Billye----

you were brave!! Driving is huge and certainly scary after pelvic fractures!! Oh my, now what should I do to scare myself???

Going out to the bank today was scary....it is -2 without the windchill and the roads are ice, which we all now know is 7 times harder than concrete, (bad learning experience) and my feet were beyond cold. That still doesn't match your driving....YOU WIN.

Now since you are driving, how about coming up to visit me? LOL....if you want a real scare, LOL....no I am kidding....no one should come here in winter. I should not be here in winter. No matter what the ground hog says we always get 12 more weeks of winter.

I had a bet with my husband after it rained and our first foot of snow melted that the lake would not refreeze....wrong....I lost. I'm a loser.

We are sitting under 14 additional inches of snow with 3 to 5 more coming tonight, and it can't seem to get over 10 degrees lately. Sounds like a great vacation destination, hey?

Deb-
There is no need, to not know, for sure if you have small fiber neuropathy....I would ask for the biopsies. My neuro nurse told me that one of their patients got talked into carpal tunnel surgery and when they got in there, it was not carpal tunnel.....it was all for naught, the nerves were deader than door nails and then things were worse due to the cutting.

If you have Celiac Disease, PN is part of the disease, so you have Celiac Disease and PN is a symptom....you do not have idiopathic PN. You likely do have small fiber from the Celiac and keeping that condition in check will likely decrease damage to the nerves. Numb hands are not always carpal tunnel.

I truly encourage every one with an idiopathic diagnosis, who has exhausted all the diseases to take a look at the numerous CMT (Charcot Marie Tooth) categories, which are now being cross diagnosed with the Hereditary Neuropathies, and even with some of the muscular dystrophies also called distal myopathies with neurogenic overlay.....seems like they are all noodles in different soup bowls....there is a lot of mix and match depending on your doc's prediliction to diagnosis. BTW, now CMTs can have normal EMGs or NCS....they used to have to be abnormal for the diagnosis of CMT, not anymore, as they have admitted to two types of CMT, demyelinating and axonal....Axonals may have normal EMGs....but will have abnormal epidermal nerve fiber biopsies....and other things.

If you do have a CMT, see the drug list, as most SSRIs are not on their list of acceptable drugs.

I have never tolerated SSRI's....only one antidepressant is tolerable and that is Welbutrin. I will cross post this on the depression thread. I don't want to rip on SSRIs if they work for some folks---go for it.

And 'onward' for all of us zebras, unicorns, and other strange creatures....where there is a disease there is a cause, kinda like where there is smoke there is fire.....and one needs to use the right extinguisher to put out the fire. (I keep getting confused on those A B and C things....but all purpose cures don't fit PN).

And many of us, are stuck with symptomatic treatment only and hey, that is OK....we do what we can for ourselves. I don't feel like a hopeless case, I feel more cantankerous some days.

It would be great if some drug or nutraceutical would stop or lessen the progress, but for a while anyway, it doesn't look like that is popping out at us...(but I am looking---I don't fail to stop looking-and trying things)....and I don't stop hoping that this gets a 'name and number soon'. As I said, I think it will take some one far smarter than me to ferret it out....and he probably won't look like Mel's poster boy....then again, it could be a very smart she....I don't care, I just hope they know their CTGAs and sometimes U. I don't care what they look like, or what their native tongue is....I just want their superior brains firing on all synapses.

When they do find it, it will still likely amount to prevention of further deformity and disability as much as possible....I found a nice safe stylish basket for my splints, so my dogs don't eat them. (Like they did my first spare pair of orthotics--which were nothing compared to the next set cost wise, I am sure) SEE, we adapt...we are sooo smart.