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Peripheral Myopathy?

A

Andy A

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I'm type 2, diagnosed December 2008, after originally being taken into hospital with chest pains and numbness/cold sensations running up my legs and arms (not the best day of my life), since then I've had subtle pains mainly in my left chest and arm but also in my right side, although not as bad, which the doctors and various consultants have so far failed to explain.

Over the last few weeks or so I've been waking up in the mornings with a dull ache in my left arm and numbness and tingling/pins and needles in either one or both hands, mainly in the little and ring finger, this can occur several times a night and upon waking in the morning, after shaking my hands around it disappears, I've also been getting burning and itching sensations on both arms, along with odd shooting pains and burning pains and itching on and off in my toes, blurry vision and lightheartedness which appears to be aggravated by food consumption, although my BG remains stable, I've also been suffering with bloating, sorry for the long list but I wondered if anybody else suffers with similar and where I go from here, I've read a lot about similar symptoms and the end result looks to be some kind of myopathy or B12 deficiency, I will of course get to the doctors as soon as an appointment is available (no appointments left for January it would appear :shock: ) but wondered how if possible I could control the symptoms if its possible until I can get an appointment, Andy
 
Hi, waking is normally 5.7-6.0 , during the day it's normally between 5.0 and 5.8 unless I get silly with food which doesnt happen often, then it can head brefly into the 8's :oops:
 
hi Andy,
I'm a type 2 diagnosed about eighteen months ago.
I've had most of these symptoms which I believe come under the general heading of diabetic neuropathy. However, almost all have gotten much better as a result of my blood sugar levels coming down to good levels, though they took some months to improve and I still get some tingling and some numbness when I wake up.
Your readings are very good, however - how long have they been like that? Have they improved lately?
 
Andy A said:
Hi, waking is normally 5.7-6.0 , during the day it's normally between 5.0 and 5.8 unless I get silly with food which doesnt happen often, then it can head brefly into the 8's :oops:
Click to expand...

When do you actually test during the day please.....?
 
cugila said:
Andy A said:
Hi, waking is normally 5.7-6.0 , during the day it's normally between 5.0 and 5.8 unless I get silly with food which doesnt happen often, then it can head brefly into the 8's :oops:
Click to expand...

When do you actually test during the day please.....?
Click to expand...

I mainly test now when introducing new foods or feeling ill, although I test every morning and 1 day in 3 morning, before meals,then 1 and 2 hours after and before bed, when first diagnosed I tested as above every day until I got the hang of what foods and amounts did what but I find the above to be enough.

HBA1C on diagnosis was 8.1, since then I've had 5.8 and 5.9 and I'm due another next week, my sugars have been pretty stable throughout, apart from the initial couple of months following the diet the diabetic nurse told me to eat, I now eat lowish carb (cant get my head around sub 40 grammes a day yet but I know I should try) but the symptoms have got steadily worse throughout, I did try running deliberately high BG for a week or so, my theory being that if it was BG related then the symptoms would worsen as the figures got higher, but there was no change at all and the highest I had was 17.5ish, the lowest I went down to was 2.9 and there was no difference there either.

The numbness in the hands, fingers and toes, along with the burning sensation in my arms that comes and goes is a relatively new thing over the last couple of weeks or so, which leads me towards the B12 theory (last B12 count was 312), managed to see my doctor this afternoon after a bit of a blunt phonecall to them and he reckons its something to do with a nerve in my elbow, that explains the rest of it then, and you cant beat a diagnosis from a 30 second consultation :lol:
 
If the Bg levels had no effect then from my own experience I would say it could be down to nerve damage. I crushed a vertebrae in my neck, C6 and the resulting pain and numbness was manifested in all sorts of areas due to what is known as referred pain. Took over 8 months of Physio and masses of Painkillers. I still sometimes get numbness and tingling even after 15 years.

Have you had a fall or some minor knock recently ?

Which brings me to my advice, you should get a referral to a Specialist in such things, might just help you get rid of the pain.
 
Forgot to mention when I did my neck, I was paralysed from the waist down. Apparently more than one nerve was involved where the vertebrae had been crushed. So the effects can be felt in several areas of the body, look at diagrams of nerve paths and see how they meander all over the place.
 
Thanks for the reply, I haven't had any knocks, falls or anything lately,I have a couple of herniated vertebrae that I've had for years, L4 and L5 if I remember correctly but when they play up they tend to wipe me off my feet for a couple of months at least, last time it took me over a year to get walking anywhere near properly again but thats a while ago now touch wood...

I've started taking a B12 supplement today just to see if it helps,reading all the information I can find there's no harm in trying it, found a couple of articles on B12 levels and it was reckoned that anything below a count of around 400 is low, although my doctor reckons your good down to about 150, it appears that most labs have an upper ceiling of 2000 when testing for it and having a higher level in the body is harmless so I'll run with it a while and see what happens, some Swedish research stated that around 40% of metformin users will suffer B12 depletion through use so it will be interesting to see if that helps with the symptoms...

I'm also going to try a Magnesium supplement, again just to see if it makes any difference, and to eliminate it from the list of possible causes, as it would appear diarrhea is the only real possible side affect from having too much in your system I'll be closely monitoring the situation :lol:
 
Andy
do be careful with magnesium. As you say it can cause diarrhoea and that's dangerous. Keep to a common multivitamin and mineral and you should be safe.
Hana
 
Thanks for the link, some really useful information there, I'll work my way back through it all over the next few days and digest it all properly (parden the pun :lol: ).

After a bit of research I've dumped my Propranalol (it was dropped for a month before without any affect while the doctor was testing to see if any of my medication was causing my dizziness problem a while back), the main problem I'm having is in finding the correct form of B12 in the shops, the one I've been using the last couple of days is the cyano based version which looking at the information needs B1 to make it work, does anyone know of a highstreet supplier of the methycobalamine B12 or is a case of ordering over the net, thanks, Andy
 
I have a very good herbalist / nutritionist who doesnt try to sell you something whenever you go into his shop I talked to him about neuropathy and vit b12 I had already done some research and knew what levels of vits I needed .He recomended Lifeplan time release B complex its not cheap but if it takes away the pain I am preparedato rob a bank! Perhaps you could look at this in your local health shop and if it looks like the thing you need you could search the net.By the way the research I did recomends taking folic acid along with the B12 which is in this complex. CAROL
 
Thanks for all the information and help, its certainly given me plenty to think about and have a look at, I've been doing some research (ok, Googling) on the subject and have found some very useful links (or at least I think they are) on the subject of neuropathy and vitamins, I'm not sure if external linking is allowed on the board, but if its ok I could put some of the links up if anyones interested in a read up on the subject...
 
I have been taking the B complex as in my last post and the pins and needles has improved enormously For the last week I have slept without waking in agony. CAROL
 
Statins can cause neuropathy and myopathy so if you have started these recently it could be worth stopping them. Obviously discuss this with your doctor.
 
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