Cramp & Neuropathy

[mish1953]

My Neuropathy has been getting worse , also now getting bad cramp at night and muscle pain during the day.
My Doc has now put me on Cymbalta ( duloxetine ) and Quinine Sulphate .
Anyone else on duloxetine ? Anything to watch out for ?

I gather that duloxetine is also an anti-depressant , does that mean that the pin is still there but you don't give a toss :roll:

List of current ailments is like a shopping list !
Diabetes type 2 , neuropathy both feet , non-vasculogenic claudication, chronic venous insufficiency, osteoarthitis both
knees, kidney stone, asthma, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss , severe profund hearing loss ( high frequencies ) ,
haemochromatosis gene carrier, warthins tumor-adenolymphoma( partial surgical removal ) , sciatica, lumbago.

Happy Daze
Hamish - Ipswich

 

[hanadr]

I don't have neuropathy. Ithink it's because I keep my blood glucose DOWN [always below 6], but I do sufferr from cramp quite often. this leaves the muscles painful. I now find if I exercise, it takes out the pain and if I get a cramp, I eat some salt. this gets rid of it quickly.
Hana

 

[Scoop4]

I suffer really bad with neuropathy in both feet and legs, both hands as well as my head and face. My left eye twitches and a lot of the time I look like I am winking at people. I am a type 1diabetic and I can sympathise I hate the dreaded question when you see a new consultant or you are filling in a new form and they as you what conditions you suffer from and then they list of medication is scary. I know when I was given duloxetine and tramadol they only seemed to make me not give a **** about the pain was high as a kite most of the time. Am on tegratol now to help with the crawling skin, head and face pain but can any one tell me why the doctors look at you as if you are mad when you want to come off this medication that has such a bad effect on you that you would rather put up with the pain. I know it probably a lack of understanding but I wish they would support me as a patient and respect my decision. Not to scare people with well controlled diabetes but my diabetic control over the past 17 years has been excellent on paper with my blood sugars between 4 and 7 and HBA1c average between 6.2 -6.7 as i was told this would make sure I didn't suffer with side effects was a load of **** (sorry still angry about it) my list of side effects gets longer. The doctors tell me that it can still happen even with the stangle hold i have on my control. Please all diabetic be aware of your body. Never mind keep up the fight.

 

[BaliRob]

Dear Hamish,

Quinine Sulphate was banned in the US by the FSA in 1999 having established the deaths of 90 patients from long-term use. I was prescribed QS just after my diagnosis and was using it continuously for 6-8 years (sorry forgot my date of diagnosis in the UK) until my specialist here in Bali established with 90% certainty that it was the cause of my kindey damage. One poster here said that the problem had been known about for 30 years and that my doctor should have been struck off. I suggest you ask a Moderator to let you read the lengthy thread on "Cramp-anyone else get it?" earlier this year. There are other medications one of which is generally not discusses very much and Magnesium Citrate. Happy to disuss with you by pm if you wish.

Rob

 

[Unbeliever]

Sorry to hear about your neuropathy Scoop. That must be very difficult to cope with. Once gain someone posting that they have complicaions despite good control.
This seems to be the hardest hing for iabetics to accept - unsurprisingly because avoiding complications is a great incentive for many.
if yo try to say that these things can happen despite good control, as you say you run the risk of frightening people . Not saying this though can mean that symptoms may be ignored because the person has good control and won't allow the posssibility of complications.
It is this aspect which I find horrifying too. Doctors in the hospital can't believe my good results are not arresting my eye problems.Their training does ot admit the possibility of this happening,
Truth is keeping our levels low and sable is all we can do o protect ourselves.
I beieve that some of us have an underlying weakness or predisposition to cerain conditions and sometimes good control is just not enough.
I do hope you find someone sympathetic to you rproblems soon Scoop. It is a battle isn;t it?

