Unbearable Neuropathy

I understand! I've always had back problems, but remained active. But I fell down the stairs from the second floor, had back surgery, then fell flat on my back 5 months after the surgery. Never out of pain. Can't stand up straight. Even the cane doesn't get me very far. I can do some grocery shopping because I use the cart for support. It's the right height to enable me to straighten up and hold onto it. I have found that the more I make myself endure the pain I'm building some strength. Not easy and very discouraging. Of course it has completely changed my life and not for the better. I need to have another surgery but the recovery takes at least 18 months. What if I fall again before it heals? It's scary. Having to use a cane makes a person feel useless and old. Like you, I have a pain mgmt doctor.
I think the best thing for me is to get involved in a senior citizen group. They play cards, games and more activities. Right now , don't have the energy or interest. My youngest daughter and I lived together about 3 hours away from my other children.
But she was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma brain tumor in December and passed away on April 6th 2023. I'm still reeling from the shock and grief. Now the neuropathy is starting . My husband was diabetic and he suffered unbearably with it.
So it does frighten me. I do have an appointment scheduled with a neurologist for November. Hopefully he can help slow it down.
I know that I'm rambling, but know that I emphasize with you and that you are not alone.

Good morning!

"It's frustrating to have to remember this changed way of moving about."

I'm reminded of this every day. You may know from some of my other posts that my partner and I have kept the two houses we each had before we met. I use my house as a daytime "man cave" (yuck! I don't like that expression, but … ), but she and I are together at her house weekday evenings and all day weekends. (We tell our friends lots of time apart is what keeps us sane. LOL) But the point of my telling you this is my partner's house is all polished hardwood floors. (Mine is carpeted.) Her floors are beautiful – but, as a guy with PN, I have had to learn a new way of walking! My "new" way can be downright comical – if it weren't so %$&*# frustrating: second-by-second vigilance going from chair to chair, room to room, sofa to frig so that I don't go crashing to Earth (or rather crashing to the hardwood floors). I wear non-slip socks when I'm at my partner's house. Thank God for non-slip socks!

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)

Good Evening, Ray! I have to tell you I got a chuckle at your expense imagining you moving from object to object at your partner's home just to keep upright. I was amazed, though, that you can walk at all without shoes. I don't understand how it is that with numb yet cold feet I cannot walk indoors or out without very stable shoes and not be in excruciating pain. But there it is. And that was a complicated sentence, to boot. This N.P. sure gives one lots to think about and deal with!
Cheers back to you!
Barb

Hi, Barb (@bjk3)

I’ve been deviled by this question of shoes for the longest time: Do I wear them (indoors, I mean LOL ), or don’t I? That I don’t wear them around the house (right now, I’m in my non-slip socks, but no shoes) probably has more to do with my not having a great sensation of numbness in my feet. I knew my feet were slightly “odd” (in feeling the ground), but I’d always chalked that up to decades of long-distance running: all that running had “toughened” my feet, that’s all. I had no idea I’d lost sensation until I had my EMG in the summer of ’22 and was told I’d considerable numbness. What I’d figured was “toughness” was “numbness,” at least to some degree. Will my numbness grow more numb (numb-er? LOL ), who’s to say? For now, being reasonably comfortable going about in only my non-slip socks – especially on my partner’s hardwood floors – is working: wobbly? Yes! But no pain, no icy feeling in my feet – and most importantly, no falls!

Have a grand day today, Barb. I’ll see you around the Connect campus!

Ray (@ray666)

I am so sorry to read about the loss of your daughter. My daughter was 47 when I received a phone call at 2:30 in the morning that my daughter was dead. She had the left decendng Artery to her heart completely closed. She stepped out of the bathtub and landed on the bathroom floor and died. Her only complaint the week before was Jaw pain. She thought she had a toothache. That was 15 years ago and I still struggle with the loss. I don't believe I willl ever really be able to toally deal with it. Here I am 92 and she is dead at 47. How do you figure?
Gina 5009