Hi. Jeann.
I think you said in another post that you do not know what your A1C is. Those numb feet are often the problem of people who have high blood sugars levels for a long time. But there can be other causes, too. Same with hairloss. Often I think we forget that hair loss is seen in aging, too. My sisters and I all started noticing some hair thinning as early as our 30's. My poor youngest sister even had it when she was not yet 20. So just remember, it might not be from directly or solely diabetes.
I remember you wrote in another post that you had recently quit smoking, that you had put on some weight, have COPD, are on oxygen, that you cannot exercise, and have other health problems. Well, I wonder if you are able to get any worthwhile advice from your doctor? Are you comfortable asking her or him questions? Have you been able to tell your doctor that you would like to try even more to improve your health? Maybe you can schedule an appointment of double the usual length of time so that you can talk about it with someone who knows all your limitations and concerns. If you could make some small health improvements, maybe some connected problems would get at least a little better.
For instance, there are exercise programs (usually considered "rehab") for COPDers. Of course, they understand how very limited you probably are with your oxygen dependence and lung damage. But they can get you doing tiny exercises which probably can lead to a little cardiovascular improvement. It maybe takes longer to have noticeable effect than for people without COPD and diabetes, but that deosn't mean your situation is hopeless. Some small changes---such as improving your ability to walk (or wheel) across a room lead eventually to more improvements, such as your ability to walk (or wheel) across a room twice in a row. As your muscles build, they get better at using oxygen and as your muscles build, they also get better at using the sugar in your system, which could make your diabetes a little better. Improving your diabetes in that way could possibly relieve other symptoms.
It is a case of "Never give up."
A little inspiration: A woman I knew who had emphysema wanted to go on a long car trip with her grandson and his children, but she doubted her stamina to even be a passenger. So she started exercising. First she was just walking in the house and trying to stand longer. Then she walked the length of her short drive way after a few weeks. Then she increased the number of times she walked the driveway length. She just took it a slowly as she needed.
Some weeks later, she was walking, though slowly, a block way uphill (!) and home again. Even with her emphysema she was able to improver her health. I forget now how old she was, but I think it was in her early 80s.
But even before she got the urge to go on that trip she always tried to do little little exercises. Like--she did a lot of movements and stretches that are similar to yoga. And she did simple leg raises just while sitting in her comfy chair talking to me. She made circles in the air with her arms, pretended she was chapping wood on a table in from of here, pretended she was pulling a long, long rope. She would sway her back side to side and front to back. Oh, she had a ball that she would put behind her back and press up against a wall, rolling it on her back trying not to let the ball drop. She used the same ball to squeeze over and over to keep her hands strong. I guess she had a zillion small things to do to just make her body move in whatever ways it still could. That is why, despite her troubles, she was ready to start on her on little walking program to build up stamina and go on the trip.
