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Circulation assessment

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RichardNY

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People that feel the need to put others down in order to make themselves feel better. A closed mind. A Fiscal view of life. Oh and Emu he used to scare the **** out of me when I was a kid :-s
Hi,

I've only recently joined this forum and have received some excellent advice and yet again I have some more questions :D

When I had my meeting with my diabetic specialist I complained of pins and needles in the feet and also pain in the legs and cramps whilst walking. I wasn't actually informed that I would get a circulation test whilst at my meeting and was wondering if it was standard procedure ? I got a letter this morning informing me that I needed to have my circulation assessed this coming Friday (Which saved me a phone call as this was something I needed to pursue)

I know that they are looking for Peripheral Arterial Disease (and to be honest I expect them to find it given the symptoms I am displaying. I walk slow, can't walk far and cramp frequently). But there's absolutely no use in trying to 'rewind' time. All I can do is prepare myself and hit the ground running (or at least as fast as my little claudated legs will allow me :lol: )

I am making a few assumptions as to what will happen but am assuming that they will perform an Ankle-brachial index test or from experience is that expecting too much as I understand that the ABI is a good indicator of how severe or 'light' any blockage/hardening is ?

To be honest any comments or experience for this kind of examination and assessment for PAD would be welcome. Also is there anything I need to ask them ? Currently I am just trying to walk as much as possible taking the attitude of 'use them or lose them' to spur me on, trying to walk through the cramps or just push that extra distance to lengthen the time before I need to have a sit down :D

All the best Richard.
 
Re: Circulation assesment

Are you on Simvastatin ,Richard? In some people this can cause muscle cramps etc.Worth discussing this with doctor as well.
 
Re: Circulation assesment

Your periferal circulation, particularly in your feet, should be assessed a least annualy
Also You can improve it if it's down a bit. Tight BG control, at non-diabetic levels, can really help.
Hana
 
Re: Circulation assesment

Thanks Sue and hanadr,

Unfortunately I'm not on Simvastatin the only thing I can add is that since all this started I have been taking a baby asprin each day. Again it's only something that has really come to light since I have tried to up my walking distance. It just seems that the diabetes has been there lurking in the background and a lot of the symptoms have been masked or mistakenly identified as being associated to back and cervical spine problems. It can't be helped I'm not blaming anyone its just the way things have panned out. I'm just trying to get to grips as best I can to create the best possible outcome for myself as we all are really :D

At first the Dr thought it may just be muscles complaining that haven't really been stressed in a few years but when you sort of hit a barrier and cramp at around roughly the same distance each time and can't walk much further then it sort of points towards PAD. So am quite looking forward to and dreading the appointment but at least there will be an outcome a result and a course of action rather than just drifting aimlessly :D which I did for soooo many years with the back and neck problems :D

But whatever happens am sure I'll be walking round town with my trusty stick, shouting at youths, at the sky and cars passing by as well as occasionally stealing candy from babies ... and realising I can no longer eat the proceeds of my ill gotten gains :lol:

All the best Richard.
 
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