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Still fairly new.....and still trying to come to terms with this

C

Caprock94

Well-Known Member
Messages
337
I have been on the boards for a couple of months now. What a great group of people! Thanks for all of your help. I was diagnosed in April. I had been in the mid range of pre-diabetic for a few years right around 6.0% a1c. After a very stressful time period, I was diagnosed in April at 8.5%. I couldn't believe it. I estimate I was at diabetic levels for less than a year based on previous tests.

I spent a couple of days feeling sorry for myself, but then went to work on low carb diet. Lost 20 pounds. After 6 weeks, I had dropped my a1c to 6.5%. I was feeling better about things. However, I started having burning pains in both feet, and sometimes quick shooting pains. Hands started tingling now and then. Everything just seemed to get a lot more sensitive all the sudden. I have never noticed any numbness. I cut my foot a couple weeks ago. It healed quickly and normally.

I just don't get it. I didn't have any symptoms at diagnosis. Only started after bringing levels down. I am working to get them down further. I hope this isn't neuropathy. If it is, is there a chance it can resolve? Is it any indicator of future problems? Trying to keep focused on getting levels down. My meter readings are now consistently in non-diabetic ranges.

Sorry for the rant. Just feeling a little frustrated today.
 
This is fairly common. How I understand it is a bit like when you get pins and needles in your foot because you have been sitting on it for half an hour. Your foot is numb at first but you know that after a few seconds the pain sets in and you end up hopping around the room like a lunatic as the feeling returns. This wears off after a few minutes. The point is that normal feeling returns only after the pins and needles subsides. Mild neuropathy can reverse but it may take some time, how long is down to the individual. Hope you feel better soon.
 

I'll gladly hop around the room like a lunatic if it will make things better! Thanks for the well wishes.

My next concern is my eye test. That is coming up soon. I have had floaters as long as I can remember. I am noticing them more now.....or it could just be I am more aware of them because of my diagnosis.
 
Again this is like the pins and needles scenario, as our blood glucose levels get better things improve but the eyes tend to be a few weeks or months behind the bg level improvement. If you wear specs then delay buying a new pair for a while until the eyes catch up with the rest of the body.
 

Last year I developed a large floater in one eye. Never had one before. It was not affecting my sight at all. I went to the optician to see what he had to say. He did a thorough examination and declared my eye sight was normal and he thought it was just a vitreous detachment, nothing serious. However, because I am a diabetic he decided to refer me to the eye hospital as their machinery is far more advanced. I saw the consultant surgeon who did all the tests and confirmed what the optician had said, and no retinal breaks evident in either eye, and discharged me from his clinic. I still have it but tend not to notice it 99% of the time. I do not need new glasses at the moment.

Coincidentally, it was my retinal screening test just after this. I informed the technician who put it in my notes. After the test she told me it had not interfered with the images at all.
 
I have had a patch inside my eye for some years - but it is gradually becoming paler - two years ago it was a shadow and now it is a smudge.
I did have background retinopathy at diagnosis, but that has gone.
Things can, and do get better.
 
Get them checked out, I am type1 and have had diabetes 61 years since the age of 2. When a teenager I rebelled wanted to be normal like my friends and did not take care of myself. Age 24 I had laser in both eyes and my left eye the retina detached I lost the sight in that eye. Have about 60% sight in my right eye and believe me since then have taken care of my diabetes. Stress can affect the eyes too, so I now use a white stick. I take what life throws at me and get on with it. Life is for living not being miserable about things. Let's face it we can not change things but accept and make the most of life. Take care of diabetes is the key, I know.
 

Good advice. Thanks for the reply. Had eye exam today. All is well there.
 

I am in a similar boat as you. Got diagnosed roughly a month or so ago with an A1C in the mid 7s. I could not have been diabetic for too long before that (I gained a bunch of weight at the end of last year which I believe triggered my diabetes). I quickly got on a low carb occasionally fasting diet, lost ~25 lbs in the last month and my sugar levels have been in non-diabetic range since I got the glucose monitor a week into my diagnosis and started measuring. My doctor said he expects my A1C to drop into a good range in a couple of months when I do my followup A1C if I keep up these numbers. However I started experiencing tingling in my feet a few days ago and weird sensations on my hand and arms occasionally. Never had it before when my sugar was high. Tingling comes and goes, like today all day it was fine but right now the pinky finger on my right hand is feeling weird, the first time it has happened on my hand. My sugar levels were in totally normal range when all this started happening and I never had these symptoms before when my sugar levels were high.

I had a followup with my doctor, he did some tests with sensations and said nothing was wrong and said that neuropathy usually happens in people with long term uncontrolled diabetes with very high sugar levels and told me it's likely not that. He told me to take B12 supplements as a lack of that that apparently causes these symptoms in some people

I feel you, it sucks to have these symptoms when you feel like you are on your way to getting control of this thing. Last few days have been hard, whenever I start feeling the tingles, it ruins my day and makes me all sad. It's not painful or anything it just an awful reminder. I don't know why this is happening or why it started happening when I got my sugar levels under control. I have read about TIND and Insulin Neuritis but I don't know what's going on or what will happen.
 
