I’m going to try my best to explain my experience and hope it doesn’t get too confusing: In my case, PT could cause an increase in my neuropathy symptoms…

BUT I don’t believe it causes worsening of my neuropathy, if they makes sense? It didn’t “cause” nerve damage.

@johnbishop mentioned that exercise generally helps, as long as he doesn’t overdo it. I feel strongly that’s the key: not overdoing it.

My PT explained to me that when people have chronic pain, your nervous system gets basically used to communicating a message of pain. That pathway gets worn in, like a habit or a well-worn path through the grass; the brain is more likely to fall into that habit of interpreting a new experience as pain because it’s just done it so many times. She called it sensitization if the central nervous system. Now some people refer to it as “nociplastic pain.”

What was happening to me is that when I did “too much, too soon” of a new exercise, I would get flare-ups of my pain, including my neurological symptoms: tingling in my legs, headaches, dizziness, light sensitivity, etc.

It seemed so weird to me and off the wall, not to mention disturbing—how could a simple and brief standing balance exercises do all that?

I have no idea if that’s what’s happening to you or not, but I wanted to share it, since you asked if something similar had happened to anyone. This has actually happened to me on numerous occasions. It even happened in aqua PT; that was probably the worst neuropathy flare of all, and it’s supposed to be soothing to be in the water!

The way I have to get around it is if I have a flare, I have to take a rest from the exercises that caused it, until I get back to baseline. Relaxing/restorative activities help it go faster to sooth the nervous system.

Then I go back to the exercise and start it with a smaller dose. I have to be careful both with the intensity and number of repetitions. And also if I’m doing too many things all at one time. For example, if I tried 1 minute of a balance exercise and it caused a flare, next time I’ll try 30 seconds.

Then I increase slowly from there to help my body get used to it—both to improve strength and balance, but also to get my nervous system used to it. Eventually I can get to a point where it won’t cause neuropathy symptoms.

Again, not sure if that’s what’s happening, but it’s what regularly happens to me if I overdo it. My PT indicated it’s common, but she sees a lot of chronic pain patients.

You’re so right and it is very, very disconcerting when it happens. She told me that’s exactly what my brain is saying about the new exercise—it’s new and a potential threat and so it’s sending out pain signals to warn me off trying something new even if I know it’s something I want to do.