My UAB visit yesterday was very satisfying. Dr Benesh sat and simply talked to me (and I’m sure watched all my fidgeting, rearranging, rubbing). I told him my story, and asked him to tell me about SFN. Since I am already doing a lot of PT, and using pain relief therapies that I’ve figured out, we ended up reviewing my medications - past and present. He knows my doctor here, and was typing notes as we talked that will go directly to him. They will communicate and work together. Such great news, and such a relief to know I have some coordinated medical care. Since he confirmed what I knew - that there is no cure, and will get worse - he said that we will continually tweak my medications. Right now my SFN symptoms ( burning toes, dizziness, palpitations, etc) are under control with Tegretol - which is another story entirely - but my overall pain is bad. Bad. He had some ideas of medication tweaks to deal with this.
I have dealt with this for seven years. The last 8-9 months I have had a rapid decline in my physical abilities due to pain, and subsequent weakness. It’s alarming. I feel much, much better to know that UAB has my back!