Do you have diabetes? Did you know that high blood sugar or glucose can injure nerve fibers throughout your body? This is what is known as diabetic neuropathy. The most common damage in this sense happens in the legs and feet for most patients. The symptoms can include numbness as well as problems with digestion, urinary tract, blood vessels, and the heart. For some, these symptoms are mild, and for others, they can cause an overwhelming amount of pain. For relieving this type of pain, our Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers therapists offers spinal cord stimulation.

If you have diabetes, but you’re not sure whether you should be checked for diabetic neuropathy, here are some signs our Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers team put together to help you reference if you may need to seek medical care:

• If you have a cut or sore on your foot that won’t heal, is infected, or is getting worse.

• If you have burning, tingling, weakness, or pain in your hands or feet that interferes with your daily routine or your sleep.

• If you experience dizziness.

• If you have changes in your digestion, urination, or sexual function.

As with many diseases, early diagnosis and treatment offer the best chance for controlling symptoms and preventing more-severe problems. If you do have nerve damage, spinal cord stimulation may be your best bet.

Spinal cord stimulation is conducted with a special device that stimulates the spinal cord and spinal nerves by tiny electrical impulses via a small electrical wire placed behind and just outside the spinal cord in the epidural space. Doing this generates a low-level electric field to interrupt nerve conduction of pain signals to the brain.

For most Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers patients, a trial period will be carried out before moving on to a more permanent solution. Typically, a temporary spinal cord stimulator wire is placed in a patient for several days to a week rather than an expensive, permanent device. This temporary wire gives the patient an opportunity to experience spinal cord stimulation without having to undergo a full implantation. If this trial is successful in relieving pain, a permanent device can be placed under the skin at another date.

If you suspect you might have diabetic neuropathy, already have chronic pain caused by diabetic neuropathy, or you have already failed more conservative treatment options, then consider giving our Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers therapists a call. An Oklahoma Pain Treatment Centers therapists available to provide this service upon appointment. Just give us a call to schedule your appointment at 405-751-0011.