born with it.