Dozing Off
Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 10:00AM Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy, or DPN is the most common side effect of diabetes and I have it. ~ It started a while back with my feet and is slowly moving up my legs. To the point now where my thighs don't feel right when I touch them. ~
Several years back I was having a lot of trouble with my hands too. My left hand would fall asleep all the time and I ~ couldn't get anything done. I would wake up at night ~ and have to let my hand hang over the side of the bed to get the awful tingling to stop.
After a lot of painful testing it was discovered that I had ~ nerve damage and needed surgery. Carpal Tunnel surgery and a relocating of a nerve that ran around the outside of my elbow to the inside made ~ it all better.
At the time my doctor said that we should try one arm first and then decide if it made sense to do the other. Since my left was worse and I am right handed, it made a lot of sense. ~
It worked! After a long healing process I was good to go as far as my hands were concerned. I changed jobs, doctors, insurance, and totally let it go. ~
But now it's my right hand. It hurts a lot. It falls asleep on me all the time and I have to stop what I am typing and let my hand hang down to the groud. That way I start to feel like it is coming back from ~ dozing off to sleep.
I have tried to work through it but is soon starts feeling like everything I touch is stabbing me. There is no way for me to deal through it, I have to stop and let my hand ~ wake up.
Today I see my doctor for a follow up and am going to start the process again. I need to get this taken care of and my legs are getting worse too. My feet feel like they are giant (which is saying a lot since my feet are already big) ~ and a few times during the ride I had to look down to see how my feet were positioned on my pedals. It's an awful feeling.
The thing is there is hope. Drugs, advancements, suppliments, and all kinds of other stuff is out there to help us with DPN. ~ I highly recommend this article written by my good friend Wil over at dLife. In fact he mentioned a story of mine that I would rather not revisit here but I think it is eye opening. ~
The thing is, we need to learn about this complication but I am not going to research ~ it online because I cannot handle the awful images that come up.
Anyhow, I am going to be trying something new to help maybe before or instead of ~ surgery. I will know more this afternoon after my appointment with doctor Awesome.
By the way, you may have been wondering what all those "tildes (~)" are doing ~ in this post. Each one represents the moments when my right hand dozed off and I had to stop, let my arm hang down, and wake back up.
It is an awful ~ way to have to live and a constant reminder that I live with a chronic illess.
Plus, I would much rathing be dozing like ~ Casey, and not having my hand dozing off all the time.
Reader Comments (6)
ugh. i'm so sorry you have to deal with this, george. it sounds so painful and frustrating.
i'm glad there are treatment options, and i hope you can find something that works for you. i'll be keeping you in my prayers.
sending big hugs your way! <3
Miserable stuff man. Here's to hoping!
Hope the new treatments work for you.
x to the o to the banishment of the ~
The fact that the numbness gets better when you change positions most likely indicated that the nerve is being compressed - being pushed against a bone, usually by inflamed tendons.
I have CTS really bad in my right hand and it disrupts most aspects of my daily routine. The arm on that side is where my dialysis vein graft is so they don't want to do surgery until the graft has shriveled down due to nonuse (cross fingers). It is a huge pain in the butt. The hand doc said DB probably contributed to it, but if it were full blown neuropathy the numbness would be constant, regardless of position.
How on earth were you able to keep a grip on the handlebars of your bike during the ride? I cannot ride a regular bike. Have to do the recumbant at the y
sending hopeful heally vibes your way and best o luck with doc awes.
the tilde touch was very powerful. wow.