New member with painful legs and feet

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rachel1975

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Type 2
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Hi all
I've had type 2 for 8 years. I've done all the things I should, lost weight, healthier lifestyle etc but my bloods have just got worse ..I have eventually been referred to the diabetic clinic on the 10th Jan. For the last week I have had pins n needles, burning and general pain in my legs , feet and hands, can't get in at the doctors so can anyone think of anything that can ease the pain whilst waiting for clinic appointment. Thank you all xxx
 
Hi and welcome.
Sorry to hear that you have been struggling with your diabetes management and that you are now experiencing pains in your legs and feet. Have you had your vitamin B12 levels checked? Long term use of Metformin can result in B12 deficiency and that can cause the issues you are experiencing. Unfortunately taking a vitamin supplement will not help because Metformin blocks the absorption of it into your blood stream and if you are deficient, you will need injections of it to top your levels up. In the mean time the key thing will be to manage your BG levels as well as you can. What dietary changes have you made to help manage your levels? I appreciate that you have lost weight but sometimes that is not enough and you have to modify your diet to significantly reduce the amount of carbohydrate you eat in order to reduce the amount of glucose going into your blood stream. Do you test your Blood Glucose (BG) levels at home to see how your body responds to particular foods and meals, testing just before eating and 2 hours afterwards so that you can see how much the food you ate raised your levels? This is an invaluable technique for many people here on the forum to help them tailor their diet to their own individual body's response to foods. Apologies if you are already aware of this and doing it. Unfortunately many people are not and many health care professionals discourage testing or if necessary due to particular drugs like Gliclazide, recommend just very basic testing, which doesn't help you to amend your diet, it just tells them how effective the medication is. The NHS dietary advice for diabetics is also not overly helpful for managing diabetes and may well be why so many people find diabetes progressive, when the experience of this forum suggests that it doesn't need to be.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts on your situation and I am pleased that you have a referral to the specialist clinic to help better support you. I would make a point of asking if your B12 levels have been checked and if not, push to get them checked. B12 is important to nerve health and as diabetics our feet and legs are more vulnerable to nerve damage, so they need B12.

Just remembered.... some people have recently posted that compression socks have helped them with foot and leg pain, burning etc, particularly in bed.
 
rachel1975 said:
Hi all
I've had type 2 for 8 years. I've done all the things I should, lost weight, healthier lifestyle etc but my bloods have just got worse ..I have eventually been referred to the diabetic clinic on the 10th Jan. For the last week I have had pins n needles, burning and general pain in my legs , feet and hands, can't get in at the doctors so can anyone think of anything that can ease the pain whilst waiting for clinic appointment. Thank you all xxx
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum
Would you like to say a bit more about how you manage your condition, what dietary regime do you follow, what meds are you on, what was your last HbA1C and do you monitor your blood glucose at home. Sorry for all the question but it will help people make appropriate suggestions.
Some body mentioned they had found compression stockings helpful for leg pain. But it is indicative of high blood glucose.
 
rebrascora said:
Hi and welcome.
Sorry to hear that you have been struggling with your diabetes management and that you are now experiencing pains in your legs and feet. Have you had your vitamin B12 levels checked? Long term use of Metformin can result in B12 deficiency and that can cause the issues you are experiencing. Unfortunately taking a vitamin supplement will not help because Metformin blocks the absorption of it into your blood stream and if you are deficient, you will need injections of it to top your levels up. In the mean time the key thing will be to manage your BG levels as well as you can. What dietary changes have you made to help manage your levels? I appreciate that you have lost weight but sometimes that is not enough and you have to modify your diet to significantly reduce the amount of carbohydrate you eat in order to reduce the amount of glucose going into your blood stream. Do you test your Blood Glucose (BG) levels at home to see how your body responds to particular foods and meals, testing just before eating and 2 hours afterwards so that you can see how much the food you ate raised your levels? This is an invaluable technique for many people here on the forum to help them tailor their diet to their own individual body's response to foods. Apologies if you are already aware of this and doing it. Unfortunately many people are not and many health care professionals discourage testing or if necessary due to particular drugs like Gliclazide, recommend just very basic testing, which doesn't help you to amend your diet, it just tells them how effective the medication is. The NHS dietary advice for diabetics is also not overly helpful for managing diabetes and may well be why so many people find diabetes progressive, when the experience of this forum suggests that it doesn't need to be.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts on your situation and I am pleased that you have a referral to the specialist clinic to help better support you. I would make a point of asking if your B12 levels have been checked and if not, push to get them checked. B12 is important to nerve health and as diabetics our feet and legs are more vulnerable to nerve damage, so they need B12.

Just remembered.... some people have recently posted that compression socks have helped them with foot and leg pain, burning etc, particularly in bed.
Click to expand...
Hi
Thank you for your help, I do test my bloods but not every day but I shall do as you suggested and test before and 2 hours after eating. I try to stick to a varied diet but I'm not always 100% good . I will mention about the B12 at my appointment, and see if I can get some compression socks. Thanks for your support, just what I need.

Rachel xx
 
Many people think they have a healthy diet but sometimes what they think is healthy is not so good especially if they are following the standard NHS advice which is often too high in carbs for many to tolerate and despite more and more meds they are unable to lower blood glucose .
Have a look at this link as it may give you some ideas and more options for making some improvement. https://www.freshwell.co.uk/
 
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