omigod FEET !!!!

[whitemare]

Hello again people. I have been ill, so I've not been here for a while.

My problem is that I have lost SERIOUS feeling in my tootsies & no-one can tell me why this is.
My blood sugar is good, my weight is high-to-normal, by cholesterol is slightly high so now I'm on statins.

I have only had type two for a year, & I hoped that the changes to my lifestyle - better diet & more exercise would stave off the inevitable.

The podiatrist said there have been no studies done on nerve loss in diabetics - WHY IS THIS?
I now have two vitually dead feet & am totally ****** off. My eyes aren't so hot either, they go blurry when I'm tired, I feel like saying b****r it & chucking the whole **** mess in.

There you are, I am depressed as well. Can anyone reassure me, or at least tell me I'm not alone?

 

[ChocFish]

Sorry that your feet are giving you trouble, have you checked if you could be suffering from vitamin/mineral deficiency? Try soaking your feet in warm water with Epsom salts added, this contains magnesium which is also absorbed through the skin, sometimes diabetics have problems getting enough of this mineral from diet alone,
Alpha Lipoic Acid is worth a try, so is cinnamon added to your diet, fish/flaxseed oils and vitamin C as well.
Do you take aspirin at all? Sometimes the daily dose of aspirin can cause neuropathy too.

And yes, swear and rant and rave but dont give up, keep those feet and legs moving, keep the circulation going.
All the best
Karen

 

[hanadr]

You say your BG is good. what are your numbers? what a lot of the medics call good, isn't really good enough. You need to be in the 5s, at most bg tests and HbA1cs.
If this is some kind of neuropathy, and that would need a diagnosis to be sure,
VERY tight BG control can sometime reverse it
As a diabetic, you can self refer to the podiatry department at your hospital. Just phone them. there'll be a form to fill in. They are the best people to see whatever your trouble is with feet.

 

[Dennis]

My problem is that I have lost SERIOUS feeling in my tootsies & no-one can tell me why this is.
The podiatrist said there have been no studies done on nerve loss in diabetics - WHY IS THIS?
I now have two vitually dead feet & am totally ****** off. My eyes aren't so hot either, they go blurry when I'm tired

Hi Whitemare,
I simply can't understand your podiatrist's comment regarding nerve loss in diabetes. It is called diabetic neuropathy and is an extremely well researched field. You only have to Google it and you will get hundreds, if not thousands, of hits. Perhaps your podiatrist has been reading Enid Blyton instead of the scientific journals! The other unfortunate side effect of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy (initially blurred vision, getting progressively worse until sight is lost completely).

The good news is that both retinopathy and neuropathy damage is completely reversible in most people. They way to reverse it is to reduce your blood sugar levels down to as near as possible "normal", i.e. to the levels that a non-diabetic would have. If you are determined then this is not an impossible, of even a difficult task. It just needs a good understanding of what you should and should not eat, and the willpower to do it.

 

[DiabeticGeek]

If your blood sugar really is good, then this almost certainly isn't diabetic neuropathy. If BG is well controlled, there is absolutely nothing inevitable about neuropathy in T2 diabetes! Many doctors consider an HbA1C of 7% to be "good control" - and anything less to be an unrealistic target. However, there is research suggesting that HbA1C of this level is still likely to lead to complications and it is most certainly possible for a well controlled diabetic to get their HbA1C much lower than that. I would suggest that to call your blood sugar levels "good", you should have an HbA1C in the non-diabetic range (i.e. not more than 5.5%). This would indicate an average BG of less than 6.2mmol/l, and your fasting BG would then be likely around about 5mmol/l.

If your BG is much higher than that then, whatever doctors tell you, you need to get it lower. If you can then the neuropathy will certainly not get any worse and it might slowly recover - at least to some extent. If your BG really is good (according to the above definition of "good"), then something else is probably causing your numb feet. Unfortunately having diabetes doesn't make you immune from other diseases, and many other conditions can cause numb feet. If your GP isn't willing or able to investigate this properly, then ask to be referred to a neurologist - this sort of thing needs to be investigated.

