Update

Community Share Your Stories
1

It has been six months since my diagnosis and I have my ac down to 5.1 which is great. I still think I'm having too many fluctuations though, so I'm working on that...

It has been a whirlwind the past few weeks with my father's illness, one of my kitties suddenly passing away and Sandy...

Overall I feel better and I think I'm staring to adjust a bit more to everything but I seem to be having a lot of tingling and cramping in my legs and more joint pain. I'm wondering if this could be due to diabetes or if it is related to the blood clot and damage in my blood vessels, or to nerve damage from the past. I have had tingling and pins and needles on and off for years. I have been drinking wine with dinner and it gets worse when I do that... could this be related? I started getting numbness in my face years ago whenever I drank alcohol and it got worse after my first neck injury.

Another side effect I have had since being put on insulin and treated for dka was that my vision went totally blurry, although it has improved greatly it is not back to normal yet, and it still changes a lot with my bg fluctuations it seems. I use reading glasses of different strengths. I plan to go to a different opthamologist soon when I have some time. I saw a retinologist who said there is no damage there that he can see.

2

I hate reading glasses. I think that the "vision software" in my brain is shot from using them as I don't seem to be ablet to see anything very well. The expen$ive, graduated bifocals seem to be the best option but I don't like wearing glasses to exercise very much either.

Alcohol can dehydrate you which may contribute to cramps. A lot of times, I'll have a no-carb sports drink (Nuun is my favorite...) with electrolytes if I've been drinking as it seems to help with hydration. I had experienced really bad cramps on longer runs (12+ miles) last summer and eventually discovered that if I laid off coffee, another thing that can dehydrate you, I didn't have that problem.

3

Hi Acidrock,

I hate glasses period...lol. I have had 20 20 vision my whole life and had only needed reading glasses to read the past few years, but then I had visual disturbances leading to dka and then right before I went into the icu I didn't need any glasses for close or far vision. My father brought me some 3+ readers and I was able to read with them and see people but it was quite distorted. When I left I went through two pairs of graduated lenses- the first allowed me to function, I really couldn't at that point.. then gradually my vision got better and I tried another pair, I returned the first pair as I hated them- I couldn't see what they looked like when I picked them out, lol... I hated the second pair also, not the frames, just that feeling that I'm in a fish bowl and I'm going to fall over at any minute- they seem to destroy my balance sense.

So I went back to the reading glasses as they just work better for me. Then I got a pair of true bifocals rx also and they unfortunately gave me the same queasy feeling.. although they would be perfect I just can't adjust to them.. so I'm back to the readers.. most of the time I can just use them for close up and I am getting used to walking around and functioning with blurry vision a lot of the time... but hopefully I will find a better solution at some point. At one point when my vision was perfect I thought it was some pinhole glasses I had been trying out, but it was the glucose in my lenses most likely... I think I'm going to try them again... have you tried those? I know what you mean about the vision software in your brain going off... I miss my normal vision so much... I want it back... if I look in my close up mirror I can see everything crystal clear now... so I know my focus vision is still in there somewhere...

I have never really been a drinker, but I did add the wine in and I love it, it helps with the stress. I'm going to try drinking smart water afterwards that sounds like a good idea. I don't think the alcohol is the cause of the cramps though since I've had them since my dvt last May, and the warfarin seemed to make it better. It does make the tingling and pins and needles worse it seems but it could be the dehydration etc. contributes, and I thought maybe it was the low carb diet also, or low potassium. I supplement potassium everyday and I have increased my salt intake too. I'm a tea drinker, I love coffee but I can't take the caffeine and it upsets my stomach. But I just cannot function without at least one cup of caffeinated tea every day... no matter what!

So far I have only been walking and doing some gardening because stair stepping makes the cramps worse. I'm going to a new doc tomorrow and I will ask him about all of this..

Thanks for your input :)

4

I'm not sure about "pinhole glasses" although I am inclined to prefer larger lenses, like diameter, than the current little square ones. Those bug me as I can see over them and do so pretty readily which probably strains my eyes more than I like. I dunno how they work for bifocals as I went with some bigger ones for that.

