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Need some advice.

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M

MancVandaL

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi.

On top of my new friend, Diabetes, I have an issue with my back. I have two degenerating discs that are pressing on nerves, causing sciatica and a numb left leg. I've had the numbness for about 6-10 years now and I KNOW it's the disc issue causing it.

However, this has me worried that I won't know if I have nerve damage from Diabetes. I'm getting my levels down, but I'm unsure how long someone with Diabetes will take to get nerve damage in the feet. I've been diagnosed for about three weeks but I of course have had Diabetes for longer. No more than three years though I was tested back then and showed no signed of it.

How do you think I should go about managing this? I check my feet daily but there's numbness there all the time and I'm worried I might pass it over as my back issue and not from Diabetes.

:confused:
 
Getting your BS levels down will help, if the nerve damage has been there a good while it will be permanent.

I have been diabetic for 13 years and probably had the nerve damage for around 5 years. The symptoms used to be treated by an epilepsy drug, now its more common to use an anti depressant.

Unfortunately diabetes will do different things to different people and there is no set time scale. Keeping your BS within Nice guidelines is a good starting point, but a lot of us believe the guidelines are set to high on the higher level and set our own goals, I like mine to be under 8 but not achieving it. Doctors are a different kettle of fish and have their own agendas as an example mine say BS in the 20's is ok, when its not ok as that sort of level will lead to allsorts of damage.

At the end of last year the pain for was increasing and found my BS was in the 20's. I have now got the BS levels down and the pain has fortunately reverted back to the pre high BS levels (caught it just in time).
 
MancVandaL, sorry to hear about your back pain - I too have had sciatica in my left leg for about ten years after rupturing a disc. It did improve after two years but I've never really stopped taking pain killers and anti-inflammatories for it as I feel awful without them.

I was DX about 2 years ago and after getting my levels down I generally felt much better but the pain is still there and I'm fairly sure I have the first stages of neuropathy in my feet, though no numbness.

Yours sounds a lot worse than mine :(
 
So even IF I get my levels down to "normal" I should expect some form of Neuropathy in the future?
 
The thing with diabetes its purely random if or when things happen. The thing is if your BS are high the more chances of things happening to you.

Last year when my BS was high, they found background eye damage on the annual eye screening. Thankfully this year due to getting my BS under better control the eye damage has been reversed, thankfully before permanent damage had occurred.

Do you test your BS, as its worth testing as you can then identify which foods affect you and in what way. Though with type 2's a lot of us have trouble getting test strips on prescription.
 
MancVandaL said:
So even IF I get my levels down to "normal" I should expect some form of Neuropathy in the future?
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No this isn't true. I've had diabetes for nearly 50 years and have no neuropathy.
 
Pumper_Sue said:
No this isn't true. I've had diabetes for nearly 50 years and have no neuropathy.
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I love you. 🙂

Thanks everyone. I'm just going to be more vigilant with the issue because of my back but knowing it's not a cert helps. I've asked this kind of thing before but again, you try to read up on it and you get different views. I'm finding it's always better to listen to those that have it.

Thanks again.
 
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and residual damage to nerves as a result of surgery to remove a benign growth a few years before I was diagnosed. It left me with a slight loss of sensation in my right leg and spotting problems such as neuropathy was a concern for me too, I worried they might get lost among all the other aches, pains and mixed signals. One of my doctors early on told me my feet were fine because I still had (and still have) hairs on my toes and lower legs. Apparently this is an indication of good circulation or something and losing that hair may be a early warning sign. So I've stopped shaving my legs. 🙄
 
Well that's cheered me up anyway - my wife says I've got hobbit feet because of my hairy toes, at least the circulation must be good 😛
 
LOL - you only need to NOT shave em before going for your tootsie check!

As it happens I had my legs waxed regularly for donkeys years, then a) was skint b) moved out of the area etc etc, and the hairs growing back weren't half as bad - not stubble, really fine hairs.

I considered the matter and invested in one of those things that pulls em out by the roots. Once a week to begin with, then once a fortnight etc and now, I do em about twice during the summer, and that's that! And it's just a couple of v small patches on each leg that have any hairs at all which you can count on the fingers of one hand!

Only very recently I've been diagnosed hypothyroid, so that may contribute, but I haven't lost and growth anywhere else on my body whatsoever - so actually I conclude that shaving makes em grow worse, defo makes em look worse before you shave again (I was doing em every 2 flipping days, Phillips Ladyshave rules OK LOL) whereas yanking em out forcibly by the roots eventually causes em to STOP.

Personally I've never noticed any hair on me toes or feet - are you perchance related to the folk at Bag End ? :D
 
trophywench said:
Personally I've never noticed any hair on me toes or feet - are you perchance related to the folk at Bag End ? :D
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Umm, well, I do like presents and mushrooms... but I have dainty little size fives.

My whole family is fairly hirsute and very dark haired to so what we have really shows. My bother (spelling mistake or Freudian slip? - brother) looks like a yeti, but wears his hair upside down i.e., growing out of his chin instead of on his head. 😱

I've always had very fine, almost invisible hairs on my toes and a little on the backs of my hands. .
 
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