Nerve Pain

Understanding Diabetic Nerve Pain & Symptoms

Diabetes can cause nerve damage often resulting in pain

Did you know that the pain in your feet and hands could be related to your diabetes? It starts with uncontrolled blood sugar. People with diabetes have high blood sugar levels. And over time this may cause permanent damage to the nerves. This nerve damage may cause a distinct pain called diabetic nerve pain.

Your doctor may have mentioned the term neuropathy or peripheral neuropathy. Neuropathy is nerve damage that often results in pain. Peripheral neuropathy is neuropathy that occurs in the extremities and may cause pain, such as foot pain or hand pain. The most common cause of peripheral neuropathy is diabetes.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is diabetes-related nerve damage most commonly felt in the feet and hands, which may or may not be painful. Some people experience this damage as pain, tingling or numbness, while others have no symptoms at all. Diabetic nerve pain from damaged nerves is a unique type of pain that is different from the pain you may experience from a headache, a sprained ankle or arthritis.

Depression and Health

2:15am

i awoke and needed to go to the bathroom.  While the stump wound continues to heal, i don't have my leg.  So it's a struggle getting up.  i sit on the arm of the sofa, waking up a bit more so my balance will be strong.  i don't want to fall again.

Trying to be quiet with my walker, i made it to the bathroom and then back to the sofa to get more sleep.  But after all the energy used just to get to the bathroom, i was awake.  i laid there for over an hour trying to go back to sleep.  Nothing.

So i just got up and got online.

Yesterday my nurse came over to change my band-aid and check the wound.  She said it still wasn't closed enough for me to get my leg back.  So it foiled the plans Devon and i had to go out for Thanksgiving.  i have tickets for an event next week, i'm not even sure if i'll my leg by then.

My days are spent waking up, coffee, daytime TV, dinner and going to bed.  More and more i am feeling worthless and depressed.  Devon is not someone i can really share with and i don't have anyone in my life that i could tell about my emotional feelings.  And even in my own head i don't want to hear myself whining.  But at the same time, while laying there, trying to sleep, i'm crying.  i honestly feel so hopeless and i am not confident if i even want to go on.

Reflection 11-14-15

Back in July 2015, when another infection entered my foot, the nurse at my podiatrist said i should just have my leg amputated and my life would be so much better.  She said it with such easy and completely without feeling towards what i was going through.

It was very hurtful ... and she didn't care.  Or understand.

Since having my leg amputated, life has been so lonely and incomplete.  Long days and sleepless nights at the adult rehab.  Sofa bound at home, watching life through Facebook, Instagram and the view from our sliding doors to our backyard, watching the squirrels playing.

Emotionally, i am really struggling.  Thoughts of suicide creep in too often.

The other night, i awoke and needed to go to the bathroom.  i lost my balance, using my walker and hopping on one foot, and landed on my stump.   Thankfully i didn't do further damage, but now i am scared to get up and move around anywhere.

i'm trying to stay hopeful, but it truly is not easy.

If the wound has healed enough, i am hopeful to get my leg back and begin living again next week.

Before that, Devon and i will be going grocery shopping.  i truly hate getting onto the motorized cart and going through the store.  Like when i used a wheelchair, people don't see me when i am sitting so low.  So i sit there, while they block the aisle.

i hate having to rely on Devon for simple things and not being able to do what i had always done without even thinking about it.

Everybody always says that this is just a temporary setback.  But this is what i am living now and have been for several months ... i don't see myself having the emotional strength to go on much longer like this.

11-12-15

Well shhhhhhhhh ucks ... i had my new leg for 5 days before it was taken from me because the amputation wound became irritated. Another couple of weeks of being sofa bound with my only friend daytime trash TV. i honestly can't express how deeply my depression is getting. i had hoped to get the new leg and my life back by now, but the wound is healing, though slowly. Last night didn't help. i woke up around 2am, needing to go to the bathroom. Half asleep, i lifted myself onto the arm of the sofa and then onto the walker, hopped to the bathroom, balanced myself to open the door, but then felt my still sleepy leg giving out of me. i tried to balance myself, but soon felt myself falling and sure enough, on the stump and then on my arse. After doing my business, i went back too bed, on the sofa. My stump wasn't hurting, but there was the feeling that i had fallen on it. This morning my nurse arrived to change my dressing, i was so worried about what i had done. Thankfully there wasn't more damage, the the wound did bleed a bit. So another lonely uneventful weekend on the sofa, waiting for this damn wound to heal completely so i can get my leg back and live again. Being like this since early August is really affecting my emotional state, i hope that can heal as well. The list of things i want to do and places i want/need to go, grows. But i know there are far more important things in life to worry about ... like ‪#‎Starbucks‬cups

Clinging

i received my leg on a Thursday, wore it a few times and then it was taken away on Monday because my amputation wound opened again.

i'm struggling so much to remain positive, but the depression of this situation is getting the best of me.  i've basically been unable to live since early August, when i lost my leg.  

The wound on my leg will heal ... but my emotional state will always suffer.

D E P R E S S I O N

i got my new leg on Thursday and after wearing it on and off for the weekend, it was taken away from me on Monday.

The wound had basically completely healed, but not enough, and it opened again.

There was some leakage and redness on Monday, then on Tuesday, when the nurse saw it, the wound scab had dried but there was still some redness.  So it was agreed on by the nurse and prosthetist, i would stay off the leg for a few days.

i am extremely discouraged, but the reality is that i don't want it to get worse and end up in the hospital again.  So back on the sofa and crap daytime TV and life passing me by.

i need to be better by Thanksgiving, as Devon and i have decided to go out for dinner and then a few after that he leaves for China for a month or more.

My blood sugars have remained good, though i haven't exercised as much as i should.  As much as i could.

So i must focus, because i do not want to be sofa bound when Devon is gone and during the holiday season.

THRIVE

Be Aware ... Educate Yourself ... Educate Others