Hi everyone I have looked at the many posts on this forum over the past few weeks and have decided to join the community in the hope that I can get some helpful advice from other members on here, and of course give some advice where necessary.

I will run through a description of what I have been suffering.Even smoking a cigarette sometimes, but not every time, makes the symptoms worse which they never used to do before this year. Also alcohol seems to exacerbate the problem as well, again only sometimes, other times alcohol will not produce the numbness/altered sensations etc.

I have been to a neurologist in June and they went through my history and the usual tests (testing my reflexes etc) and also sent off for quite a comprehensive set of blood tests and also an MRI of the brain and cervical spine. I went to see the neurologist again yesterday and all the results were fine, he has now booked me to have an electrical nerve test (whatever that is!) and some more bloodwork to do with the peripheral limbs ,but I have to wait 4 months for an appointment (good old british NHS system) . He is already talking about “managing the symptoms” and I haven’t even got a diagnosis yet. It is starting to worry me and affecting my life more and more as the symptoms I am getting seem to be progressing (i.e. I can now get periods where I feel numb around my neck area and on my shins which I NEVER experienced before April this year).When I get bad days I can't bring myself to venture outside even. I would like to know if anyone has ever had toxic neuropathy as that is what im kind of guessing I have and I would like to know if it can heal itself if given time? Also another thing that is playing on my mind is that I don’t understand why does the numbness comes on all at once on areas of my body, i.e. my fingers and arm will feel numb/altered sensation, and at the same time my face goes numb/altered sensation and my back feels more numb, I cant figure out why.

Anyways here is a list of my symptoms and I would be very grateful for any information, by the way I take supplements and vitamins but have recently stopped as some were making the problems worse! Thanks in advance for looking


Intermittent Pain at back of eyeballs, noticeable when moving eyes side to side.

Arms/torso can sometimes feel slightly sore to the touch.

Tender spots that are very sore to touch appear on torso or arms, they usually disappear within 24 hours, again this happens intermittently.

Loss of sensation in top half area of back , first noticed end of July 2006 ,area went completely numb then gradually regained some sensation (but not 100%) after about 2 weeks (experienced sharp stabbing sensations in this 2 week period). Area never regained full sensation but did improve as time went on, a week after the loss of sensation occurred on the back I started to experience altered sensation on the face it felt like the skin was being pulled tight. Went completely numb again mid-april this year, again some sensation has returned but there is a patch that feels more numb than the other areas.

I first noticed a small numb patch on my left arm in 1998. Other numbness has occurred periodically on left side of face /arm/fingers and back of lower leg since 2000 but has also started to occur on right side of face and right arm and I am now experiencing altered sensations (the numbness on the right side first occurred after back area went numb in July 2006). Numbness seems to get worse in very hot, humid weather and symptoms tend to increase at night time.

Lower back pain that has gotten worse since 2005.

Periodically experience weakness in hands and sometimes feet, have experienced weakness in feet and shins more so over past 4 weeks, the weakness usually occurs when waking up in the morning and usually disappears when I get up.

I have permanent pins and needles in hands and feet, I first experienced intermittent tingling in my feet in 2002 but it turned into permanent tingling in 2006 which is when I also developed it in my hands.


Thanks again for looking

Mark