T1 Tenor

At least I am back at work. The pain is quite variable. It has been as high as seven on the scale, but today it is about a 4. The TENS machine is definitely giving me relief. At least I am sleeping at night, which means it is easier to cope. My diabetes has also been a bit variable with a couple of unexplained lows and a high that didn't make sense. Guess it is all part of the learning process and the unpredictability of my condition. I continue to use diabetesdaily.com and have become quite attached to the chat room on there. There are some interesting people and it is good to talk about all sorts of things with people from other countries with different life experiences. There is also planned to be a meet in Birmingham of people that use the site. I have never me someone that I have only previously spoken to on the net, so it will be an interesting event. Claire, Abby, Josh and her Mum went to Lickey Hills Park in South West Birmingham yesterday. I had searched for a b

Here are two photos of the children. Abby is on my shoulders making snow out of the cherry blossom and Josh is just looking contented on the chair. Very proud of them both!

Hi, I'm back at work today so feeling somewhat more cheerful. The pain has diminished but not gone. I have posted quite a lengthy summary of my situation on diabetes daily, however some of you may not use that site, so here is what I wrote (if you want to skip this, there is more news at the bottom!): Thought I should share my neuropathic experiences. I was diagnosed as a Type 1 at the beginning of February. I had diabetic symptoms for well over a year, and had no ketones at diagnosis. My diagnosis bg was 37 (666). The medical profession and someone on diabetes daily suspect that I may be type 1.5 (LADA), not that it makes much difference! About a month post-dx I started to get pains in my calves. I took 400mg ibuprofen, thinking it was a muscle pain, but they did nothing. I saw my doctor and he didn't really listen that the pain wasn't muscular and prescribed other muscle painkillers, which of course did nothing. The pain got worse and caused me to have disturbed sleep

I have been signed off work for a bit due to the drowsiness brought on by the medication. In my last post, I said I was pain free. Unfortunately, it has gone downhill since then and the pain is back at the levels of a week ago. Had an excellent weekend with various friends, but am not in the mood for writing about it today. Will sign off and hopefully update with a more positive post late in the week.

Well I visited the consultant today and there is a firm theory about what is the cause of my pain. Unfortunately it raises many questions. What they believe I have is acute neuropathy. Neuropathy is a condition of the nervous system that causes pain in the legs and numbness in the feet. Diabetic neuropathy is a common condition in diabetics, but only occurs after 10-15 years of poor control. Acute neuropathy is rare and very rare in type 1 diabetics. However, it appears that I might have a type of diabetes called LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adult). This is exemplified by later onset diabetes (after age 25) and also slow onset of the symptoms. This makes sense as I had symptoms of diabetes for at least a year, maybe as much as 2. It doesn't really make any difference that I have LADA, I still need insulin. The consultant hadn't seen a case of acute neuropathy in a type 1 before, so quite rare! It results from having high glucose levels for a long period followed by a qui

Well almost pain free. The tablets seem to be working. Seeing as they are described as being for moderate to severe pain, I should hope they would help. Have felt rather drowsy and sick all day, but these are expected side-effects of the medicine. Have been catching up on the last 5 weeks of lost sleep, which is a big relief. Appointment with the specialist on Monday, so fingers crossed that the blood tests will show something conclusive. I can cope now, because at least the pain has gone from 9 (on a scale of 1-10) to about 1. The weather has been gorgeous today, so in the few hours that I have been awake, I spent time with the family in the garden, digging, playing football and preparing the ground for a new compost heap. Another day in the garden tomorrow.

Another short post I'm afraid. The pain in my calves has continued to get worse, getting to a peak last night, when I only had 2 hours sleep and was crying (wimp!) with pain twice in the night. At last however, the medical professionals are getting concerned and I have some action. I had a blood test yesterday and have a consultant appointment on Monday. I went to see the doctor today and he thinks the problem is related to my diabetes but was honest in not knowing what to do next. He did however prescribe me a much stronger pain-killer (tramadol) and a drug that deals with nerve pain. He thinks that it may be neuropathy, which is rare in a recently diagnosed diabetic, but seems the most likely outcome with my symptoms. This afternoon I had the best sleep in ages and hopefully that was because of the pain-killer. I couldn't go to work today, which was fustrating as I hate having time off sick (in fact this is the second day in 10 years). I just wasn't fit enough to

At last I feel I have the time and energy to post once more to my blog. Not that my calves are feeling any better, but at least the codeine I have been prescribed is giving me a little respite. I have now seen three different doctors (not by choice), an osteopath, my diabetic nurse and am going to a physiotherapist next week. They are all confused by my symptoms, so I don't hold out much hope of them sorting it soon. So what have I been up to since I last posted? Well, lots, most of which is not at all interesting! We had an excellent time in York, even though we got snowed on. Abby loved it; the whole experience of going on a proper train, seeing the trains in the Railway Museum and going to the Minster. The guest house was great (Staymor Guest House) with the owner really making an effort to make all of us welcome. The breakfast was exceptionally good too. Below is a picture of Abby's favourite engine (we are the tiny figures in front of it!) She even asked for a poster of it