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Difficulty walking

Annb

Expert
Messages
9,902
Location
Western Isles, Scotland
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm T2 and was diagnosed about 7 years ago. This was some time after I had developed nerve damage in my feet which doctors were unable to advise on. I was given Metformin but had lots of problems with my bowel and eventually was taken into to hospital for a colonoscopy which did find a malignant polyp which was removed. In order to prepare for the procedure I was taken off Metformin and put onto insulin "just for the time being". I never came off the insulin and I have never, since then, been able to control my sugar levels which are consistently higher than they ought to be. I was taken off the Metformin because the surgeon thought it was the main problem with my bowel and put onto Gliclazide whereupon I ballooned up to 16 stone. Another consultant took me off that medication and put me back onto Metformin and I lost 2 stone then stuck. OK that's the background.

My question is, would my diabetes now be responsible for a lack of ability to walk properly? I shuffle because of stiff ankle, knee and hip joints and tire very rapidly with the muscular effort of staying upright ( I also have a tendency to lose my balance). My doctor says it is because I am overweight and I must do some exercise but exercise just about kills me, or at least causes me to collapse for the rest of the day. Besides, when I was 16 stone I didn't have this problem.

Does this sound like a diabetes related problem? Does anyone else have this problem and maybe some advice?

Thanks for taking time to read this.
 
Hi Annb,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. All I can tell you that at one stage I was 16.8 stone and am now 11 stone.I feel far far better at my present weight. My method was to use the LCHF way of eating and a bit of walking to achieve this. In the beginning it was a bit tough, but with good motivation and advice from others its much easier to get through the initial stages.For the beginning you dont really need to exercise at all, just concentrate on the LCHF diet.Best wishes for your efforts and subsequent weight loss.
Almost forgot, look around the Forums and ask plenty of questions.
 
Hi Ann,

I have no idea if your walking difficulties are diabetes related or not, but as we get older, and if we are overweight, walking can be difficult for anyone. It sounds like general lack of fitness to me, and lack of core strength. Perhaps some light exercises might help, like sitting on the edge of a seat as straight and upright as you can. Stretch the back and ribs, pretend you are dangling from the ceiling by a rope attached to the top of your head. These sort of exercises can help if you are unable to do anything more strenuous. Then persevere with the walking, short walks at first and increase gradually. Find a route where there are places to sit down and rest, but keep at it every day, twice if you can. You could even just walk round your house. Anything to get those muscles working properly.

As for your blood sugars, what is your typical diet? The more carbs you eat, the higher your sugars will be, and the heavier you will become. I know nothing about insulin, but maybe your doses need adjusting? Hopefully an insulin user will be along to help with this. Meanwhile, tell us a bit about your diet.
 
Do you take any other drugs for anything else? I.e statins?
 
donnellysdogs said:
Do you take any other drugs for anything else? I.e statins?
Click to expand...

Hi all. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I know I am well overweight - probably about 4 stones. I tried to do the lchf diet and made myself very ill, probably because I don't have a gall bladder any more and can't tolerate fats very well without some carbs to mop them up. I talked to our hospital dietician about 4 weeks ago and she said that the lchf diet was a no no (but I suppose she would, wouldn't she?) She gave me a diet sheet and I tried that but it was (to my mind) far too high in carbs and I put on about 6 lb in weight in a fortnight. So that won't do either, which leaves me back on my own resources to try to work something out.

I am on medication for other things - Simvastatin for cholesterol, Amlodipine, Ramipril and Losartan for high blood pressure and Furosimide for fluid retention plus Esomeprozole for my stomach which seems to object seriously to all the other pills and to some foods.

It doesn't help that I am the main carer for my husband who has Parkinson's disease (seemingly in its terminal stage) and is bedridden and can't do anything for himself. I can't leave him alone except when I can get someone in to sit with him for an hour or so to let me get to the shops, which is the only thing I ever do outside the house. Exercising inside the house (no stairs) is the only thing I can do in between the things I must do to keep the house running. That amounts to walking along a 25ft corridor as many times as possible and, apart from cleaning, moving furniture and cooking, that is all I do. I know it's not enough and from the answers above, I guess everyone agrees with my doctor that I must just find a way to do more exercise and that old age (approaching 70) doesn't excuse me from that.

Thanks all for your time and advice.
 
Sorry to hear of your trials ... and hope you find some relief from it all ....

Mike
 
Hello Ann

Do not despair I also have no gall bladder and went on no major carbs and extra veg and lost 20kg and got off jabs onto tablets.

No extra fats and no extra exercise.

