Type 2 diabetes, an invisible disease

Another morning I wake up and my legs are killing me. I knew immediately what it was, a nerve pain, diabetes complication. I tried walking around, massage, elevating them, all to no avail. Then I succumbed to the pain pills that is usually my last resort. After a while, the pain subsided and I felt as good as new.

A friend called, and after a brief exchange of how are you’s I mentioned my recent legs problem in connection with diabetes. She goes, no, it can’t be diabetes, it must be something else. And of course, one of her relatives had this very problem that turned out to be poor blood circulation. Inasmuch as I hate this sort of advices, I bit my tongue and tried to explain how it works. Not sure it registered but a small consolation is that I did try.

I did my best to put it in the plain easy to understand language. First off, blood circulates in the body and in doing so, brings nutrients and oxygen to the numerous organs and tissues. That is fine, but when it starts bringing the extra sugar or blood glucose along, this is where the problem begins. This excess of blood glucose attacks the body cells and causes damage to them. In my case, the damage was caused to the nerve cells (neurons), hence my symptoms. Sounds crystal clear to me but am not sure it had the same effect on the receiving end.

The problem is, diabetes is an invisible disease. There are no obvious signs visible from the outside like broken bones or scars or disfigurements. It’s something that goes on inside me and I am the only one who can feel the consequences. The latter doesn’t make sense to most anyone else.

Oh well. All I can do is try to do the right thing and hope for the better.