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Member
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Georgia
Posts: 905
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Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Georgia
Posts: 905
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Bless You Lottie
Nice to meet you....I'm Debi from Georgia and I have small fiber neuropathy in my feet and hands (starting to move up both legs). I had a routine hysterectomy in Oct 2012, they found a small cancer in my uterus (Papillary Serous Uterine) and I started Chemo in Dec and ended in March 2013. And you're right.....they could 'see' I had an issue......no hair being the big SIGN  I was pre-diabetic/diabetic going into chemo. About a month after chemo ended I could barely walk. Thought the chemo was trying to 'get out' of my body so I pushed and pushed for 2 weeks before going to my PCP in tears and horrible pain. She's treated me for over 5 years and is a sweetheart....she looked at me and immediately said 'neuropathy'.....I'm like what the heck is that ? And my journey began. I had been laid off from my job of 26 years in Sept 2012 and I was receiving a nice severance so my thought process was....I'll take a few months after chemo ends to get strong and grow some hair...lol.....and I'd decide what I wanted to do.....it was exciting to have the whole world wide open for me to decide on how I wanted to spend the rest of my working life. I had been in the office/business world all my life and was thinking of something in the medical field cause I'm a people person. So my family and friends were pretty disbelieving when this neuropathy thing started. All of them said.....exercise, exercise and exercise and you'll get better. I knew I had to find out all I could about this neuropathy. I had to be my own advocate and after only 1 visit to a foot and ankle dr I asked him to so a skin punch biopsy. They called when my results came back and I painfully drove myself to that appointment. I was pretty sure it was going to be negative and I did not want to give my family anything else to use against me......I cried when he gave me the results....not because it was so bad but because I was so so relieved to know what was wrong with me and to have proof that I was not 'faking' it. Which I never understood cause I had never 'faked' anything in my life and was superwoman....working, husband, kids, grandkids...the 'head' of the family.
My biopsy results changed all that in a second. When my husband read the report I could see the light bulb come on in his head. My A and C fibers were gone....my feet were 'devoid' of fibers. I, like you, have a husband, kids and grandkids that totally understand what's going on with me now and are very supportive.
I'm not a private person and had no problem telling prior co-workers or friends what I was going through. They don't understand.....no one understands that has not experienced severe, chronic, life changing pain. They are all nice but really have no idea what we go through daily.
You are an AMAZING woman....I have no idea how you work and hide the pain. Maybe you could print something off about your condition and hand out to a few close friends and co-workers so they can 'read' what this does to you ? Even if they will never truly understand it will allow them to 'check on you'....ask how you're feeling here and there and I know that would make me feel better in a working environment. People do care.......just in their own way.
I know this post is long but people on this site know I'm a very chatty person
Please keep us posted. I've had so much support from this site and learned more here than I could from any dr.
Debi from Georgia 
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