Originally Posted by mrsD

Alberta, you need to understand something. Most PNs are chronic and long lasting. I've had mine since I was 30 and I am now 68. At my age now my arthritis is far more disabling than the PN. Much of my PN was due to hypothyroidism initially.

Not many people progress dramatically. The hereditary ones (Charcot Marie Tooth) are the worst IMO.

Testing for GBS is not very accurate and may include a spinal tap. In the end it is a doctor's opinion whether you have it or not, based on your symptom presentation.

When people get stressed and anxious, there can be changes in the acid/base content of the blood. This is the pH changes.
The body buffers acids and bases to keep them in a 7 neutral range, but hyperventilating or consuming lots of bicarbonate can cause changes in the blood and this results in paresthesias.,
like the tingling you experience. These may come and go and depend on your blood chemistries at various times. These paresthesias may not be real PN but just mimic it.

Keeping calm, avoiding hyperventilating during anxiety, therefore is very important to stabilizing things. Knowledge is power and learning about how your nerves work, and how your body heals is what I try to share with posters here so they can learn and reduce fear and anxiety and therefore become more
in control.

So make sure you read the links I share here. You may have to read them more than once. Do a little bit each day. Doctors will never help you this way...they keep their secrets as a power thing. You will learn that many times doctors will do more grief than you started with. So it is important to do the learning curve so you can choose whether to do a specific invasive test or treatment or not.