COVID vaccines and neuropathy

Hello @823abs, Welcome to Connect, an online community where patients and caregivers share their experiences, find support and exchange information with others. Sorry to hear you started having neuropathy pain after your second COVID vaccine. Others have shared similar stories in this discussion but it's hard to know all the answers just from what people report here against the total number of those vaccinated with each of the different vaccines.

Which vaccine did you have?

Me too started having symptoms 3 weeks after first dose of Moderna vaccine. Had the first dose first week of January. Started as skin reactions and was told by my family doctor that it will go away. The symptoms at first was so bad -I did not take my second dose. Had persistent redness until last month and finally the redness has gone away but still have burning in arms and hands. Have been to a dermatologist, an allergist and finally to a neurologist in late June. The neurologist said that he is beginning to see patients with similar problems due to vaccine and his patients are getting better which is encouraging. The diagnosis was possible vaccine reaction or small fiber neuropathy. EMG and all blood tests negative. I have less pain than the onset but still have an annoying burning- hoping it will go way with time. Was prescribed Neurontin but scared to take it as Iam very sensitive to meds. I hope everyone gets better soon.

Hi @sam90, Welcome to Connect. Thanks for sharing your reactions to the Moderna vaccine. Did you also report it on the VAERs site? https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html

I did and they have been in contact with my doctors

I had similar symptoms . My doctor suggested I stay away from foods that cause inflammation and gluten . It helped !!! Now I only get the tingles and burning sporadically . Hope this helped

Hi @chloeb2, thanks for sharing and certainly hope that the burning subsides.

Could you please name some of the foods you're avoiding? Thanks.

@deanna2, It might be easier to focus on the foods that fight inflammation 🙂

Foods that fight inflammation - Harvard Health: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fight-inflammation

Update: podiatrist had no referral for me yet. She's still searching. Because I had my dorsal sympathectomy almost 35 years ago, it was definitely cutting edge and the procedure has changed significantly over the years. The fact that my feet sweating has abated with the onset of the peripheral neuropathy has her stumped. Because the gabapentin has actually reduced some of the burning and numbness, she increased my dosage to 2 100 mg capsules 3 times daily.

On another front, I went back to my GP to discuss. Because my feet are also increasing in pain from sitting on the toilet (who knew there was a thing called toilet sciatica?), he wants to try prednisone as a chance to rule out a pinched nerve issue. I started a course of 60 mg for 3 days. 40 mg, 2 days, tapering for 1 week. His thought is that of I get some relief from that, we'll at least be able to confirm or rule out something.

In the meantime, I'm have a pretty full on headache... joy of joys. Now pain tip to tip!

We'll see and I'll keep you posted.

Good luck to everyone going through this. My problem is more annoying than anything. I've got it so much better than most. I'm just worried that, over time, it's gonna get worse.

Thanks for listening.

I stayed away from EVERYTHING that causes inflammation :
Sugar
Carbs
Alcohol
**gluten , I have a sensitivity towards it

After the change in diet , things got better