The mystery of the tingling

"I've got a headache".  That'll be the betes.

"I'm having trouble losing weight".  That'll be the betes.

"I walked into a table because I was drunk".  That'll be the betes.

In fact, most of the above are down to the big 'ol glass of red I enjoy on occasion.  But as people with type 1 diabetes are often all too aware it can be an easy condition to blame every little bump, scrape, scratch and ache on, because the complex network or nerves in the body are all at the mercy of the damage from high blood sugars.  

But even so, if I go to the doctor and they begin to suggest that any illness I might be presenting them with is connected to my diabetes, I make sure I give them a damn good grilling about the hows, whens and whys faster than they can boot me butt first out of their office. 

Two years ago, when I started to experience pain and numbness in my hands overnight and was advised by several friends in the diabetes online community (DOC) that "it was probably a touch of neuropathy", for some reason it never dawned on me to question it.  I value the thoughts and views of the DOC so much that it seemed to make sense.  The sporadic arrival and dispersal of symptoms, teamed with the occasional spookily timed 3am hypos, meant that I accepted my fate and carried on my slightly less merry way.

Despite having negotiated this condition with reasonable successful for 26 years, having kept all complications at bay through a mix of hard work and sheer luck, I seemed unusually content to be diagnosed through some very unorthadox methods (Facebook chat, of all things) and without a second opinion or someone even having laid hands on the medical mystery I was presenting. It wasn't until a friend suggested it could be Carpal Tunnel that I started to wonder if they were on to something.

Three months later and after a series of pokes, prods and electric shocks, I finally have the answer to the mystery pains and it is indeed Carpal Tunnel.  And while there is a connection between Carpal Tunnel (inflammation of the median nerve in the wrist), the reason I donned a big, bright smile when the doc gave me the news was because it means I am still smashing this diabetes sh** out of the park and keeping complications firmly in the box.  It means the choice to wear a pump, to pay for continuous glucose monitoring and to eat low carb so that my HbA1c stays in the 'yippee' range, is paying off.

Anna 1 - Diabetes 0.