I was diagnosed with diabetes just a short time ago and now it seems like I am experiencing everything that could possibly go wrong.... I have painful neuropathy in my foot, my vision goes blurry, my hair thinned out,
and now it seems that I have autonomic neuropathy.... but that is what I want to ask about....
i started to get really serious about exercising and eating right about a month and a half ago when my foot went numb.... then came the painful tingling and keeping me awake at night.... someone told me that walking would help with the pain and the night time symptoms.... so walk i did!!! i would try to do a brisk to very brisk walk for 3 miles a day..... but i never got out of breath... and let me tell you that i was seriously out of shape.... anyway... like i said i breathed hard and i would check my pulse and it would NEVER be elevated.... i even did a 5 mile cardio DVD designed to raise your heart rate.... NOTHING.... and about 2 weeks ago i noticed that i started sweating A LOT from my hair.... i am talking A LOT of sweat.... but the rest of my body doesn't sweat AT ALL... it does get these teeny tiny water blisters that go away if i take a cold shower.... and cool off....
i have other symptoms too.... is this autonomic neuropathy? and how did diabetes affect me this quick? i mean all the websites i have seen tell you that you should be tested if you have had type 1 for more than 15 years and type 2 for more than 35 years.... not a year or less.....
Have you had your thyroid checked recently? It sounds vaguely like neuropathy, but also like B12 deficiency and low thyroid. Especially because you haven't had diabetes for that long, I'd recommend getting a full physical first.
I have to tell you, if your A1c was 13.4, you had really high blood sugars. And those high blood sugars can do all kinds of bad things and it may just take a while with normal blood sugars before you feel like everything is ok. The painful tingling, probably neuropathy. Blurry vision, hair thinning, sweating problems, all that stuff could be a result of high blood sugars. And don't believe that you can't get complications until decades have passed, I know people in their 20s that are dealing with stuff.
The most important thing for you to do right now is to work aggressively towards normalizing your blood sugar. Yes, as guitarnut says, it is probably good to get tested for these things. You should also be tested to see if you have something called PCOS as that can be a big factor in diabetes and insulin resistance in women.
I just had blood work done to check my c peptides and my thyroid.... haven't gotten the results yet.
i am going to be tested for PCOS at my next appt. i was planning on asking about that.... part of my confusion is that i don't really eat bad... i might have some issues with portions every once in a while but overall i cook healthy meals for my family.... i am lucky and have kids that love fruits and veggies and don't really go for the candy bar... anyway i have completely cut out the traditional "sweets" like cake and candy... and try not to use starchy ingredients when i cook... i have started using brown rice and pasta and whole grain wheat bread.... and eating more chicken and fish and way less red meat.... and i make sure to have veggies at every meal.... and my snacks are always a fruit or veggie....
anyway with all that being said... my BG is not going down.... it is staying high and i don't know why.... i have pretty much cut out carbs and sugar.... and i do exercise.... even when i exercise though it doesn't seem to drop my BG but 2-3 points now and it used to drop drastically.... like from 380 to 83....
i am on 40u levemir twice a day (wake up and bed time) and 10u novolog 70/30 three times a day (before meals)
From what you have said I would suspect you have been diabetic for a while, I know I was before i finally admitted it and got treatment. Just know that rice, pasta and even whole grain bread are all high in carbs and turn to sugar in your system. I thought I was eating good till I was finally convinced to measure. It is/was startling how little food comprises 2000 cal/day. there is a book that really opened my eyes that you might find helpful "wheat belly" there is a lot of interesting research being done on the food we eat. and what has been done to impact the food chain. GMO's and Roundup ready seed in corn, soybean, sugar beet and even cotton. My diabeties came from exposure to agent Orange in Viet Nam. Monsanto which made the stuff then is still marketing and selling it today, they just changed the name and today it is called "Roundup"
I really like what the pump and CGM device have done for my control. I have gone from A1c's of 9-10 to 5.5 to 6.+. It does require more hands on then the 5 shots aday you do but my results have been very much appreciated.
Toby in New York
I know that pretty much everything you eat has carbs and trust me I know about calories.... I did the myfitnesspal thing for a while and NEVER actually ate my target calories for the day.... I don't eat BIG portions I just had a habit of eating the WRONG foods in those smaller portions.... another thing is the 5 small meals a day thing.... first of all who has time for that? and second I am not hungry like that. I have to force myself to eat breakfast and usually just want a snack for lunch and I like to cook so I do the home-cooked dinner thing with my family....
my A1c in march of 2012 was 14.6.... I managed to bring it down to 8.5 by that September.... and then there were A LOT of emotional things that happened all at once and I stopped focusing on my health.... it jumped back to 11.5..... and then last month it was 13.4.... I am hoping for something better when next time but I just don't know....
and I can't tell what my BG is doing without testing all the time because it is always up so I don't really notice the symptoms anymore.... and besides it is jumping to the mid 300s everyday now and I still only pee 3 times a day.... drink maybe 4 bottles of water.... don't get up to pee at night at all.... and my mouth is not dry and my breath is not sweet smelling..... so really I didn't know it was as bad as it was until I started testing regularly....
this is just such a hard thing to deal with.....
Samantha
You commented above
so really I didn't know it was as bad as it was until I started testing regularly....
this is just such a hard thing to deal with..... Can you get yourself to test a bit more just slowly say start doign pre meal blood glucose testing and post prandials ( 2-3 hour after meal testing), to see if your blood sugars have lowered after you eat. Look at the number as "JUST A NUMBER" to tell you how to rreact to it.. Not at all a judgement of you. It sounds like you need to fid out a lot about your own diabetes and how it responds to insulin. You are going to feel anxious,it is a lot to learn, and you are your own science experiement.
Samantha, You WILL suceed as you are interested and motivated to gain better health. It can be done. I promise it WILL get better. As for your other symptoms, do get the tests that the other posters have mentioned, may be thyroid ir other issues as well. I do not know much aboue automonmic neuropathies. Maybe the other Tud family can chime in?
I see you are on a sliding scale.. Have you considered carb counting and "eating to your meter"?
God bless,
Brunetta
If I were taking insulin and eating moderately and my BG were high, I would take more insulin. This is usually expressed as a ratio, G of carb/ Unit. If you don't have a ratio from your doc, you may want to figure out what your current ratio is and perhaps adjust it a bit, to see if it will get you a bit of improvement. It may be that the doc is moving in that direction, but it seems as if they may be moving very slowly. I would explore making the changes. If you don't have a ratio, it may be that the doc calculated one buy extrapolating a ratio from age/ weight formulae and telling you how much to eat as well. This can work if you are very lucky and very precise however, from your description of the numbers something is off.
Testing is *extremely* important to figure these things out. An A1C if 13.4 or whatever is compromised of a bunch of BG tests and they way to beat them is one test at a time. If your ratio is 15-1 (carb/ U) and it's not working, maybe try 12-1 or something like that. If it works, even a little bit, you can build on what you learn. As you progress, you may find it useful to report the results of your experiments here @ Tu as there are a lot of very smart people here who enjoy helping each other and doing these sort of puzzles.