Good evening @maryflorida. It’s me again. How are you this evening. I want to try to help determine which clinician’s nurse is going to take two minutes to grab a bit of skin from your ankle or some other part of the body and get it ready to mail to one of the labs that does the analysis of this special skin biopsy. The goal is to determine what percentage of the sample is made up of healthy, functioning nerves. For example, mine was somewhere around -.09. The average for a female of about my age and weight,etc. is +9.5 or something like that. I don’t have the report right now yet can probably find it tomorrow.

The lower the percentage of functioning nerves, the more likely you will have pain with the SFN. The only thing I can figure out is that the analysis is a bit spendy and insurance may have dictated the providers who can qualify to submit them.

I just may have had a different PPO at that time.

I will also share with you that my neurologist did first send me to a rheumatologist for her opinion. She said that all this neuropathy is just fibromyalgia. In order to receive treatment I would have to give up my medications. I discussed her feedback with the neurologist and together we decided to stay with where we were and be attentive to any reactions or additional symptoms. This is your decision @maryflorida and you have a right to know what is going on.

May you be free of pain and suffering.
Chris