From bad to worse

[Jim-C]

Haven’t posted in a while thought I’d share my recent ordeals in the hopes there are others going through the same things.

For 6 years I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes t2 and all that time I never took my meds! First few years didn’t think it was serious, then started getting tingling and numbness so would try taking metformin for a few days then gave up, fast forward another three years and I have now ruined my life.

Neuropathy in my limbs and now as of recent my mind feels like it’s lost, memory, reasoning, mood all affected and getting worse. My hbA1c is 105 and I think I’ve given myself dementia with how bad things have gotten. Anxiety through the roof and you know what? I’m close to accepting I ain’t gunna be here long (I’m 24).

I have started taking my meds as of 1 week ago but it takes months to bring your hbA1c down so I’m kinda screwed for a while no matter what.

No matter what health problems I thought I had over the years it always came back to diabetes and therefore came back to its your fault, which it is.

Numbness in my feet and hands? I convinced myself it was ALS or MS! No just neuropathy due to me not taking my meds!

Cognitive decline? Must be a brain tumour or something! No just nerve damage and damage to my blood vessels due to me not taking my meds!

To stop this post becoming a rambling pity fest I’ll get to the point, I have gambled with my life and have lost. There are tons of other symptoms and hospital trips and things that have happened that have led me to where I am now but as I write this I genuinely believe the big D is what’s gunna take me out.

I just hope people who are recently diagnosed take it seriously unlike me,

 

[TheSecretCarbAddict]

@Jim-C, I'm sorry to hear about your struggles. I've been T2 for over 15 years and while I haven't been in 100s for my HbA1c, I've been close over the years. While out of control T2 will impact your body in different ways, all might not be lost. I found that some of my symptoms got better once I brought my blood glucose levels under control (including tingling in my legs and arms). Focusing on my diet rather on my meds has made a lot of difference for me and has allowed me to reduce my medication. Also, it sounds like you could do with some mental wellbeing support - diabetes increases likelihood of suffering from depression and it can make it even harder to manage it. I'd encourage you to talk to your GP about it, if you haven't already.

 

[Art Of Flowers]

I had some brain fog issues and tingling in my feet before, so I took vitamin B12 and Alpha Lipoic Acid supplements. I now take a multivitamin every day which contains B12. Getting my T2 blood sugars under control by diet and lifestyle changes helped with these symptoms and allowed me to stop taking Metformin.

Many people with Type 2 seems to make the mistake by thinking that taking drugs for T2 is all they need to do. My diabetes nurse told me that many of her patients still add sugar to tea and continue to eat cakes and chips. They end up getting put on progressively stronger medicines such as Sulfonylureas and eventually end up on high doses of insulin. Unfortunately, they end up putting on a lot of weight as they are hungry all the time because of the excess insulin in the body and the frequent blood sugar spikes.

If you want to avoid some of the worst diabetic complications such as neuropathy, retinopathy, heart disease and Alzheimer’s then you need to make some lifestyle and diet changes.