@parus - I'm feeling kind of pathetic, myself. I had a cold a couple of weeks ago and I feel like I have another one. My wife isn't going to be happy if I get up in the morning feeling the same, and don't want to go to church. Right now, I'm sure not up to it. My two hour nap helped a little, but unless I feel a lot better tomorrow, I won't have the energy to play the piano and lead worship at church in the evening. Well, people have made their way through church services a million times without a pianist's help.

I hope you can forgive my poor memory. How does neuropathy affect you? I know how painful it can be, and I'm still learning about all the ways it's affecting me. I never gave much thought to my nervous system until it started sending lies to my brain. Maybe what we need is a truth serum. 🙂

Sleep well tonight.

Jim

@jimhd~ Is peripheral neuropathy only caused by diabetes? I had mine years prior & my docs would say it's from arthritis (never telling me which kind I had or how to treat/handle it). One doc might say a pinched nerve is the cause, or it's from a past injury. I still think my diabetes being in the 'pre' stage wouldn't warrant so much pain that I have to wear braces. ~sometimes we use recorded music at church when our pianist is out for a while, I hope you feel better.

@lillyanne - My knowledge is limited regarding pn. For one thing, there are different types of neuropathy. There are various causes, as well. Diabetic neuropathy is perhaps the best known. Some neuropathy is the result of cancer or cancer treatment. If the doctor doesn't know what type of neuropathy you have, they call it idiopathic. I have idiopathic peripheral neuropathy. Peripheral means that peripheral nerves are involved. As far as I know, feet, legs, hands and arms seem to be affected most commonly.

The neurologist asked if I had had trauma to my head when he saw neuropathy in my head - I fell from a second story window when I was two. The nerves in my feet may have been damaged during my work as a house painter, ladder work, scaffold, jumping or carrying heavy weight - an 80 lb 5 gallon bucket of paint in each hand. Regardless, he can't say for sure. IPN started as pins and needles and numbness in my feet and legs, and gradually became burning pain in my feet, getting worse over the course of a couple of years. Neuropathy is also affecting my hands, bladder and brain stem, and may be associated with esophageal dysmotility, arthritis, choreiform movement in the back of my tongue, dizziness with buzzing and possibly ED. I feel like it's overtaking my body.

So, multiple possible causes, multiple possible involvement, multiple kinds of neuropathy. I hope that clears up all of your questions. 🙂

Jim

Thank-you, that helps. I've never heard of cancer bringing it on. My docs always just said you have neuropathy with the same intensity as "u have hiccups". They gave no follow through or answered any questions. I always thought it was my body trying to tell me something. I went a long time without insurance so I'm happy for what I have-just wish it was better. Mine sounds like yours with a few differences. Not too much burning pain in feet & ankles & hands just some. Most was pain like a tire rod being pounded into my calf bones & ankles of the leg that was paralyzed due to a broken neck when I was around 7. A car hit me & I flew 30 or so feet in the air & landed on my head. Similar. I've never heard all these things could cause neuropathy. Here it's almost like they want you to have diabetes so they can blame everything on that & questions will stop. My pain starts as tingles, pins, needles, extreme pain causing me to rise up as my hands curve into frozen claws. This position makes my humerus & shoulders bend & spasm where my cancer tumors are. Hopefully they are getting smaller with treatment. Sometimes just numbness in finger tips. Another problem, I don't know if it is related, is pain as if knifes are going through one side than the other of my bad knee and ankle with searing electricity. Sometimes it travels up to my lower back or just sciatica, then down flaring out at the back of knee, down mt calf to explode at my ankle & ooze into my foot tingling with burning pain. Is that normal for NP? I've had this since 1992 when I broke my tib/fib. They set it wrong (closed set crooked) & I was in different casts for over 18 months. There you go- multiple causes/involvement.

Jim, please forgive me for going on & on. I think I never wanted to "own" it so I never looked into it (plus I had a lot of other things to do). One search answered all my questions: https://www.emedicinehealth.com/neuropathy/article_em.htm#types_of_neuropathy

Now I'm wondering if that might be part of my optical problems! Good thing I see that doc next month.

Totally understand the knife through the knees feeling...mine is from OA and bone spurs on my knees. Neuropathy is not for wimps either. No one has bothered to find the cause of my neuopathy-probably blame it on age like nearly every thing else.
Too much trying to figure out symptoms/diagnosis by perusing the net can at times do more harm than good. Best to talk w/ the doctor and would advise not telling them you know the problem by reading symptoms online-some of the info is enough to bring on an attack of apoplexy for the patient...not to believe all that is online is the best advice I can give,
Wishing you the best on your journey.

@jimhd OMG, was that I saw carrying those paint buckets years ago??? We may have passed each other at some point both doing the same thing. Those high ceilings w/ scaffolding were the most fun...arrgghh. Somewhere I mentioned being prescribed a bp med-drinking plenty of water and feet swelling worse. Give my body time to adjust was the instruction given. Only started it last Friday. Oh well, so much for it working to reduce swelling in feet...hope they don't explode as that would leave a mess...

@lillyanne - I'm glad you're seeing doctors. I know what a challenge it can be to diagnose things that may or may not be related .

Jim