Neropathy or Sciatica

Pipp said:

I think a diagnosis is best from GP, though having had sciatica, I know it started for me with back pain, as I do have spine arthritis.
Don’t have neuropathy, which I believe starts in feet, though not 100% sure about that.
The spine pain does sometimes give numbness / tingling to outer thigh. Scaitica can be worse first thing in morning, and usually eases as the day goes on and I move about. Also, goes away after a couple of weeks. Don’t think neuropathy resolves easily, though perhaps somebody who has neuropathy will clarify.
As I mentioned, best to discuss with GP.

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thepolly said:

I've been having pains running down the back of my left leg. They are sharp stabbing pains and although my sugars have been ridiculous probably for the last 4 years I'm also not sure if it could be sciatica rather than neuropathy. I rarely get the burning sensation on my feet but have now got background retinopathy that I'm being seen for in a couple of weeks.

Medwise I've agreed to go on metformin, dapagliflozin and ramipril but want this to only last for a year. My head is still not in the right place to sort myself out and apologise to anyone on here when I was in my evangelical phase of the 800 cal blood sugar diet. Which if I went back on would sort a lot of this out really.

Anyway, just wondered if there was a way to tell one pain type from the other?

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Hertfordshiremum said:

Would it be worth an appointment with a physiotherapist? I would have thought they would be able to rule sciatica or other trapped nerve in or out.

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thepolly said:

Thanks for the replies, I did mention it to the nurse on my last appointment but she was more focussed on getting me on meds and I've been feeling so ****** lately in general that I was too. I did regularly go to an osteopath and she's brilliant but I've recently started working in community support so my shifts are all over the place and it also pays badly so not the same disposable income any more to afford these necessities.

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