[Luke Paton]

I have suffered for 4 years now with diabetic neropathy and have taken pain killers for that long to dull the pain . I get a lot of pain in calves and feet . My feet feel cold a lot , which feels like pain as well .

I use a foot massage machine for about 2 hours a day (over the whole day period) and although not improving my situation , it does take my mind of the pain .

I recently went into a chemist and saw a machine called a circulation booster .It is a machine you put your feet on (when you are sitting in a chair ) and it sends electric impulses though them .It also has 6 pads included where you can put them on places on your body as well . I have used this machine for 6 weeks now , once when i wake up , once before bed , for 30 minutes each time . I have only been using the feet "impulses" at this stage . It has differant settings to change the amount of impulses you feel . Initately I used a high setting but i have been decreasing that as needed . I paid around $350 aus for it .

I can say since using the machine I have only severed once from cold feet in 6 weeks . Laying in bed at night and trying to get to sleep but cant because of cold feet is no longer a problem . I have also halved the pain medication I am taking . I intent now to start using the pads as well and see if that can do some good as well .It came with a instruction book with diagrams on where to put the pads for certain ailments and has one for diabetes , so I will give it a go . Will also use it on my calves as well .

Has anyone else used a simular treatment as well ?? I believe some people call them TENS machines but this was called a CIRCULATION BOOSTER . Goolge it for more detail

Also I am not in anyway associated with selling or advertising of this machine or companies .

It has helped me , and improved my degree of pain I feel .

 

[Anthill]

G'day Luke, Circulation is the issue here and I feel your pain. I ride a bicycle and I see hills and that when I look at crunching the peddles and I feel pain in the calves. I think that the amount of blood to needed places are lacking flow.
How mobile are you in your day?

 

[Richard157]

I have read reports from other diabetics saying that TENS is a good product. Good luck with it!

 

[Luke Paton]

G'day Luke, Circulation is the issue here and I feel your pain. I ride a bicycle and I see hills and that when I look at crunching the peddles and I feel pain in the calves. I think that the amount of blood to needed places are lacking flow.
How mobile are you in your day?

HI , I am not as mobile as i would like to be , simply because of the pain i feel . I do stretch my legs muscles in the morning and evening for around 10 minutes .I work 3 nights a week , which involves being on my feet around 12 hours at a time with no real breaks ( music industry) . By the time i get home my legs are very sore .
During the week i am a stay home parent , so spend time with housework / playing with young fellow/ playing computer games etc

To give you some idea of the pain i feel , I can only say that my legs feel like they are on the verge of cramping all the time . The pain is simular to when u try to touch your toes and the muscle stretches . This is simular to what i feel all the time without pain killers . I have tried muscle relaxants but no improvement . I have tried the "usual " products that neroroligists suggest but no luck there

I have suffered with cold/buring feet at times which is why i brought the circulation booster but the main problem was the pain I was feeling , not so much the pain i was getting from the cold feet but the other "pain . NO doctor has yet to explain why i am in so much pain . Tests show some nerve damage but not enough to explain the degree of pain .

To be honest , I dont really care anymore that i have to take pain killers (Tramadol) This is my 4 th year of being on them , two pills a day . If i need more , i simply take more as I want the pain gone .MY doctor suggests I maybe dont need them and it may be more of a addiction to them , mentally , as tramadol tests show they are not physically addictive . At the same time , they are not meant to be taken for such a long period . It is sometimes hard for doctors as they dont see what pain some people go through ( my wife is the only one who sees ) About every 3 months i try to go off the pain killers but the pain proves too much .

 

[Richard157]

Have you been diagnosed? Is neuropathy your problem? If so, do you have good control of your blood sugar? I eliminated my neuropathy by getting great control. The only tme I have that pain now is when I havw been careless and ran higher than normal blood sugar fror several hours. If I keep my blood sugar between 70 and 130 and rarely go above 130 I no longer have a problem.

 

[Luke Paton]

Have you been diagnosed? Is neuropathy your problem? If so, do you have good control of your blood sugar? I eliminated my neuropathy by getting great control. The only tme I have that pain now is when I havw been careless and ran higher than normal blood sugar fror several hours. If I keep my blood sugar between 70 and 130 and rarely go above 130 I no longer have a problem.

HI Richard ,
I can only assume we use a differant system of reading here in Australia . Our normal reading is for a value of between 4 and 8 . My last 3 monthly blood test gave me a average of 6 , so i say I have pretty good control .
I have been "told" i have neropathy from the specialists I have seen , although they all say there isnt enough to explain the degree of pain I get .
I would have thought after 4 years of continual pain , I would have had some relief after getting my levels under control but this has never happened , not even for one day .

One thing i have found though , as soon as I tell doctors I am a diabetic , they straight away say that the pain is from neropathy . They seem to dismiss any other reason . I had a bad back injury 20 years ago ( I am 40 now ) and they never even bother with that . I have seen 3 differant neuroligists and all say the same . But none have ever investiagted my back as the cause of the pain . They always insist it is from diabetic neropathy .