 

[Scoop4]

Unbeliever thanks for your reply. I did worry when I posted the reply that it would frighten others but ignorance can be very bad. When I was diagnosed I had just had a baby she was only months old I was so Ill I couldn't even look after her and I went blind. I had spent over 2 years going to the doctors with symptoms of blood sugar problems looking back I think I would have been diet or tablet controlled if I could have gotten my doctor to treat me. She would tell me to leave work and I was just an over worked mother, even after I described hypo symptoms. The day I was diagnosed I happened to see a locum and was rushed into hospital. That's where I was told about keeping control of my diabetes and after I was walked up and down the wards with diabetics with amputated toes, legs, blindness, and other diabetic problems and I was told if I didn't keep control then I would end up like these patients. Very scary after 17 years the images are still with me. I think that diabetic out there who are managing their condition and don't show signs of problems should think themselves fortunate but not to let their guard down you're right it is a battle so keep fighting.

 

[hanadr]

Just a thought from this discussion
what do people call "good control"?
Hana

 

[Scoop4]

Good control was described to me by my consultant as keeping my blood sugars below 10 by balancing out my carb intake and carefully calculating my insulin requirements. I am on an insulin pump so the calculation are really precise.

 

[mish1953]

Hi and thanks for the replies, sorry i haven't been online much as I had a motorcycle accident on wednesday last week , got hit by a car SMIDSY - Sorry Mate I Didnt See You - I'm ok just a lot of bruises . No pain in foot , just a lot of swelling and black and blue , aint neuropathy great :shock:

Balirob - thanks for the advice , i had a really bad reaction to Cymbalta ( duloxetine ) and Quinine Sulphate, apparantly I was given far too high a doesage so I stopped taking both - I'll put up with the weird tingling, cramp and pains .

I have also discovered croc clogs , I wont wear sandals 'cos my feet look like pretty disgusting , curled toes, discoloured etc . Crocs are letting me letting me get away with no socks in this 'warm' weather :lol:

Happy Daze
Hamish - Ipswich

 

[mish1953]

PS - Neurpopathy - there are several causes for it , it's not always diabetes , furrinstance .. I also have chronic venous insufficiency which can have neuropathy as a complication . Diabetes and CVI and neuropathy .. doomed I tell you , doomed ( thanks to Cpl Fraser in dad's army ) :wave:

 

[Scoop4]

God all that and you can still joke. Thanks for being positive you have made me feel better even after a week like that . I was on a downer as have neuralgia in my face and head been in pain for days my neuropathy came out in simpathy. I know I shouldn't laugh but just got a mental picture of your feet and then looked at my own that look the same really needed that laugh. Thanks again keep looking on the bright side.

 

[gwyn]

duloxetine ugh I was very ill once put on it. I would not get out of bed felt sick every minute of the day. Read the instructions which said it would take a while to get in the system, done it for a month but was too ill ,called doctor out he reduced the amount immediately but cutting a long story short I stopped taking them once i was weened off. Spoke with the consultant who put me on them and he was very suprisedthat i had that reaction. He did speak to my gp while I was there in clinic. I was put on them for pain in my hands and loss of grip. pain in hands minimal now. I contantly use shiney pebbles rolling around in my hands over the painfull areas every day and it hurt to start with but I do not have any pain anymore. It worked for me. Neurophy in the feet I had for quite a few years very painful felt like walking on glass but no feeling when nurses touch them do not know what happened but the pain eventually disappeaedr but still not a lot of feeling so I look at my feet every time I get in bed just to make sure my skin is ok.

 

[florabed]

:clap:

My Neuropathy has been getting worse , also now getting bad cramp at night and muscle pain during the day.
My Doc has now put me on Cymbalta ( duloxetine ) and Quinine Sulphate .
Anyone else on duloxetine ? Anything to watch out for ?

I gather that duloxetine is also an anti-depressant , does that mean that the pin is still there but you don't give a toss :roll:

List of current ailments is like a shopping list !
Diabetes type 2 , neuropathy both feet , non-vasculogenic claudication, chronic venous insufficiency, osteoarthitis both
knees, kidney stone, asthma, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss , severe profund hearing loss ( high frequencies ) ,
haemochromatosis gene carrier, warthins tumor-adenolymphoma( partial surgical removal ) , sciatica, lumbago.

Happy Daze
Hamish - Ipswich