Can you help!!

[Elsiemay100]

Hi I'm a newbie

Can anyone help me with this?

I have been Type 2 diabetic for three years now and after lots of changes in medication due to side effects, I started injectiing Victoza at the start of lockdown in March - so have been on it - one 1.2 injection per day - for 4 1/2 months now. For the past 5-6 weeks now I have been suffering with tingling in all of my fingers and my thumbs - it started quite slowly but has built over the weeks and is now constant and intense, making me clumsy and unable to feel the ends of my digits.

I gave myself a project to keep me busy during lockdown and have painted the whole house inside, gradually working through each room with emulsion and gloss and so when I spoke to my doctor - by telephone of course - and told him what was going on, he felt sure it was due to the decorating and told me to wear wrist supports for two weeks and see if it helped.

If anything, that seemed to make the feeling more intense but I did as I was told and wore them for two weeks and did nothing much to aggravate them any more.
It didn't make the slightest difference and the tingling is worse and seems to be moving down my fingers if anything. I rang the doctor again and was told I needed a blood test before they could do anything else and so I went to the surgery and had a blood test, which I have been told is perfectly normal and no further action required.
I rang again as that didn't help me at all and they are now referring me to the nerve clinic at hospital to see a specialist.
I asked if there was any possibility that the Victoza could be the reason, although this isn't listed as a side effect in their leaflet. I was told definitely not possible - but I had the same problem when I took Metformin and it made my joints and muscles gradually seize up - it took months before the doctor would let me come off the Metformin just to see and that turned out to be the problem.

So my question is - as I wait who knows how long to get to the hospital - has anyone had similar problems with Victoza?

 

[Kaylz]

Could it possibly in fact be neuropathy due to the diabetes rather than a side effect of medications you've been on?
xx

 

[Elsiemay100]

Could it possibly in fact be neuropathy due to the diabetes rather than a side effect of medications you've been on?
xx

Could it possibly in fact be neuropathy due to the diabetes rather than a side effect of medications you've been on?
xx

HI Kaylz, thanks for your reply.
That was the first thing I thought of & the first question I asked the doctor in my telephone consult.
He asked me if my feet were OK & when I said they were absolutely fine he said that diabetic neuropathy almost always started in the feet & so he felt sure that wasn't the problem!!!

 

[Kaylz]

Without examination or anything he can't be certain of that so I'd enquire about that again if I were you
xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Elsiemay100

Sorry to hear about the tingling you are getting in your hands.

Hope between you and the Drs and nerve specialists you can get to the bottom of it.

Is the Victoza working well for you in diabetes management terms? Do you know what your last HbA1c result was? Have you reduced your carbohydrate intake to help reduce your BG levels and help your body cope better?

It sounds like you had to work quite hard to get to a medication that would work for you, but there may be other options (including insulin, of course).

Since the symptoms appeared after your change in medication, it is quite natural to link the two, but that doens’t mean they are actually related, of course. And as you say, tingling fingers is not listed as a common side-effect in the patient information leaflet.

It must be very difficult and frustrating to live with these symptoms with no clear timeline for your next appointment.

Hope it comes through quickly for you.

 

[Elsiemay100]

Hi, Thanks for your input.
in management terms for the Victoza, i am just getting on with it as best I can after being very reluctant to start injecting at all! Since starting it on 25th March I have maintained my BG levels between 7-8 (from my finger prick tests) - this is higher than it was on some of my previous tablet medication. Apart from the tingling in my hands though - which I know may not be connected at all - I don't have any side effects.

Results from my annual tests:-
Date Hb1Ac Blood Pressure Cholesterol
May2017 171mmol 131/75 8.5
May2018 48mmol 137/86 3.8
April 2019 78mmol 137/79 5.8
Due for test this April/May but lockdown stopped that from being done.

A bit of history:-
Diagnosed in May 2017 after back and forth to surgery since February being treated for sore throat/mouth and thrush. A different nurse came in and asked if anyone had done a finger prick blood sugar test - which they hadn't - she did one on the spot and my BG was 29.6!! Sent for full blood tests next day and had to start Gliclazide straight away.
When results of full tests came in, I was also prescribed Metformin to take with the Gliclazide and Simvastatin to try to bring my cholesterol down.
4th July 17 Diabetic nurse did finger prick test BG down to 7.4 - given Accucheck machine to monitor BG level myself.

May 2018 Told to stop Simvastatin after visit to Doctor to tell him about severe muscle and joint pain and general all over weakness. Also changed my Gliclazide to Sitagliptin as I kept getting hypos and BG would drop to around 2 - 2.5 quite regularly.

October 2018 Stopped taking Metformin after consult with Doctor about my continuing muscle and joint pain and general weakness. He agreed that as I was controlling my BG level between 8-9 that I could just take Sitagliptin for a few months to see if the pain subsided - which it did gradually over the following months.

April 2019 After annual review I was told that I needed to have something more than the Sitagliptin. Eventually in June 2019 I saw Doctor and was prescribed Empagliflozin - this brought my BG level down very quickly but by August I had thrush and my skin was red raw and nothing seemed to calm it down.
I persevered until March 2020 but Doctor then agreed I couldn't carry on like that and said I had exhausted my option on tablets and would need to inject.
I started on Victoza on 25th March 2020 - in lockdown then and had to work it out for myself!

As for reducing my carb intake - I have done so but not as much as I would have liked as whenever I mention this at the surgery I am told very forcefully that I absolutely must have carbs.

 

[trophywench]

Well - I'm going to tell you very forcibly that your surgery has proved that they are very old fashioned and haven't kept up with the latest modules in Type 2 diabetes dietary thinking!

However let's keep the peace with your surgery and agree that you'll continue eating carbs. BUT - you have the option in choosing which foods containing carbs you eat, don't you?

For instance - there isn't a vegetable, including salad which contains zero carb, nor any fruit in the world ditto. All milk contains carb, therefore all cheese has carb.

Both meat and eggs have zero.

How low do you want to go?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hope you can manage to get an A1c at some point in the near future to see how those 7s and 8s are doing.

 

[trophywench]

Metformin can actually cause a B12 deficiency anyway (after a while, can't define how long, depends on the person) so always worth them checking that out while they're already taking an armful of blood, as Hancock described it.

 

[Drummer]

As for reducing my carb intake - I have done so but not as much as I would have liked as whenever I mention this at the surgery I am told very forcefully that I absolutely must have carbs.

What ignorant people - they are telling you something which is not true and could be detrimental to your health.
Carbs are not an essential part of our diet, but you should find that you can manage some carbs easily enough and use them to add colour variety and interest to your meals.
Many people seem to do very well on around 50 gm of carbs a day, and they have low carb foods to make salads, stir fries or roast some veges with the meat.
My suggestion of putting slices of swede in the tray and roasting a chicken or joint on a trivet or grid over it seems well liked, but mashing boiled swede or cauliflower with cream is good too.
I can't help with the medication as after being diagnosed in 2016, by the end of the year I felt really dreadful thanks to the tablets, so I binned them and ate low carb, which has worked for me. For many people eating low carb as long as their medication allows it has been beneficial. Why HCPs are so against it I cannot understand - it defies all logic. (yes, I am raising one eyebrow)

 

[trophywench]

Besides which, bearing in mind that even green leafy veg (yeah, even lettuce and indeed cucumber which most folk acknowledge is mainly water!) have some carbs in them - it would be virtually impossible to avoid carb in its entirety and still eat an interesting diet. But nobody ever suggested anyone try to do that, so what the heck is anyone's problem with cutting down on it?