It is the easiest thing I have ever done - but others have found it difficult.

I attribute my success to making a hobby out of cooking with no major carbs especially nut flour replacement for wheat flour, thereby making the "ordeal" into an "interesting experience" and then a way of life.. I have never eaten so many cakes and for us meals generally are faster and easier to prepare.

Eating out remains difficult tho.

I "discovered" some great uses of Xanthan gum. Xanthan gum has a different thickening property and you have eaten it in many commercial products including quality ice cream. I have progressed beyond recipes as such and sort of now know how much is needed to make things work.

This can be delicious it is a sort of coconut/vanilla custard - dry mix in a mug, sweetener, 2 teaspoons coconut flour, 1/4 teaspoon of Xanthan gum,. then add plenty of vanilla essence and milk. Mix well with a spoon and stand for an hour in the fridge to chill for cold, or warm it up in the microwave for hot..

It can be thick or thin depending how you want to make it and of course sweet and more or less vanilla. The coconut flavour is only subtle but you can add desiccated coconut if you choose.

I enjoy it with banana (I eat banana rather than take the potassium meds I need) and it is great over chocolate microwaved almond meal patty-cakes and also over orange chocolate balls (like rumballs).

I have no gall bladder and a few heart issues including a pacemaker and I have been warned to keep off processed meats and too much cheese and cut my booze intake.

I also get gout so I am off shell fish and offal and pork.

But no major carbs and extra veg with nut flours in bakery products has worked for me.

Have a Merry Xmas and a feast, you can eat cake and egg custard but not dried fruit or too much fruit but berries are OK.

PS I make a great strawberry jam/conserve I zap the strawberries in the microwave with Xanthan gum to thicken it and artificial sweetener. I eat it as jam or in trifle deserts etc.Trifle is easy with diet jelly and coconut custard and nut flour cake, crushed peanuts, yoghurt and cream.

Play about with a rum ball recipe (not cooked)with coconut flour to dry and firm the mix and almond meal and nuts.and Xanthan gum (too much Xgum makes them taste slimy tho) You can taste it as you make it.

I store mine in the fridge with dessicated coconut as a drying agent. (firming them up)

Merry Xmas to all.
 

You have a lot to cope with. I hope you manage to find a way to sort out your diet problems. Good luck on your journey, and do come back and ask questions.
 

Hi Forge

Thanks so much for your advice - there are some good ideas in there for me to work on. Not all of them will work for me since I can't take artificial sweeteners or almonds, but I think I can probably figure out some replacements for those. I'll try it. Weighed myself this morning and found I have put on another 4 lb since last week and my blood sugars are incredibly high - must work harder at it.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
You have a lot to cope with. I hope you manage to find a way to sort out your diet problems. Good luck on your journey, and do come back and ask questions.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your good wishes Bluetit. Somewhere there must be an answer to my problems but it really does seem that the weight is an issue in more ways than one.
 
Ann you can't continue as you are so maybe you need to compromise.

If you use coconut flour it has no gluten so double the egg content in the recipe for wheat flour and it has had all the coconut oil removed so you need to add some oil - I add olive oil - you have t experiment.to find what works for you.
 

Thanks again Forge. I will take up your advice but will have to wait until I can get to the shops to see if any of the alternatives are available in Stornoway (our nearest town). If not, I'll have a search online to see what I can get.

Season's greetings.
 


Hi Annb,

I have been Diabetes 2 for 5 yrs now and according to my nurse, maybe a lot more. I noticed that as the years go by my walking is not as coordinated as it used to be. From the Diabetes books I have read this is typical neuropathy and can effect many neurons in the body, especially the long ones in the legs. I am so embarrassed with this and other effects because I do not want to seem intoxicated. I rush to my house after doing chores and basically live inside if I can. I don't think it is weight imo.
 
Hi Erin

Our stories seem to be similar - goodness only knows how long I have been diabetic. Looking back I have certainly had problems with sugars in some form since I had my first son 48 years ago. Sadly, I took some bad advice then from a friend who was a nurse. She suggested that I felt unwell when I took my boy out in his pram because my blood sugar was too low, so I should take in some sugar when I felt low. That, of course, became a habit.

I don't suppose I was diabetic then but the warning signs were there, if I had understood them.

I wonder how many years I have been diabetic - presumably since a while before I started getting foot problems, which I now know to be diabetes related. That was about 12 years ago now. The spur to me finding out about diabetes was that I heard some radio interview which told me that having to get up frequently during the night for the toilet was not normal. Then I went to the doctor with a urine sample and asked him to test it asking "Am I diabetic?" The answer, of course, was "Yes" but the provision of knowledgeable medical professionals was very inadequate here. Which, I suppose, explains why, despite presenting many times with symptoms I now know to be indicators of diabetes, no doctors or nurses caught on.

