chronic pain

[mom12]

My son has had type 1 since he was 12--he is now 24.  Before the pump his A1C ran about 8, with the pump about 7, once down to 6.6.  Two questions:  he now has chronic pain, not peripheral, more deep all over pain.  Percoset works but he doesn't want to take it because he is afraid of dependency, the doctors think the pain is related to the diabetes but can't say what it is from.  Should I tell my son to take the pain pills and not worry about dependency?
Also, has anyone heard about all over pain being caused by meta-cresol, and additive in insulin (he is on Novolog, had been on Apidra but it quit working in December and he had a foot odor that occured at the same time.)

[abrook23]

I have never taken either one of the insulins you son takes. I was on Humalog and Lantus before the pump. And I don't know much about allergic reactions to insulin. I have been a diabetic for 14 years and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia at 24. But suffered with widespread pain for 3 years before someone finally diagnosed me. I know you said your son saw a family practitioner and that he "ruled out" lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia but I think you should maybe see a rheumatologist. The above listed conditions cannot be ruled out by blood tests alone and there isn't a blood test for fibromyalgia. The process for diagnosing fibro. is very extesive and can only be made by someone trained in diagnosing it. I was told by 3 different family physicians that I also didin't have fibro. Right now my rheumatologist is battling with trying to diagnose me with what she thinks is Rheumatoid arthritis however, the blood test for it is coming back fine. She says it can take years to diagnose RA because people can have it and have a normal blood test, MRI, etc. I am not a doctor but this has been my experience. I am not saying that your son has one of these things only that you shouldn't take "it's his diabetes" for an answer. Sometimes that seems to be a cope out for docs. As far as Lyrica goes I started it 3 weeks ago for neuropathy and am just now starting to feel better and not have that spacey zombie feeling. My endo. said to give it 5 weeks for the side effects to wear off.
Good luck and let me know if you want more info.

Audrey

[mom12]

As always your advice seems more important than anything we have heard from the doctors.  I am not sure my son would have the patience to give the Lyrica 5 weeks...
The pain seems to worsen during the day; have any of your pains been worse when your blood sugar goes too high or drops too low?  He seems to notice the pain being worse as he climbs back up from a low blood sugar.  Any similar occurrence?

[mom12]

The neurologist said there are many kinds of nerve damage that may occur.  He does not have peripheral neuropathy.  He tried Lyrica for a few days, but said it made him feel spacey.  The family practitioner ran blood tests to rule out lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, he also said it was not fibromyalgia.  Both doctors basically shook their heads and said they may not ever be able to pinpoint the casue--so waht is he to do?

He has always had infusion set site sensitivity having to change the angled ones every day.  The 90 degree ones do not clog as quickly.
I still would like to know if anyone has had trouble with Apidra.

[JDRF Volunteer SG]

I have heard of some allergies to certain types of insulins, but never with symptoms of pain. Usually, the people who contact JDRF about allergies mention swelling or hives or in some cases, depressions appearing in injection sites. My experience as a long-time diabetic is that if doctors can't figure out why something is happening, they assume that the cause is diabetes. I would seriously consider asking for another opinion and insisting that the doctors determine if pain is due to neuropathy or if not, what the actual cause is. Perhaps he should be seeing a neurologist?