Having been to the doctor’s about a billion times in the past few months I have learned a few new things about diabetes that I want to share.  I don’t know where I read it, somewhere said that folks with CFRD do not suffer the same complications as “regular” diabetics.  This is just bullpuckey!  I know first hand that uncontrolled sugar levels wreak havoc on your kidneys.  Now I am still not sure about DKA (I hear we can’t get it).  But I have found out recently that we CFRDers can get neuropathy as well, POO!

I’ve had a weird tingly feeling in my legs in the evenings for years now, and finally brought it up to my CFRD doc.  Turns out it could be neuropathy (nerve damage pain) which for me was caused by years of not really caring about my diabetes.  Apparently a simple treatment for the discomfort exists, over-the-counter capsaicin cream.  Yep, it is a cream made with the burnin’ hot oil that comes from hot peppers!  Who would have guessed!  I have been a bit nervous to try it.  I still have flashbacks of an old guy friend of mine who… ummmm… wasn’t so careful after cutting up peppers for salsa then went to the little boy’s room… let’s just say it wasn’t his eyes that were hurting, but many tears fell that night.  DO NOT TOUCH SENSITIVE SPOTS AFTER TOUCHING HOT PEPPERS!

My legs were super creepy crawly, driving me crazy.   The feeling is always worse when my blood sugars are bad, which they are right now thanks to the lovely Prednisone and a lack of continuous glucose monitor sensors (my refill order has been sitting on someone’s desk for the past few months, no explaination why except it is not the fault of my insurance).  I finally talked myself into giving the capsaicin cream a try.  Tried a little dab… nothing…. rubbed more in… eh, it kind of took the tingling away, a little… my feet felt like they were lathered in regular ol’ body lotion.  No cooling sensation, no burning… nothing special.  Reading the lable it sounded like it was supposed to feel like icy’hot.  Brodie, his little inquisitive doggy mind, oh boy… When I wasn’t paying attention I felt the slightest lick of his tongue on my feet.  I would have loved to see how big my eyes got when I felt that!  I was afraid his little tongue would fall off or something… I mean, what would I do if it burnt his tongue?!  then… nothing.  lick… lick…  Didn’t even faze him.  Strange… was I just duped into buying into a placebo?

The next morning when i woke up my feet were on FIRE!! Holy smoke!  Turns out that it was a bit much for my super sensitive skin.  At least I know it wasn’t just plain lotion now.  I think I will give it another try sometime possibly soon and let you know how it goes.  Definitely, I will be using much less next time.