Quote:
Originally Posted by Wide-O
Yeah, my neurologist mentioned it as I'm 6'7". Of course, it's not the only factor, but it does play a role.
Absolutely. Especially Levaquin (but there are many others) is known to sometimes cause this. Most often it's a combination of things - immune system goes out of whack from the antibiotics, giving alcohol more chance to do further damage, even at amounts that usually would not cause an illness by itself. So you start feeling bad, don't go out as much etc etc. And there's age of course: what we could process at 18 is not what we can process when we're older. And then there is stress: I have learned over the last 10 years that it does play a big role in the perception of the symptoms.
Good luck. Try to be as active as you can in the conversation while still listening. The more info you can give (even if it seems irrelevant) the better they can judge what's really going on. A timeline is often helpful too (when did it start, when did symptom x became apparent etc)
However: don't be surprised or discouraged if at first he/she can not give you an exact diagnosis (yet) either. It's one of the frustrations you see quite often in the neuropathy forum (alcohol induced or not). These conditions are simply not easy to diagnose, and for some they will never know for sure.
Then again you clearly showed you are serious about finding out what ails you, so I'm sure you probably knew all this. Let us know what they came up with.
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So I saw my neurologist again on Friday. I definitely tried to give as much timeline with symptoms, mention anything at all that could be an issue, and play an active role in the discussion.
He wants to take a couple more labs. He also mentioned a skin biopsy as his first thought with my symptom description was small fiber neuropathy. I know you even felt like my description didn’t sound like a typical peripheral neuropathy, and my Dr. apparently concurred. I don’t know if that is a good thing, bad thing, or just a “different thing.” I suppose any neuropathy isn’t great.
I know I have good and bad days now. Sometimes the bad days come after good stretches when I feel better and probably overdo things.
Apparently he has been seeing another patient who may also have some adverse reactions to a levaquin family medicine, too. He has done past EMGs for me, but didn’t feel like that would be helpful at this time. I suppose if the bloodwork/biopsy shed no helpful light on things, I might push for another one, just to see what might come from it.
As you mentioned, I definitely do wonder if a weakened nervous system from the medicine combined with some age, 47, and what was more alcohol than is good all were too much together. Definitely staying away from alcohol as that seemed to cause flaring of symptoms within 48 hours, even in moderate amounts.
Again, I appreciate your above feedback! It was helpful as I went to my appointment.