I'm a big fan of a drink (weekends most of the time...) but suspect I'd stop pretty quickly with what soundss like neuropathic symptoms, particularly if it makes it worse? Medical marijuana is supposed to be good for neuropathy, maybe you can get your insurance to cover it for you!! I was shocked at the "clinics" in Venice Beach as it seemed pretty fishy but, if it helps you, it may be a reasonable substitute for wine? Hee hee...

5

you can try them and see what you think...I prefer the skinnier glasses now as I can look over them and that seems to work for me, I get less dizzy than with the real bifocals and I can see well enough now most of the time without any distance glasses..

I have been having a glass of wine with dinner most nights now unless my reflux kicks in.. the thing is I don't know if the symptoms are neuropathy.. I had them long before I had diabetes I'm sure, from nerve damage in my neck and back years ago in a car accident... they called it radiculation, it was supposed to go away and but it never did. As far as I know I only had high bg for 3 months or so preceding DKA, so I didn't have that long enough to even have developed neuropathy as far as I know, I will ask my endo about that and see what he thinks about the wine... when I drank wine or alcohol in the past, long before D, but after my injuries, I had the same symptoms, which I had without the wine etc. too. It seems to be from compression of nerves in my neck and back.

I was taking a lot of b12 which is supposed to help tingling I recently read, but now I've stopped as my b12 level was high at my last test and I was worried it may be too high.

The new doctor said he doesn't think alcohol is a good idea but he didn't say why.. I read here the main reason they tell us not to drink is due to possibly passing out from low bg or going into dka and not getting the treatment we need due to them thinking we are drunk, I wear a bracelet at all times and I assume they would test for alcohol levels before making assumptions.

I read that wine every day is good for you too so I really don't want to give it up...

I'm not sure about pot as I don't really like the way it makes me feel, but I suppose I could try it again, I can function pretty well on one glass of wine or so but I become pretty non functional on pot from what I remember, as well as paranoid... Of course if I have neuropathy I will try it to see if it will help! That would be fun getting my insurance to cover it... Maybe I can just grow it myself and put it in low carb brownies, lol.

But seriously the tingling isn't really that bad to have, you get used to it... I have had it on and off for years and it comes and goes... I think the blood clot made it worse in my feet for sure..... the blood all seems to pool up in your feet and it feels like a tingly pressure. I was told to wear compression socks and now to switch to a milder compression since it has been reabsorbed with no scarring. the new doc says he thinks my circulation is very good and my pulse in my legs is very good, so I guess all is well there at least.

I wanted to mention to you, if you haven't tried them for the running calf cramps, that the compression socks are supposed to be great for runners/running in helping prevent cramps/pain and in healing injuries.. they made a huge difference in my intial dvt pain, which was quite severe, the pain reduced by about 75% as soon as put them on and I was able to take less pain killers. The key was to put them on before even getting out of bed everyone said.

6

I have one eye near sighted and one eye farsighted and with age I can't focus as close as I once could for fine detailed work like threading a needle, But for reading or surfing the web a good reading light or a bright screen contracts my pupils enough that reading small print closeup is not a problem. I used reading glasses for a while, but the more I used them the they seemed to make my close focus eyesight worse.

7

Two years ago I also had painful leg cramps and that year I also had my first kidney stone (what a little bundle of joy that was)Turned out I wasn't drinking enough water. After I started to drink glasses of water throughout the day I hardly ever had a leg cramp.

Of course everyone is different but it turned out that my poor tolerance for Statins was what was causing much of my joint pain.

8

thanks Ryan, so sorry you went throughout that. I do not have kidney stones. My leg problems are in part due to dvt in my legs and damage to the vein as well as to various diabetes things I'm sure. My eyesight was damaged in dka. I can't see anything close without strong reading glasses and bright light, bright light alone would make no difference for me. Before dka I only needed mild reading glasses to read.

9

I also drink tons of water and I always have for years now.