I think I am diabetic. About four months ago I lost sensory function in my left ulnar nerve. A few days ago I lost some motor function in my right hand. I thought this last part might have been acute RSI after a 13 computer session but it’s not going away. I’m thirty pounds overweight, sedentary, 47 and a heavy drinker.
I’ve never been one to self-diagnose and have generally been in pretty good health. That’s just to point out that I don’t often read about symptoms and say, “Hey! That sounds like what I have.”
This post isn’t to see if I can get treated on the SDMB. I am going to see a doctor this week. Rather, I’m feeling a little frightened and was wondering about the prognosis with respect to recovery of nervous function.
I think maybe that’s also my last pack of cigarettes over on the dresser…
I am also unemployed, uninsured and pretty poor at the moment.
Nerve damage in diabetics (diabetic neuropathy) tends to not be in specific nerve branches, such as the ulnar nerve, etc. It’s more of a stocking/glove distribution on the feet and hands. Numbness, pain, burning, especially at night, usually beginning in the feet.
Don’t sweat it, but see the doc, as the Q-man said. I was diagnosed as Type II in January (I’m 42 and very sedentary, had to get up and pee a lot in the night, had minor hand and feet tingling, thirst, etc.). I never would have thought I was capable of it, but I’ve lost 70 pounds in the last 4 months, and my blood sugar has dropped from something like 13 to 6.5 (pretty much normal); in other words, you can control Type II if you get diagnosed early.
Early diagnosis is always best–earlier the better; Type II can often be controlled through something as simple as losing weight and diet modification; talk to the doc.
It may just be a pinched nerve, or RSI, but why take a chance? It’s worth finding out now through a simple blood test, rather than leaving it till later, and finding out that you could have done something to change the whole course of your life, right?
Thanks, all. As I said I’m off to the doc this week. I was perfectly serious when I said I wasn’t seeking treatment through the SDMB (at least until Qadgop starts making computer calls).
I used to be about ninety pounds overweight, and I would often get loss of nerve function in my arms, which sometimes lasted weeks or months. It turned out not to be anything too sinister, just that my excessive weight was imposing too much pressure on my arms when I was sleeping on my side, and I was getting a touch of gin-drinkers arm. Now I’m down to thirty pounds overweight and not getting the trouble any more.
So there are grounds to hope that you’re not screwed. Good luck with your type II diabetes: it responds pretty well to diet and exercise.
My aunt was diagnosed as Type 2 diabetic last year, and it actually turned out to be one of the best things to happen to her in the past year! She’d been out a job, depressed and financially stressed. She went in to see if she could participate in a trial medication test for depression, and she was turned down because she was diabetic (up until a few years ago, it would have been called pre-diabetic). So she saw a doctor for that and…well, long story short, she’s in better shape than she’s been in in over 20 years, she has a lot more energy than she used to have, which had a positive effect on her depression, and shortly after all this, she found a new job which she adores (I know thats unrelated, but still…)
Well, as Sir William Osler, MD (one of the Founding Four at Johns Hopkins Hospital) said, the way to stay healthy is to get a chronic illness and take care of it!