What sort and where did u feel pain ? How long did u suffer from it? how long did it take you to no longer feel any pain ?

 

[Richard157]

Hi Luke. To convert from Austrlia's numbers to USA numbers you multiply by 18. So your range of 4-8 woul be 72-144 in the USA. Your average of 6 (108) is perfect. Keep up the good work.

I started having neuropathy in my left foot in just one toe about 7 years ago Then a couple of years later it was in both feet around the ankle bones and elsewhere. The pain was not really all that bad unil abou 3 years ago. I could not sleep for several hours some nights but other nights were now so bad. I began noticing that the worst days were when I ran unusually high blood sugar. I began eatig 130g of carbs per day an exercising more and the pain was not occurring so often. After starting pumping insulin the pain rarely ever occurs. When it does occur it is not so bad.

Good luck with your pain. I agree that it may not be neuropathy unless they actually give you an EMG and diagnose it.

 

[Terrie]

I'm sorry to hear of your pains Luke. If your sugars were mainly in the higher zones for some time then it most likely is Neuropathy. Even if there were lows or normals in between. Diabetes can be merciless especially if blood sugars run high for too long. If you have back problems then that could also be a factor on top. Some Neuropathy can be reversed, depending what stage it is in.

I had fallen off the Good Sugar Range Wagon for close to a year. Life was just crazy at that time. So I didn't take the time for me. I remember walking down the stairway and it felt like I was stepping on a rubber water blister under my middle toe on my left foot. I checked the stairs and my foot. Nothing. Then a week later, I noticed my toe went numb and also a patch on the sole of my foot. At night I couldn't sleep since I'd wake up with my foot being in excruciating pain. It felt like someone was continually stabbing both sides of my foot with knives. Neuropathy!

My oldest Brother went through that plus stepped on a piece of glass in his sock feet. He didn't notice the cut because of the numbness. Gangrene. The Surgeon relieved him of a toe.

Anyways, I started looking after myself again by eating properly, testing often and correcting if needed, (exercise, I was getting enough of) cuz that pain Really scared me. About 2-3(I forget actually)months later, the pain left and the numbness left. So my feet are both Fine. That was about 9 years ago.

Some People I've talked to and Others that I've heard about had worse pain and numbness. They found they had reversed much of the damage with better sugar levels, although not all. They were Happy about the success they had anyways. Surprisingly, some did find that the pain got worse as their sugars got better. That evidently is the path the healing process takes sometimes. Then the pain lowered after a plateau was reached. Mine didn't happen that way.

I do hope that your pain(whatever the cause)goes away in a short timespan.

 

[Anthill]

HI Richard ,
I can only assume we use a differant system of reading here in Australia.

Aye Luke , Whare about's are you in Australia? As I reside in Melbourne, Morington Peninsula.
I should thank my Ballet Teacher as she had me to do those leg exercises and the six O'clock snatch. and that's a few years ago now. So I don't suffer those pains. Luke I would do some foot rowtations and leg streaches and crouches too. I don't expect you to do Ballet. LOL
Hello Terrie, Me thinks of doing some Demi Piles on the Barre. Today I have good feet and good legs and I hope that they stay this way for a long while yet.

Here is a dancer in 3RD posistion doing a Demi Pile.
This is simple to do as I do 30 at any one time. ​

 

[Terrie]

Aye Luke , Whare about's are you in Australia? As I reside in Melbourne, Morington Peninsula.
I should thank my Ballet Teacher as she had me to do those leg exercises and the six O'clock snatch. and that's a few years ago now. So I don't suffer those pains. Luke I would do some foot rowtations and leg streaches and crouches too. I don't expect you to do Ballet. LOL
Hello Terrie, Me thinks of doing some Demi Piles on the Barre. Today I have good feet and good legs and I hope that they stay this way for a long while yet.

Here is a dancer in 3RD posistion doing a Demi Pile.
This is simple to do as I do 30 at any one time. ​

Hello Peter:

Well, you go right ahead and do your Demi Piles on the Barre. I hope that your legs and feet are always Good Peter. Cute Girl. AWWWW!! Your GirlFriend? She's Good.

Hey, I could even do those.....probably not as Good as the two of you though since your more experienced. It looks like a Cool exercise to do.

 

[Jaye_Marno]

Hi Luke.

I feel your pain. Well, not as severe as you describe, but I know just what you mean.

A heating blanket or pad for your feet at night might help warm your feet and help you sleep better. Set it on the lowest setting only.

I agree with Richard and Terrie completely. Good blood sugar control can keep the neuropathy from worsening and can even reverse it, to a greater or lesser degree. I think however that you should strive for readings no higher than 140, and that only two hours after meals. Super-tight control might not be as good an idea as it was once thought, but keeping it under 140 tends to reduce and reverse many of the complications. Above 140 invites them.

Set your goals and how you're going to achieve them, and measure your progress along the way.

Jaye