My walking hasn't improved recently partly because I thought that in the absence of any meaningful help from the medics, I would just have to try to get fit (I'd developed what seems to be some kind of arthritis in hips, knees and ankles, as well as wrists) so I started doing a few step-ups on a 5" high stool - it hurt, but no pain, no gain, right? Wrong! On the fourth morning I woke up with a dreadful pain in my right knee and couldn't walk at all. I did go to the doctor with that (I think it is a strain of the cruciate ligament(s)) but he just said he thought it was probably arthritis and he would refer me to the physiotherapy department (first available appointment 13 April). That was in January. I haven't been overbalancing recently because the only time I've been out, my son took me in a wheelchair. Other than that I'm hobbling around on walking sticks or a zimmer frame. However, the main pain has now faded and I can walk with only one stick now. Once I am without a stick, I will be able to tell if my balance has improved.

Another problem which arose at the same time was an old area of cellulitis on my right calf, started up again and spread to my left calf. My legs became badly swollen so my trousers are so tight that I have to peel them off! I have seen 5 doctors to find out what I could do but they all said it's a form of eczema and prescribed steroid cream. That just made it worse! and I told them all I thought it was the infection starting up again, but they didn't think so. Just today, though, I saw the 5th doctor because in the middle of the patch on my right leg, the skin was turning black and, finally, this doctor agreed that it probably needs antibiotics. This, too, has been since January.

Well - I don't like antibiotics,l but sometimes they are needed and I think this is one of those times. I'm still not sure of the link between all this and diabetes, but I'll bet there is one that nobody has noticed.

Thanks for replying to me - at least I know there is a potential link since the same thing affects you and I'll just have to keep pushing to see if anyone can tell me what that link is. And thanks for reading all this - if you have. You're a hero!
 
Annb, as I was reading your posts, I thought about how fasting might be a starting point for you.

Jason Fung, M.D. is a nephrologist - (a kidney specialist) - in the Toronto, Canada area who specializes in weight loss and diabetes. Two years ago, he began posting lectures on YouTube. One of the approaches he uses with patients is fasting, something I am very interested in trying myself.

He will be one of the presenters at the 2nd Annual Diabetes Summit, March 23-30. Each day, we'll have 24 hours to view for free that day's presentations. His presentation will be on fasting. Go here to learn more and to register for the Summit, again it's free... http://thediabetessummit.com/

I've watched two of Dr. Fung's videos so far. I find his approach to and overview of how he treats diabetes in his patients interesting. Here's a list of his videos...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jason+fung

His most recent video, in which he's presenting during Grand Rounds to health care professionals at his hospital, still has me thinking...


I also like this video, in part because it's only 9 minutes long but also because he interviews one of his patients who used fasting to lose weight...

 
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IMHO Radical diets including fasting should have medical supervision.

Total health well being should not be overlooked when choosing a radical diet and duration and long tem effects means 20 or 40 years not 1 or 2 years, Sample sizes of 1 (one) ie what one poster experienced, is generally too small to be definitive.

Obesity is proven to be a major contributor to the level of T2 we experience and where they draw the line between normal and pre T2 and T2 may change. The words "How I beat T2" are a bit selective they could end up meaning "How I delayed the more serious onset of T2"

The good Doc could end up with any of the really nasty health conditions in 20 or 40 years caused by "neglect" in the guise of treatment.

Losing weight under supervision is what I have done and my radical no major carbs diet is now being moderated for long term good health - it all sounds good to me.
 
Forge, Richard is the patient, Dr. Fung is a Nephrologist with 20 years experience. I believe Richard had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for 10 years. According to Dr. Fung, patients are seen weekly with lab work.
 
Thanks Winnie
My warning if you want to call it that, is for readers who do not consult a specialist and take on "what is trendy" off their own bat.
 
[Q

Hi Annb,

I am so sorry that you have suffered so much. It is difficult to distinguish diabetic complications from things like phlebitis for example. But I am glad that you were given antibiotics if infection sets it. What a sad disease diabetes can be. You mention that possibly you had pre-diabetes before you were certain of it. I am sorry that more investigations are not made by the medical field now, especially since we have an epidemic. I had certain strange effects before it was obvious for some years. I suspect that post menopause may have had a role or a bad flu virus. But who knows? It is a complicated disease. Cheers.
 
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