Neuropathy
A lot of you have e-mailed me about my recurrance of the neuropathy and instead of replying to all of them, I thought I would fire off a post here.
The neuropathy isn't connected to the diabetes in that my blood sugar levels are fine and it hurts regardless. The pain takes different shapes but almost all of the time affects my extremities (hands, arms, feet, legs) in a couple of forms that can best be describes as an extreme burning sensation, a slow drill working its way from your hands or feet into your arms, or a sharp knife like pain. Of the three, the burning is the most common while the drilling feeling is the worst and tends to come when I am tired.
The best way to treat it is to walk. While I don't have my pedometer on today, I walk from 3000-6000 steps at work over 8 hours. If it is bad, I also call Wendy and ask her or Lee to not pick me up from work and walk the 20 minutes home. When I get home, I have Maggi who wants to catch some Frisbee and Mark who wants to play soccer so I often get in another 1000 or so steps chasing them down. Lately Hutch has been making a break for it so both Lee and I have been getting some additional exercise.
Travelling can be hard because my feet aren't doing exactly what I described. It isn't just travelling. Many friends have seen me excuse myself and walk for a bit during coffee or dinner. Sitting down for long periods of time just hurts. Once the pain hits me, it tends to stay for several days, affecting sleep (like it is now) which makes it worse which affects sleep some more, which causes the pain to be worse. The medication I take helps but when the pain gets extreme. The best illustration is like sand bagging during a flood. It helps but only up to a certain point. Right now for the next little while, it is past that point.
Hopefully it is cyclical but for right now, it has been quite frustrating because I don't know how long it is going to last. I had the depressing job of cancelling out of some summer speaking gigs and delaying some much wanted vacation plans. Hopefully it won't last for too long.
The neuropathy isn't connected to the diabetes in that my blood sugar levels are fine and it hurts regardless. The pain takes different shapes but almost all of the time affects my extremities (hands, arms, feet, legs) in a couple of forms that can best be describes as an extreme burning sensation, a slow drill working its way from your hands or feet into your arms, or a sharp knife like pain. Of the three, the burning is the most common while the drilling feeling is the worst and tends to come when I am tired.
The best way to treat it is to walk. While I don't have my pedometer on today, I walk from 3000-6000 steps at work over 8 hours. If it is bad, I also call Wendy and ask her or Lee to not pick me up from work and walk the 20 minutes home. When I get home, I have Maggi who wants to catch some Frisbee and Mark who wants to play soccer so I often get in another 1000 or so steps chasing them down. Lately Hutch has been making a break for it so both Lee and I have been getting some additional exercise.
Travelling can be hard because my feet aren't doing exactly what I described. It isn't just travelling. Many friends have seen me excuse myself and walk for a bit during coffee or dinner. Sitting down for long periods of time just hurts. Once the pain hits me, it tends to stay for several days, affecting sleep (like it is now) which makes it worse which affects sleep some more, which causes the pain to be worse. The medication I take helps but when the pain gets extreme. The best illustration is like sand bagging during a flood. It helps but only up to a certain point. Right now for the next little while, it is past that point.
Hopefully it is cyclical but for right now, it has been quite frustrating because I don't know how long it is going to last. I had the depressing job of cancelling out of some summer speaking gigs and delaying some much wanted vacation plans. Hopefully it won't last for too long.
Labels: health, Maggi, Wendy Cooper
4:48 PM ::
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