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Increasingly Difficult to Accept Peripheral Neuropathy

Neuropathy | Last Active: Aug 10 12:43pm | Replies (233)

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Honestly
I am just so so angry
I fought hard to recover and become better from a life altering injury
I have lived 25 years of being all I could physically spiritually and emotionally
Now this. And I can not under Why to fight Itappears. No matter. How many docs. How many diets. How many exercises
I lose.
Yep.
Thats how I feel.

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Replies to "Honestly I am just so so angry I fought hard to recover and become better from..."

I learned many years ago, that feelings are neither right nor wrong! You are entitled to express your feelings!!

No cheerleading from here. Just what has so far helped me--
I have felt similarly for different reasons. I had a relatively good run into my old age, eating and exercising healthily. Then, wham! Stenosis, sciatica, failed PT, spinal fusion surgery, unrelated infection, re-hospitalization, dropped left ankle, numbness, pain, neuropathy, defensive surgeon, more pain, then searching for and finally finding an inquisitive neurologist, and an optimistic, knowledgeable physical therapist. Meantime, and crucially, my husband was able to switch to caregiving, assuring me we were still in this together, and I was not a burden. This was key to my beginning to regain a sense of worth.
Staying in the day and staying out of the dark movie my mind can produce about my future also has been key, along with therapy and prescribed medication for depression. Joining the local senior center and continuing a Zoom meeting with a former support group has also helped me keep my head up and more accepting of the "new normal."
In my mid-80's, I am learning to walk again, first with a rolling walker, and lately trying out forearm crutches. I'll still need my power chair, but I have greater leg strength through PT and exercising, and PT will concentrate more now on my endurance. My pain has lessened over the years, which is never guaranteed, but for which I am grateful.
My husband and I are also making plans to get ahead of any future health crises by selling our beloved home and moving to a nearby independent living community. These are big changes, but we are able to ask for and get help from our family, to navigate it mentally and emotionally, and to have this option financially.
So, while this is a long post, it's the condensed version of my time since neuropathy arrived in my life. While it is different from your story, the value we can find here is that we are understood, and not alone.