Can mold toxicity cause small fiber peripheral polyneuropathy?
I'm a formerly active, healthy 71 y/o female. Never smoked, drank, or did illicit drugs. Not diabetic or autoimmune. Was diagnosed last week with subclinical hypothyroidism, started on levothyroxine 25 mcg.
Total hysterectomy at 48 for possible adenomyosis and ovaries were removed at request of my GYN because she had "seen a lot of ovarian cancer recently."
Was placed on Xanax in 1991 for anxiety and insomnia, was then switched to klonopin in 1997, always taken as directed. No one ever mentioned the drug had a time limit. In late 2020, I heard Jordan Peterson video where he was discussing his recovery from stopping benzodiazepines and mentioned their affiliation with dementia and brain injury; he warned against them, especially over 2-4 weeks! I had taken them nearly 29 years.
I contacted my doctor telling her I wanted to stop them and how did I taper off? She said taper was not necessary, and I could "just stop." So I stopped that day and have never taken another since.
Withdrawal was a nightmare, the worst lasted about six months before any improvement at all. I'm retired, was sure I could just tough it out, but at times I felt I was dying, and wanted to die many times. Couldn't speak and make sense, couldn't think clearly. Vomiting, diarrhea, belly cramps, shaking, constant panic, hyperventilation and severe heart pounding, dizziness, brain twitching, couldnt swallow sometimes, ear ringing, couldnt be still, severe nightmares when I could sleep for a hour or so. Obviously I couldn't drive during this. My doctor's only reply to my portal messages was "call for an appointment. " when I could finally drive to see her six months later, I explained what had happened and she rolled her eyes at me and changed the subject. She seemed to think I was exaggerating, though I had no history of this in past. I'm autistic and ADHD and I'm pretty honest and straightforward.
I stopped seeing her.
Eventually my new PCP sent me to a neurologist who diagnosed "idiopathic small fiber peripheral polyneuropathy" and occipital neuralgia. Ulnar nerve entrapment. Pudendal neuralgia. Sharp burning stabbing in upper right buttock yet MRI of SI joints was negative.
I'm noticing severe quadriceps muscle wasting. General mild weakness. I've increased exercise to include rebounding a bit. I've restricted my diet to remove all sugar, flour and starches since discovering they worsen SFN symptoms and the IBS issue that has happened with SFN.
My meds are minimal use of gabapentin, sumatriptan, nabumetone, methylphenidate and now levothyroxine. Rx meds are worrisome to me since the benzo debacle.
What can I do to reduce/improve symptoms of this nerve disorder?
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Hello @logicalperson, You will notice that we merged your discussion with the first discussion you started and we changed the title a little to better describe the question that you posted in both discussions. Hopefully this will make it easier to follow responses in one discussion. Here is the updated title along with a link to the beginning of the discussion so that you can view member responses.
-- Can mold toxicity cause small fiber peripheral polyneuropathy?:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/idiopathic-small-fiber-peripheral-polyneuropathy-with-complication/
I did a search of Connect and found quite a few related discussions on mold toxicity that might be helpful to learn what others have shared while you wait for members to respond to your question. Here's the search link that shows the discussions and comments - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/
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