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@rebsue

John--thank you so much for the google scholar link! When I started seeing a local physiatrist 16 months ago, after a vertebral artery dissection and stroke, he wanted to do an EMG to try and explain my symptoms. When I asked him if the results would direct him to a direction for my treatment different from gabapentin and anti-depressants, he said they would not. I decided not to bother with EMG. I have now seen a neurologist at UCSF (I live far away in Montana) who has scheduled an EMG on me there on 12.22, because he said it would give a definitive diagnosis of neuropathy...which he does not think I have according to clinical presentation. My new physiatrist here tells me that is cannot definitively rule out neuropathy, and even if it could, treatment options don't change. So, I am wondering why I am getting this??!! Any thoughts??? Thanks.

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Replies to "John--thank you so much for the google scholar link! When I started seeing a local physiatrist..."

Hi Rebecca @rebsue, I wished I had a good answer for you but I went through the same process myself trying to figure out if I did something to cause my neuropathy. I posted my story in another discussion here - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/310341/.

Back a few years I was at a meeting for the Minnesota Neuropathy Association and had the opportunity to listen to a group of neurologists speak. One was an 80 year old neurologist still practicing and doing research at the University of Minnesota. Each of the 3 speakers had given a bunch of statistics on how many people are affected by neuropathy. He was the last of the 3 to talk and made us laugh when he said something like - contrary to what you've heard from my colleagues, if you live long enough, you will get neuropathy - nerves die the same as other cells in your body and when the nerve dies you get neuropathy. That really got me thinking towards, OK nerves eventually die but what can I do to make them healthier and my search was on.

I'm not sure if you have seen the list of treatments on the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy's website but they also include complementary and alternative treatments which might be helpful -- https://www.foundationforpn.org/treatments/.

Hoping you have a pain free day.