JRRY Sauriol`s Diabetic Neuropathy
Story
Email Address: jrrysauriol@hotmail.com
I have peripheral
neuropathy but I don’t think it accounts for all my frightening symptoms. Please,
can any of you who are reading this help me figure out what’s wrong with me? Do
any of you suffer in a similar way?
Here is my story. I was
diagnosed about 15 years ago with Type II diabetes. For years I ignored it
except to stop drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. Eventually I sporadically
tried dietary control of my blood sugar levels but only in the past few months have
I been serious about this. My blood sugar scores are now consistently good.
In 1997, I started
suffering excruciating hand pain due to peripheral neuropathy but carpal tunnel
surgery relieved it by opening up the channels that were putting pressure on
the nerves.
In September, 2004, two
nights in a row I fell out of bed while asleep and could not pick myself up off
the floor. My left leg and arm were numb and without strength and I had poor
control of my legs when walking. I was hospitalized for a month.
Over the 14 months since
then my health has steadily declined. Each day, my symptoms worsen as the hours
pass. Now, in addition to peripheral neuropathy affecting all limbs, I have
symptoms no doctors have been able to diagnose. I hope one of you can recognize
and help me figure out what my problem is.
I First, I have a hip-girdling numbness that is terribly
frightening, from just below my navel to the point where my legs join my body.
There is no feeling front or back and the whole area feels tremendously
swollen, as though it were a big tire, or made of bubble wrap. Yet there is no
actual swelling. The sensation is very much like when a dentist freezes your
mouth – numb and big, yet without any sign of swelling.
II Second, I am constantly constipated. I never had this problem prior
to going to the hospital last year where I stayed for one month where the
doctors ran a series of tests, MRI, head scan, blood tests etc and found
nothing.
III Third – and most recently – I have a constant nagging
discomfort in mid-back on both sides of the spine. This is very disconcerting.
All the above is
accompanied by fearsome panic attacks about dying, about what is happening to
my body, what my illness has done to my life.
At age 56 I can no longer work and I live in
fear of destitution because I have no pension or retirement savings. I feel as
though I am trapped in a box with no way out. I need answers! Things just get
worse.
Please, has anyone had
symptoms like this? Has anyone got any information for me, especially about
what may be wrong in my hip area and my back?
IV My medical timeline
1990 approx. diabetes diagnosed, ignored.
1995 stopped
drinking alcohol and smoking but took no other diabetes control measures.
1997 sudden
onset of excruciating hand pain coinciding with job loss worries; carpal tunnel
surgery brought relief. Started taking antidepressants.
2001 September fell out of bed on two successive nights while asleep and
couldn’t get up off the floor; hospitalized for one month; left leg and arm
numb, no strength, no leg control; claustrophobia, an awful fear of dying.
Attempted
to quit (cold turkey) the antidepressant Amitriptyline; this led to severe
sleeplessness. From this point on there has been a slow progression to
peripheral neuropathy of all limbs plus hip girdling numbness and sense of
swelling (feels like bubble wrap or like mouth that has been frozen by the
dentist) plus a mid-back feeling like worms crawling in the flesh on both sides
of the spine. The severity of these symptoms progresses throughout each day,
often accompanied by panic attacks over uncertainties about decline of body and
unemployable pension-less status.
SUMMARY: I need help. Has anyone experienced such problems
before?
Sincerely,
Yvan
JRRY Sauriol
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
E-mail: jrrysauriol@hotmail.com