All symptoms but negative EMG

I could be wrong on this but I think EMGs start turning up positive if there is large nerve fiber involvement (motor nerves not just sensory). I have had SFN for almost 20 years and my most recent EMG was still negative. I'm sorry you're struggling with foot pain, it's really horrible, I know. I have it too and gabapentin made life bearable for me. I'm not trying to push it on anyone and I know that everyonne responds differently to it but I wanted to live my life as normally as I could and for me the side effects weren't a problem. I did have a lot of fatigue (still do sometimes, being in pain is very tiring!) but it got better once I got used to the drug.
Wishing you all the best!

@laurenthewise1
Thank you so much. Gabapentin did not make you off balance at all? That is only thing I worry about.

No it really didn’t! That being said I started slow and worked my way up to 3000mg/day. I have been able to back that down to 1800/day and do pretty well with that dose. I want to be sure and tell you that I do have some loss of balance from 10 years ago. I am now 59 and my neurologist thought I was doing pretty well considering how long I have had SFN. I do balance exercises daily to try to maintain what I have and I find that the more exercise I can get the better I feel in general and pain wise. I hope this helps!

@laurenthewise1
I do a lot of balance work myself since I have had two falls and two broken shoulders - however the falls were not related to neuropathy or balance. I am 75 years old, exercise at the gym and work to keep my weight down without harming myself nutrition wise. I walk every day as well. However all this becomes increasingly more difficult since my feet hurt a lot. I have been prediabetic for years and I read being prediabetic for so long can be the cause of it. I never eat dessert or any other sweets so trying to figure out some way to lower my sugar. Thank you for your help so far.

Did they do an NCV test with the EMG?. I flunked both and they called it Severe peripheral neuropathy. They then ordered a lumbar puncture and ran several more tests. A high protein level in the cerebral spinal fluid is a positive indicator of CIPD.

I have spinal stenosis. I have had two laminectomies years ago. I would not let them do a fusion at this time. They want to do a multilevel fusion with lots of hardware. Unfortunately, I have heart issues and I’m not a good candidate for surgery with anesthesia. My surgeries were done by Neuro surgeons, not orthopedic surgeons. I would have my MRI evaluated by a neurosurgeon.

@mikeyindiana. They did not. I have an appointment with a neurologist in Drcember so maybe more testing will be done. That said, I have many of the symptoms at an early stage so right now I am more focused on finding out how to not get worse, if that's possible. Still very much a newbie at this.

Smart to get a jump on it and as educated as you can.