 

[Katharine]

The most likely cause of the problem is indeed diabetic neuropathy. You may have been diagnosed two years ago but it is thought that the average time that newly diagnosed have really had the condition but not been picked up is 7 years.

If you have any degree of retinopathy you can be pretty sure the feet have nerve damage. If you also have microalbuminuria you are likely to have had the diabetes for a long while.

Other causes are:

pernicious anaemia which causes b12 deficiency
metformin which tends to cause b 12 deficiency too. This tends to be dosage related.
too much alcohol over many years

 

[hazey276]

Hi Whitemare, although it's no consolation i'm having terrible trouble with my feet at present. When i first get up in the morning i can't put any weight on my left heel for at least 5 minutes and the right half of my right foot aches constantly . The hospital are going to investigate it thoroughly they say to try and find a cause. They say it "may" be due to me being a borderline diabetic for a long time before being diagnosed (possibly up to 3 years). I am like you and sometimes the pain drives me crazy and yes you get really cheesed off with it so I truly can sympathise.

Best wishes

Hazey

 

[whitemare]

Thank you all. It was the suddenness of the process that scared me- one day feet almost normal, next day, bam! numb skin.
My hba1c is between five and seven & I have structured my diet around five to seven little meals a day, restricting carbs & going heavy on vegetables.
I eat omega rich seeds, I take cod liver oil, & yes, I do take a daily asprin as per doctor's orders. I am going to the podiatrist next month & will get the eyes checked as well - they were OK last year.
I'm keeping up with the exercise & trying very hard to stay positive, but some days........ well, you just can't cut it all the time.

 

[Trinkwasser]

The podiatrist said there have been no studies done on nerve loss in diabetics - WHY IS THIS?
I now have two vitually dead feet & am totally ****** off. My eyes aren't so hot either, they go blurry when I'm tired, I feel like saying b****r it & chucking the whole **** mess in.

There you are, I am depressed as well. Can anyone reassure me, or at least tell me I'm not alone?

http://www.diabetic-talk.org/dpn.htm

Plenty more references to the mechanisms involved elsewhere.

I'd advise getting your B6 and especially B12 levels checked, also the circulation in your legs: these are other factors that might be involved.

I used to get itchy eyes and blurry vision, written off as psychosomatic but curiously cured by tight BG control, excess glucose and sorbitol gets into the vitreous fluid. Some of these "doctors" are in serious need of new batteries

 

[crewegirl]

Yeah, I get the blurry vision when my sugars go up. I was told its nothing serious and when my sugars go back to normal so will my eyesight (and this happens). Its due to excess glucose on the lens of the eye.
I also have a friend with Diabetes and she has a few eye problems. I told her it was probably the above but she doesn't seem to be getting any better.
Is there anyone out there who has Retinopathy who can tell me how it started? My friend won't go to the Optician as she's too scared. Maybe with your info I might be able to put her mind at rest.

 

[hanadr]

I have retinopathy. As to how it started, I already had it at diagnosis. It was picked up on my first retina check. I have been checked by the hospital Diabetic eye clinic about once a year for the last 5 and the condition isn't getting any worse. I keep tight bgs, Usually below 6, with very rare slipups. I haven't gone above 9 as long as I can remember, at least a couple of years.
I went to the optician a couple of weeks ago, because I needed new glasses ( old age long sighted ness on top of lifelong short sight) I told the optometrist( a new one)about the retinopathy. after she checked, she said she'd expected far worse and it's only "background". I did a visual field test and scored 100%. I used to keep BG down with medication(Metformin and Gliclazide) I've gone low carb and ditched the Gliclazide. I don't mind the Metformin. I think it's a very safe medicine.. A side effect is almost 3 stone weight loss. Much of it gained while using gliclazide.