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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 for nearly a month. I kept on at the doctors, but they basically told me to go away. The pain was particularly bad when I was sitting and when I was in bed. The doctor finally listened when I said that I was crying with pain overnight and getting less than 3 hours sleep.

He suggested that I had acute neuropathy and prescribed 2x75mg Pregabalin (Lyrica) and 8 x Tramacet (37.5mg Tramadol/325mg Paracetamol) a day. The consultant saw me 2 days later and agreed that this was the best way forward, but had never seen a case of acute neuropathy in a type 1. I could also increase my Pregabalin to 4 a day. Fairly quickly the pain disappeared, but three days later the pain returned, nearly as bad as before. I spoke again to the consultant and she said that I was on the maximum dose of Pregabalin, but go up to 10 Tramacet a day (14 tablets a day!). Initially the meds made me drowsy, so I took some time off, but this appears to have subsided.

A couple of weeks later, I still have the pain, but it is on the scale of 2-3 out of 10 rather than the 8-9 that I had before. I still have occasionaly 5-6 episodes, but some good friends of ours suggested that a tens (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator) machine might help. They leant me their machine and it definitely seems to help. When I have pain, I switch the dial up and after a short while the pain seems to subside. The medical profession haven't suggested this, but it works! I am back at the specialist in 10 days time. She says there are a few other options, but didn't say what they were.

I have been told that acute neuropathy will not cause lasting damage and that it will go away of its own accord. This could take a month or over a year. There is no treatment for it, but the Pregabalin should reduce the pain. Additionally good bg control will help. As you will see from my A1C, I have got reasonable control, probably because I am still producing insulin. My average BG is now about 6 (110) which I am happy with and I rarely go over 10 (180). Hopefully this will help to make the neuropathy go away!

If you got this far, well done! Other news is that we now have all the necessary permissions for our extension. We had a CCTV of the drain done too and it is fine. The builder is running a bit late and is now starting at the end of June. This is alright as May is a really hectic month with a visit to the Severn Valley Railway, for a Thomas TTE day, a week in the New Forest, my birthday, a wedding in Manchester and other things that I can't remember! Hopefully the weather will continue in the same vein as it has been in April.

Phew!

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