Question:
I subscribed to this website with the hope of finding out information on
diabetes, and more specifically, neuropathy, since finding out a dear
friend of mine was recently diagnosed with both.
Some background: My friend waited years before going to a doctor to be
diagnosed. After finally going, he was told he had juvenile diabetes and
was put on a prescription drug immediately. After three days of taking
the drug (sorry, I can't remember the name) he was admitted to an ICU
because he could no longer breathe. He was stabilized and felt much
better; upon discharge he began insulin treatment. Two weeks later, he
fell ill with dibilitating pain. His doctors were baffled. Blood tests
revealed that he might possibly have Lyme Disease in addition to the
diabetes. In addition to all of this, he does have neuropathy. Percocet
that was prescribed for his pain does not work.
My questions are: Does neuropathy ever go away? What kind of treatments
are available for this? I've just never seen anyone so young in such
hard-core pain. (He's 30.) Did all of this happen because he waited so
long to be diagnosed and begin treatment? Is it possible that he ever
return to a pain-free life?
Thank you so much for reading this note and responding if you can. I know
what I need to do as a friend, but I know so very little about this
disease and its consequences.
Answer:
This is very, very strange. There is only one treatment for Juvenile (Type 1)
diabetes. That is Insulin. If he had Juvenile diabetes he should have been
put on INSULIN RIGHT AWAY. Also, People don't wait years before going to the
doctor with Juvenile diabetes. They go right away. The life expectancy of a
Juvenile diabetic with out insulin injections is rather short. It's not
"Years" nor is it even "year" Month, Possibly with strict diet control, Week
perhaps. Days. Likely that's about it. I would not bet on anything over a
week.
Now with "Adult onset" or Type II diabetes they would normally start by
attempting control with Diet and Exercise. Then they would go to oral meds
(There are too many for me to list) and finally, if needed to Insulin (I
needed). There are over two dozen different sub types of Type II diabetes
(you could say Type II.1 II.2 II.3 --- II.25 II.26) and some need no more than
Diet/Exercise, Some need Insulin and some move between the three different
types of treatment (That is I have heard of Type II's who went from D/E to
Orals to I to Orals and back to D/E)
There is allot more to this but again space limits (I have literally MEGS of
information on the hard disk here)
>My questions are: Does neuropathy ever go away? What kind of
>treatments are available for this? I've just never seen anyone so
There are three answers to the first part, No, Somewhat and yes) (note that
the yes is LOWER case)
Basically it never goes away. However the intensity of the pain may drop.
This can be either good or bad. Just like there are different types of
diabetes there are different types of Neuropathy (Which is another way of
saying "Nerve Damage") One is "Painful" and another is "Anesthetic"
Though painful neuropathy is no fun (I should know) at least the nerves are
firing. (They are objecting to what's damaging them and trying to tell you
to do something about it but they are firing). When the pain goes away it
can mean that either the damage is slowing down or it can mean the nerves are
dying (I have both kinds by the way). If the nerves are dying then you have
no feeling. If you step on something sharp with no feeling the first you may
know of it is when you see the blood. Of course you may never see the blood.
You may just see the foot getting bigger and greeneer and smellier and then
Well if you don't get to the hospital soon to have said foot removed you
are going to be missing one body. This is not good.
For this reason a diabetic should see a good foot doctor on a regular basis.
They have a very simple, and painless, test that can tell for sure which kind
of neuropathy one is suffering from and if it's the anesthetic type it will
tell just how bad it is. This can help in the planning of the treatment.
Finally. I have chatted with a number of diabetics who claim that they have
been cured of neuropathy. So it appears that it might be possible.
John F Davis, a...@detroit.freenet.org, WA8YXM in Delightful Detroit
Nothing adds excitement like something which is none of your business
How to get everyone's attention....Make a mistake.
