Hi Rina...

Here is what happened with me...
I woke up in early July with my arms and legs aching like they never had ached before…both upper and lower parts of all four limbs… I thought it must be the flu too, but like one I never had before.. I began to suspect maybe tick fever (lots of deer around here)… I went to the my pcp four days later (July 8th, 2005) and he prescribed anti-inflamatory pills (thought I had pulled some muscles and ordered blood tests)… July 11th I began to feel the tingling on the very tips of all my fingers and toes… The next day the doc doubled my anti-inflamatory dose and put me on a muscle relaxer saying it should work in 4 or 5 days… On the 16th the pain moved into my hips… We went to see my husband in a play on the 17th and I had to pull myself up the stairs by the railings to get up on the stage… The weekend before I had just walked up the stairs… On the 18th I went back and received a steroid shot which he said should work in 2-10 days… My husband had an appointment for a check on the 22nd (a Friday) and I begged him to tell the doctor that I wasn’t any better… The thought of going even two days through the weekend when no doctor was available was just too much for me… I had been sleeping on the recliner for about a week at this point when the pain moved into my back and upper chest… The pins and needles had moved all the way up my hands and feet by this time too… Went to the doc again on the 26th and he ordered an MRI… My doc was on vacation the first week of August so I asked if another doc could look at the MRI… At this point I seemed to be sleeping all the time in the recliner… Finally began using an air mattress placed on top of a twin bed… It was like sleeping on a cloud… The doctor that looked at the MRI referred me to a neurosurgeon because of some bulging disks… Saw him on August 10th and he said the bulges would not cause my problems… He sent me to a neurologist (the one I have now)… On the 18th the neuro wanted more MRIs on the upper part of my spine which had not been done… On August 23rd and 24th after finding nothing in the new MRIs, he began doing the EMG, etc. tests…and gave me the diagnosis of CIDP… We returned on the 31st having been armed with a website (now defunct) about a CIDP…

It’s amazing how long all of this took… I was beside myself with the thought that no one could figure out what it was… It was just such a relief to learn that it had a name and I was amazed at all symptoms which matched mine… Back while I was trying to let the muscle relaxers and the steroids work and trying not to worry because I was having trouble walking, I searched the net over and over for “pins and needles, weakness, muscle pain” etc…hoping that I could figure out what it was… I know I came across GBS but knew that that was too severe and not what I had at all… If I read about CIDP back then, I didn’t remember it…

Best of luck in figuring out what you have...

Aimee