Diabetic growing pains ;(

1

Hey ther folks,

I was just wondering, how long does it usually take for someone to show signs of diabetes complications?

I was diagnosed type1 like less than 2 months ago, went straight on lantus and novolog throughout the day. and I'll admit, I'm a pretty active person. I bike ride about 6-10miles per day, and have a pretty active part time job, always moving and such..

Well, basically these past few days has been killing me, mostly my feet :(

it feels like I just walked 50 miles non stop, for like 4 days now my feet have

had this really bad dull throb. to the point where it is affecting my sleep.

its really getting to me and bothering me really bad. I'm really active and

just even thinking about my feet make them throb in pain.

I guess what my question is, how do you know if you have circulation problems in your feet, and how quickly can they come on??

also, does anyone know anything I could do to help my feet out??

first, its freaking me out, cause I'm newly diabetic!! I cant have complications yet!?! can I??

if anyone knows any good, inexpensive, home remedies for treating feet please let me know.

I got an appointment to see my doc, but thats not until Nov. 24th.... earliest they can see me.

Thanks folks !!

--Johnny C.

2

Whatever is going on is likely NOT permanent, but the rest of quickly bringing your BG under control. There was another thread recently, where this happened with a child. It’s almost certainly not a circulation issue, but a temporary nerve issue.

Definitely bring it up with your doctor… there are medications that can help, but things “should” get better on their own as well. Is there any way you can get in sooner? Or maybe see a different kind of doctor (like a neurologist)?

3

There’s different folklore out there.

The old rule of thumb was that “all type 1’s have retinopathy after 20 years”. Yep, that’s what they said, ALL. My eye docs and endos told me this over and over. But guess what? I’m at 30 years after diagnosis and still no retinopathy. My gut feeling, was that this rule of thumb was from the 70’s or 80’s, before good access to home bg testing was available, and that those from my generation or later will show much lower rates of complications.

As to feet… my doc tells me that the “tuning fork” test indicates some very slight loss of bone sensation in my feet. But the “sparkie” and “fishing line” test show my skin sensitivity to be fine.

If you see a doc about your feet, you should fully expect to get all the foot tests (“tuning fork”, “sparkie”, and “fishing line”.) If not, I don’t think you’re seeing the right doc. An endo would do any and all of these as screening tests as well as checking for pulse strength. There are also fancy-pants electrical tests the podiatrists can run.

I know you’re very recent after diagnosis… but is it possible that you had slow-onset and your bg’s had been elevated for a long time before diagnosis? With me, I went straight into DKA coma at age 14 and bg’s way above 1000, so I don’t think it was very slow onset.

4

After 34 years I have no signs of retinopathy and only a slight numbness and occasional tingling on my right foot but I also pass the tuning fork test. I would think you’d have to have years of high BS for neuropathy to set in.

5

I have heard of nerves re-sprouting in the feet when a person normalizes their blood sugars and that this is not uncommon. Many people who report this say its very painful but its worth the pain. You are starting to get good control and that could be the cause. I have heard Dr Bernstein talk about this on his webcasts.

It lasts a couple of months but then after your sugars are normalized it goes away. I would agree you probably had some high BG readings prior to diagnosis and you may have a little damage.

Your young enough that with good control any damage should be easily corrected
Agree with the other posts. Get all the various tests done too on your next visit.

Also care for your feet religiously with lotion and dont ever-go bare foot!

6

I’d try to get into see your endo or even your primary sooner if possible. It may be a temporary situation from bringing your bg down, but it could also be completely unrelated to diabetes. It sounds like something that needs to be checked out if you are experiencing that much pain.

I haven’t experienced the same thing that you are, but this summer my feet started to tingle midway through my runs. But it seems to be humidity-related because I can now complete my runs without experiencing it. I think the humidity was creating friction between my feet and my socks that made my nerves unhappy. Any possibility that something like that could be causing it?

It’s not unusual to freak out about stuff like this, but I wouldn’t worry. Everything I’ve ever experienced so far has just turned out to be psychosomatic or related to normal aging lol.

7

Hi Johnny,

I was diagnosed with type 1 back in October and experienced very similar foot pain from December until around April. My feet would get both dull and sharp pains during the day and then would be so sensitive at night that even the sheets touching them was incredibly painful.

I went to my endocrinologist who did the usual feet tests but didn’t have much additional advice to offer except maybe seeing a neurologist. I also went to an acupuncturist to help with the pain in the meantime. That was my only relief during those months. I now experience no pain whatsoever in my feet.

In my case, I think I had elevated BG levels for quite some time, and my body was taking a while to adjust to normal levels. I would suggest definitely bringing it up to your endo to make sure it’s nothing serious, and if it’s not, see if there are some topical treatments you can do for your feet (I read about a few creams that help when I was going through my foot pain). Otherwise, my guess is that your body is adjusting to the healthy BG levels, and you will have relief after riding it out some.

8

I’m not sure what my BG levels were before diagnosis (I never got a copy of my medical records when I went to the hospital) but I know they were pretty high before I found out I was diabetic. I think I was diabetic for like a whole year before I DKAed and got diagnosed. I do know when I was in the hospital, they said my BG was over 580 when I was in DKA.

But just hearing that more than one person thinks its just like, getting used to healthy BGs, really makes
me feel a lot better.

for the week I was in the hospital, my BG was pretty much always above 250. then for like a few weeks after I got out of the hospital my BGs have been slowly going down. now I average like 80-100 normally.
If you super pros mostly think its like a newly diagnosed thing, then I’ll take yalls advice over my Doc’s
I dont really have access to an endo. and the only doc I can see is like this small county free clinic where I get a doc to write out my perscriptions. pretty much the closest available date to get seen is Nov. 24th :frowning: :frowning: