• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diagnosed With Peripheral Artery Disease

A

amj27

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
A few months ago i diagnosed myself with peripheral artery disease by doing what doctors always tell me to stop doing...google. I am only 27 but have a few of the risk factors..diabetes, high cholesterol, early heart disease in the family. I’ve had pain in my calfs while walking the past few years now. I recently had an ankle bracial index test and unfortunately my worries were confirmed, I have mild peripheral artery disease in both legs. I didn’t ask many questions when I found out because I was so upset, and doctor told me he was referring me to a vascular surgeon but for now to lower my blood sugars and exercise as much as I can. My sugars and going down nicely with lots of walking and the leg pain is not too bad as long as I take a few breaks. But I’m experiencing a lot of foot and toe pain out of nowhere, lots of aches and pain as if someone is squeezing my toes and my pinky toes on each foot feel kind of numb. The weird thing is it mainly started after finding out my diagnosis. Did it really progress this past? The thing that is confusing me is if it’s only mild why would I get foot pain at rest? I’m reading that if you get foot pains at rest it means the disease is more severe. Also, does the ankle bracial index test only check the legs or does it also check the feet? They put the cuff around my ankles but she also had a probe on my feet to listen to my pulses. I’m just afraid that it’s severe in the feet even though it’s only mild in the legs. If anyone who knows more about this can help that would be great. Very stressed and feeling like my life is ruined by this :(
 
Hi and welcome @amj27

Could you answer a few questions?
Your profile doesn't say whether you have diabetes or not, and if so, what type, and the medication you are on.
That info would be really helpful for people to tailor their answers to suit your situation.
If you want to add the extra information to your profile, then some of it will appear underneath your avatar picture, and would help people even more. :)
 
Brunneria said:
Hi and welcome @amj27

Could you answer a few questions?
Your profile doesn't say whether you have diabetes or not, and if so, what type, and the medication you are on.
That info would be really helpful for people to tailor their answers to suit your situation.
If you want to add the extra information to your profile, then some of it will appear underneath your avatar picture, and would help people even more. :)
Click to expand...

Hi. I am a type 2 diabetic for the past 4 years and I currently take 4 metformin a day and 2 glicizide but soon switching to insulin to get my sugars lower and try to avoid complications with the artery disease. I also take cholesterol meds, blood pressure and synthroid because I have no thyroid. It seems like I get a new health problem every year. So exhausting. I will update my profile if that can help.
 
Welcome to the club amj27. I have PAD.
My vascular man said much the same as your doctor. No.1 - no smoking. Then, keep your sugars in good order, exercise as much as you can, keep the weight off if possible and keep taking the tablets. My tablets include aspirin which you may have been advised to take. You have other problems so I won't tell you which others I take (partly because some experts on here don't agree with my surgeon.)
PAD is not uncommon, in fact many people have it and are unaware. It's only when symptoms, such as painful calves while walking, particularly uphill (very typical), appear, that we get formerly diagnosed.
What I will do is take time to sit and send you a proper reply by private message. Keep an eye out.
Moed.
Jo
 
Thanks for the extra detail @amj27 it really helps :)

I have no experience of PAD (of which I am aware!) but in general, for type 2 diabetics the more we keep our blood glucose low and steady, the better we feel, and the less chance/risk of further complications. So I would urge you to get the blood glucose under tight control (apologies if you are doing that already!) with the goal being non-diabetic levels.

Many of us on here use low carbing to achieve this, but for some (many?) medication is also necessary - whatever it takes is the right thing for the individual. :)
 
Back
Top