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conguitos
05-19-2009, 06:15 AM
Hi all, have some questions and perhaps someone can relate to what I've experienced throughout my life. I've spotted some over the internet that seem to have had the same "career" as I have. My endo told me of another guy that is similar to me, type 1 dropping insulin usage, intermittently or not...

I would like to clarify that to me, those classifications, type 1, type 2 or whatever, are misleading for several reasons, even distinctions between ms or diabetes are, to me, harming. Distinctions lead to isolation in research, instead of working together on why there are so many commonalities between ms and diabetes, for example, research is scattered through artificially diferenciated fields, withouth communication in between.

As of lately, the tingle (running ants) on my face, left foot, left hand and left butt (no joke there) has returned, the little finger of my left hand is numb and I feel a pressure on the left side of my head and my left ear is numb as well. This seems to have a correlation to me letting my BG go a little bit up (by eating more carbs and skipping my herbs, minerals, metals...). Lately I'm usually between 5 and 12. The 12 was a test I did to see what happens...

The problem is, that I've had that for >20 years, sometimes really maddening, as I can't sleep well when everything on the left side is tingling/numb. With 17 I woke one day like that, and since then it has never completely disappeared. You try to ignore it but you'll never get accustomed.

With 30 I went to a specialist, he did a scan, but found nothing wrong. Instead he suggested that I take Valium, which I declined. So I decided to live with it.

Last friday I decided to test how well my glucose metabolism reacts to fast acting glucose in small amounts. Bought lactose free chocolate and ate two rows as a dessert, as a meal I had meat with chickpeas. Quite carby the whole thing. What happened:

before meal 7.2
after 45 minutes 12.5
(freaked out, took my herbs, minerals, metals, 4 cl of brandy and 50 pushups)
after 90 minutes 6.2
after 140 minutes 5.2
after 200 minutes 4.5

The carbs, were around 40 gr, 30gr for the chickpeas and 10 gr from the chocolate, what caused the spike, at least to me, was the chocolate.

I don't think that the combination of the brandy + pushups + supplements, could be the sole "culprit" for the huge decrease in BG in 45 minutes, my body processed 40gr of carbs in around 90 minutes that's around 8x the level of fasting BG I should have. It looks like something suddenly kicked in, like if the sensors that measure BG activated the b-cells and those began producing/releasing insulin in masses after some threshold (admitedlly too high, and seems to be randomly reset) was reached. Sadly, I haven't no data about how much insulin a b-cell can produce per minute/hour, so any attempt to calculate how many b-cells you need to bring down 40gr of carbs in 3 hours, is futile. I know that such a calculation would be just an approximation, but at least it would be something to work on.

My guess is that, at least in me, there must be some sort of communication problem between the different systems that are responsible for my glucose metabolism. Sometimes I can be low for hours, without correction and then suddenly, someone begins to release glucose, then I can be high 7-8 for hours and for no apparent reason someone thinks that it would be about time to bring the BG down in minutes.

I've also had episodes of losing weight very rapidly in the past, from being slightly overweight to around the right BMI in weeks without following any diet. Always linked to some kind of stress. Also the bad sight, that I had, usually lasted for 4 to 7 days and began at the end of summer, beginning of fall, then at the beginning of spring, the tingling would return in force, having a weird feeling in my feet.

I suspect that my problem, is in part, due to my nervous system (mainly the brain) being sometimes out of order. Giving wrong directives and just not paying attention. I don't think that I've been autoimmune diabetic for the last 20 years and surviving without any therapy, but then, who knows, I didn't go to a doctor for controls for years.

Is my tingling some form of neuropathy? Probably yes, but caused by what? The daily acute stress brought up by myself in the past? Out of whack BG levels for > 20 years? And why mostly only the left side of my body? Hmmm, the chicken-egg problem.

Sure, eating a lot of refined carbs (or whole grain products), gluten and dairy products (I always had to be forced to drink milk as a kid) didn't help either, at least, carbs and gluten, are known to have implications on the nervous system, mainly gluten, being a substance similar to heroine.

Sorry for the long post, but perhaps someone can relate to the things written here. My questions are:

Has someone had similar experiences?
Has someone had a therapy/diagonosis related to stress problems (also as a kid) before being diagnosed diabetic?
Has someone experienced a change in personality after going low carb (being calmer, less anxious)?
Has someone been diagnosed epileptic before or after being diagnosed with diabetes?

Thank you for your time :)

lorilei
05-19-2009, 12:45 PM
Conguitos..lada ior whatever, runs that kind of crazy up and down sometimes there, sometimes not course...

the numbness, because it is full sided left stuff including the face makes me feel as though it is an upper neuron issue (vs cervical or thoracic impingement)...i am glad you had a cat scan done, however, i would persist there and request a repeat..wonder if you have a blood flow issue to the mca area of your brain..just sounds higher up than a more peripherally related neuropathy...

any headaches or dehydration with this??

as always, not a doctor, but i do feel you should call your doctor and be as specific with your symptoms and the surrounding environmental factors as possible..

good luck

I am sure others will offer additional valid thoughts...but certainly pursue this

wolf 06488
05-21-2009, 06:12 PM
Good-evening:

I have been a Type I Diabetic for 15 years. On my 13th year I started to experience tingling in both of my feet. It started out as the feeling you get when you sleep on a limp for to long... But it would go away after a while. But as time when on, so did the sensations. After about six months it went from a tingling sensation, to a stabbing pain (contantly). Like someone was sending a eletric charge down my legs into my feet. And now, it's so bad that trying to sleep, walk & even sit are painful because the "charges" that I'm getting are so painful. Let me explain when I say "charges." I have gone to my interist & a neuroligist about this & they ran what they call an "EMG" on my legs & feet. Basically checking to see how my legs & feet are getting electricail singles from my brain. Because that's how we perform even the simpliest of functions. The brain sends down electrical charges to the specific location to move... Smiling, waving, moving your lips, everything is controled by these electrical currents or charges (the brain sends out the single & the nerves receive them). What causes it, is elavated blood sugar over a duration of years. I worked in Retail & not always able to eat right, caused my high blood sugar. Sadly, it's gotten so painful I had to leave my work. What my doctors concluded is that I have "Severe Diabetic Neurapthy." And they know so little about it, that there is really nothing they can do. You see like brain cells, once a nerve is damaged or dead it's gone. There is no going or getting them back. They put my on a drug called "Gabapentin." 1800 MG of it, & it does nothing for me. So my theory is that this maybe be Neuropathy that you have, but usually it starts off in one particular place. In my case it start in my feet, now besides the pain in my feet I have lost feeling in my thighs as well. Well, i hope I've been a help.

Zach.

slwood321
05-21-2009, 09:12 PM
Do you get migraines? I used to get what were called hemispheric migraines and one side of my body would go numb. This continued for about a year or so and then they turned into regular migraines. Could this be a possibility for you?

conguitos
05-25-2009, 04:19 PM
Conguitos..lada ior whatever, runs that kind of crazy up and down sometimes there, sometimes not course...

the numbness, because it is full sided left stuff including the face makes me feel as though it is an upper neuron issue (vs cervical or thoracic impingement)...i am glad you had a cat scan done, however, i would persist there and request a repeat..wonder if you have a blood flow issue to the mca area of your brain..just sounds higher up than a more peripherally related neuropathy...

any headaches or dehydration with this??

Thanks for your ideas, I will call the endo and suggest to him to do another scan, but what intrigues me is that I've had that for more than 20 years, sometimes really hard, it has returned in force the last 2 weeks.

I don't have often headaches, used to have a lot of them in the past, but the last 9 years I only remember 1 migraine attack, I wasn't able to walk for around 5 hours, because of the headache, but that was due to me rubbing lantus into my nose, just testing something... And that was around 2 months ago.

For the dehydration issue, no, I'm not able to remember that it would relate to the headaches or tingling, well the tingling and pressure on the left side of the head seem to be perpetual.

conguitos
05-25-2009, 04:25 PM
Good-evening:

I have been a Type I Diabetic for 15 years. On my 13th year I started to experience tingling in both of my feet. It started out as the feeling you get when you sleep on a limp for to long... But it would go away after a while. But as time when on, so did the sensations. After about six months it went from a tingling sensation, to a stabbing pain (contantly). Like someone was sending a eletric charge down my legs into my feet. And now, it's so bad that trying to sleep, walk & even sit are painful because the "charges" that I'm getting are so painful. Let me explain when I say "charges." I have gone to my interist & a neuroligist about this & they ran what they call an "EMG" on my legs & feet. Basically checking to see how my legs & feet are getting electricail singles from my brain. Because that's how we perform even the simpliest of functions. The brain sends down electrical charges to the specific location to move... Smiling, waving, moving your lips, everything is controled by these electrical currents or charges (the brain sends out the single & the nerves receive them). What causes it, is elavated blood sugar over a duration of years. I worked in Retail & not always able to eat right, caused my high blood sugar. Sadly, it's gotten so painful I had to leave my work. What my doctors concluded is that I have "Severe Diabetic Neurapthy." And they know so little about it, that there is really nothing they can do. You see like brain cells, once a nerve is damaged or dead it's gone. There is no going or getting them back. They put my on a drug called "Gabapentin." 1800 MG of it, & it does nothing for me. So my theory is that this maybe be Neuropathy that you have, but usually it starts off in one particular place. In my case it start in my feet, now besides the pain in my feet I have lost feeling in my thighs as well. Well, i hope I've been a help.

Zach.

I can relate to the electrical charge thing, I've had "lightning strikes" while walking, man that does make you stop on spot!!!

And with the progression, first it was only the numbness and pressure on the left side of the head, then, pretty fast, it went down the left side of my back, then numbness in the left butt, to finish down the right foot and arm. But again that quite fast and as a youngster.

But I've never lost the feeling...

Thanks for your comments

conguitos
05-25-2009, 04:29 PM
Do you get migraines? I used to get what were called hemispheric migraines and one side of my body would go numb. This continued for about a year or so and then they turned into regular migraines. Could this be a possibility for you?

Hmmm, I only remember two really hard migraine attacks, one as a kid, that lasted for around a week, and the last one, that lasted 5 hours around 2 months ago, but for the last one, I think I know what the culprit was, rubbing Lantus into my nose.

The other ones have been the pounding headache type, but those I get only on very hot days and if I don't drink enough, but I think that's pretty normal for anyone, the usually only last until I have enough water in the body.

lorilei
05-25-2009, 05:55 PM
slightly confused did u say left side until midway down the back and then it ends on right in leg and foot? also, wasn't aware it was a twenty yr issue..sure could be some funky migraine...hmmm...interesting to see if any change or seizure activity is present ...good luck