Guys I am sorry if I sound like a baby but I need to say this out loud and there is no one around me that I can say it to- I have cried many times this week grieving about my diabetes. I just feel so down on my self and felt like I let this happen to myself. I lived unhealthy since like November, I knew I was not eating well or exercising but I thought to myself that I'm 40lbs above my target weight/BMI and based on past experience that is 3 months of healthy eating and working out for me to get there. I thought there would always be time to get into a better shape considering I was only 28 but then the diabetes diagnosis happened.

After feeling down for a while after the diagnosis I got up and made a plan, did my research and since my A1C was not too high, I hoped I'd be able to get it into control. I worked really hard losing that weight and getting my blood sugars in a good range and just when I was starting to feel up, I start getting these symptoms and all the mental progress I had made came crashing down. Getting your sugars in control is not supposed to cause these neuropathic symptoms, my doctor tells me that as well but I just don't understand why it's happening to me after trying to do the right thing. On the internet I read so many posts about people who had very high A1C and never had these symptoms and many who got better after getting their sugar levels in control. I don't know what I did to feel the opposite after getting my sugar levels in control from as my doctor likes to say "only marginally high" territory. I am just so afraid it's going to get worse. I don't know what to do, I think I have done all the right things so far but I am getting symptoms that I never had when my glucose levels were in diabetic range.

I have been crying while typing this post because the grief I feel and the disappointment towards myself, I just want to keep crying but I am too exhausted to do that.

I am really sorry for being so negative, one of the thing I love about this forum is the positivity that most people maintain (I have been lurking around here for a while before registering today). But feeling the tingling for the first time in my hands and reading the OP's post really triggered me. I feel so bad for the OP because I 100% feel how he/she must be feeling.

I can't even do anything that I enjoy right now as I can't stop thinking about this thing. I've been re-watching parts of that tv series 'The Leftovers'- a show all about grief from sudden unexplainable loss and sobbing along. Again really sorry for the negative and overly-emotional post, I just had to let it out and this was the only outlet.
 

Sorry to hear you are going through this as well. It’s so frustrating. Not sure why this is happening so quick, and happening after bringing BG numbers down. Maybe there are more here who have experienced this and recovered.
 
Sending you a massive hug xxx
 
Caprock94 said:
Sorry to hear you are going through this as well. It’s so frustrating. Not sure why this is happening so quick, and happening after bringing BG numbers down. Maybe there are more here who have experienced this and recovered.
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It's so scary at first (I was terrified I was going blind) but it gets better I promise you. It's a lot to cope with and overwhelming at first xx
 
Hey Des,

Quit with the sorry's, there's no need to apologise. You think everyone here took a diagnosis in stride? I know I cried my eyes out continuously. I'd wake up in the morning, having cried in my sleep. I asked a Dutch diabetes forum whether it'd ever get better, emotionally speaking, and I got exactly zero response... Just crickets. They were as lost as I was, which made it all the more daunting to me. Grief took hold, I was more depressed than usual. Really, I was a mess. And a lot of people here started out exactly the same: shell-shocked, overwhelmed, terrified, alone. So no need to say sorry, not at all, because we've been where you are. There's no shame in it, it's perfectly natural, and guess what: it does get better.

Couple of things you need to know: You gained weight and it did NOT trigger your diabetes. The weight gain was trigged because you were becoming diabetic. It's a symptom of pre-diabetes, not a cause of T2. So there's that. And from @Jim Lahey I gather that sometimes, symptoms get worse when your bloodsugars get under control. (The tingling, right, Jim?). Should pass eventually, as your nerve endings heal. I don't know what meds you're on, but b12 could be an issue, especially if you're on metformin (it makes people deficient), so that could also be a cause. Supplements are readily available at Holland & Barret's, or provided by your doc. Worth a shot.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ may contain some info that's useful to you, so might want to have a read there... But the most important thing right now is this: With a diagnosis comes grief. With grief comes depression. It will get better though, and you will be able to enjoy things again, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. You're not alone, and you're not a "baby". You got hit by an emotional truck; no-one can expect you to dust yourself off and walk away whistling. But as you get a grip on the T2, and you get it under control, and your body gets its health back, you will start to feel better. There's hope, honest.
 
JoKalsbeek said:
And from @Jim Lahey I gather that sometimes, symptoms get worse when your bloodsugars get under control. (The tingling, right, Jim?). Should pass eventually, as your nerve endings heal.
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Well I don’t know about “should” but I went from extreme and debilitating neuropathy pain to being completely cured, so it should certainly be possible for tingling to be reversed. And yes my complications got worse as my diabetes got better (eyes and feet).
 
Jim, you are such an inspiration and have so much wisdom, I love reading your posts.
 
 

Thanks for this post Jo, it helped me as well!
 
So I went to my GP yesterday. Easily passed the monofilament test on my feet. Pulse rate at all extremities was good. Still having some burning feelings in feet. Went out to the farm last night and did some work. A couple of hours of working a lot with hands. As I drove home, I felt both wrists tightening. Then had numbness in tingling in both hands for the next few hours. It stopped and I was able to go to sleep. Does this sounds like neuropathy or something different?
 
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