Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
What is peripheral neuropathy?
Peripheral neuropathy, also called distal symmetric neuropathy or sensorimotor neuropathy, is nerve damage in the arms and legs. Your feet and legs are likely to be affected before your hands and arms. Many people with diabetes have signs of neuropathy that a doctor could note but feel no symptoms themselves. Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy may include
numbness or insensitivity to pain or temperature
a tingling, burning, or prickling sensation
sharp pains or cramps
extreme sensitivity to touch, even light touch
loss of balance and coordination
These symptoms are often worse at night.
Peripheral neuropathy, also called distal symmetric neuropathy or sensorimotor neuropathy, is nerve damage in the arms and legs. Your feet and legs are likely to be affected before your hands and arms. Many people with diabetes have signs of neuropathy that a doctor could note but feel no symptoms themselves. Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy may include
numbness or insensitivity to pain or temperature
a tingling, burning, or prickling sensation
sharp pains or cramps
extreme sensitivity to touch, even light touch
loss of balance and coordination
These symptoms are often worse at night.
Peripheral neuropathy may also cause muscle weakness and loss of reflexes, especially at the ankle, leading to changes in the way a person walks. Foot deformities, such as hammertoes and the collapse of the midfoot, may occur. Blisters and sores may appear on numb areas of the foot because pressure or injury goes unnoticed. If foot injuries are not treated promptly, the infection may spread to the bone, and the foot may then have to be amputated. Some experts estimate that half of all such amputations are preventable if minor problems are caught and treated in time.
For me I noticed it first in my hands. That doesn't mean that I didn't already have it in my feet, it just means that I was typing 70 wpm 10+ hours a day and I don't do anything like that with my feet 10 hrs a day so my hands felt it first. Inflammation, constant pain, sharp pain, and then the electric shock pains. OHHH the electric shock pains. The are the worst. Everyone I know who has neuropathy and gets the electric shock pains say it's the worst kind of pain they've ever had. Man I had a painful tubule pregnancy, almost died, and those shock pains are worse. The gabapentin does help with the electric shock pains but not the overall pain, wish it did I'd like to be able to function in a normal world.
The picture above shows the nerves (shaded areas) throught the body that are affected by peripheral neuropathy.
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