Type 2 Diabetes: Living With the Disease
Symptoms
High blood sugar
Because you have type 2 diabetes, you should learn to recognize and treat symptoms of high blood sugar, which include increased thirst, frequent urination, and blurred vision. High blood sugar usually develops slowly over hours or days, so you can treat your symptoms before they become severe and require medical attention.
Low blood sugar
If you take insulin or oral diabetes medicines, such as glipizide (Glucotrol), glimepiride (Amaryl), or glyburide (DiaBeta, Glynase, or Micronase) you may experience low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Glyburide stays in the body longer, so it is more likely than other medicines to cause low blood sugar.
Learn to recognize symptoms of low blood sugar, which include sweating, weakness, and hunger. Treating low blood sugar promptly will help avoid loss of consciousness, which can occur with severe low blood sugar.
Symptoms of complications
Symptoms of diabetic complications include:
- Chest pain; shortness of breath with exercise or other exertion; heart attack; stroke; or tight or squeezing pain in the calf, foot, thigh, or buttock that occurs during exercise and causes changes in skin color, decreased sensation, and leg cramps. These are symptoms of large blood vessel complications, or macrovascular disease.
- Burning pain, numbness, or swelling in your feet or hands, which may indicate nerve damage (diabetic neuropathy). When only one nerve is involved (focal neuropathy), you may have symptoms in one part of your body. An example is double vision, which can happen when diabetes affects the nerves that control your eye muscles.
- A wound that won't heal or that looks infected, which may indicate damage to the blood vessels that supply that area.
- Blurred or distorted vision; seeing floaters or flashes of light, large floating red or black spots, or large areas that look like floating hair, cotton fibers, or spiderwebs; or pain in your eyes. These may indicate diabetic retinopathy.
- Frequent bloating, belching, constipation, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, which may indicate gastroparesis related to diabetic autonomic neuropathy.
- Profuse sweating or reduced sweating, feeling dizzy or weak when you sit or stand up suddenly, difficulty sensing when your bladder is full or difficulty emptying your bladder completely, erection problems or vaginal dryness, or hypoglycemia unawareness. These also may indicate diabetic neuropathy.
You will not have any symptoms of kidney damage (diabetic nephropathy) until the condition is severe. Then you may notice swelling in your feet, legs, and throughout your body. Having regular tests for protein in the urine is the only way to detect diabetic nephropathy before symptoms develop.
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| Author: | Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS | Last Updated: August 14, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology & Metabolism | |
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