My 18 year old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes three years ago. She has been suffering with pains in both legs for the past couple of months. She says it’s like a deep ache in the knee area and the lower legs with an occasional burning feeling in her feet. It has gotten worse the past month. She has struggled with excepting the fact that she is diabetic, so she has not had good control of her glucose levels up until about a month ago. Her doctor and endocrinologist have not yet made a diagnosis. Could this be the start of neuropathy? If so what would the treatment be?

It could be diabetic neuropathy, especially if she omits insulin and has chronic high glucose values/high A1c values., There are several other conditions that also need to be considered, but she should be talking to her endocrine/diabetes team and perhaps also a psychologist/psychiatrist/counselor if there is such poor control. It would be very rare to have such neuropathy so early in the course of diabetes, unless there is major noncompliance with insulin and food and monitoring. This often signals major family turmoil, eating disorders and/or depression. All add up to very high risks for long term diabetes related complications unless turned around.

SB