I emailed my neurologist yesterday stating that while we were waiting for the Nerve Conduction Study that I'd like to proceed with more lab testing. I stated that at this point I'm leaning towards an autoimmune or hereditary disorder and asked if there was any more tests he could order. Here was his response.

"At this time I do no not have any additional blood tests in mind. We have done some autoimmune testing including ANA and ESR tests.

I would like to wait for the nerve conduction test to get done first before proceeding with more blood tests. If it shows any particular pattern, it would help direct our attention to specific testing. As you have pointed it, the nerve test could come back normal, but we don't know for sure until we have the test.

As we have discussed, peripheral neuropathy can be a frustrating condition. Up to 25% of peripheral neuropathy are "idiopathic," meaning there is no clear cause despite exhaustive testing. So far we have tested for almost all of the "treatable" kinds of peripheral neuropathy."


Keep in mind here are the tests run so far:
B12>1000
D 25-Hydroxy 26
TSH = normal
Fasting Glucose 91
A1c 5.1
Rheumatoid factor = normal
ESR = normal
Negative for Lyme, HIV, Hep C

I guess I'm just not sure how to respond and I'd like advice on how t proceed. I'm 4 months in to PN symptoms and the pain in my feet is pretty brutal. I'm anxious and eager to get this under control or at least find out what is going on. Low dose Notriprtyline and Gabapentin have done little if anything for my pain so I'm not eager to just keep bumping those up. I'm ready to ask for a pain management doctor so I can at least be on my feet a few hours a day without being in excruciating pain. I'm only 33! I'm worried now I'll have to go out on my own and try expensive testing my insurance wont cover. On top of that I fear I'll lose my job and health insurance. It's alot to deal with on top of the pain.

Sorry if I've been so repetitive in my posts. I'm slowly watching my life fall apart and the pain has me feeling suicidal at times. If it wasn't for this board I'd truly feel hopeless at this point, but I'm trying to be strong. Thanks for listening and any advice.