Thank you Glenn and everyone else for your advice, it's all quite interesting.
Yes, I'm new to this, and the NCS was the first test I've had done. What other tests are there?
I think my Neurologist sent me for the NCS, just so I would stop asking him so many questions! lol But I think it has raised a lot more questions that I will have to ask him at my next appointment! I'd like to know the full results, and what the options are next.
The pain is not just in my wrist, it's in the elbow area (he did test the nerves at the elbow too) and shoulders. I have osteo-arthritis in my shoulders and most other joints, so I guess that all adds to the problem...and confusion as to the cause of it all! Time and more tests will tell, I guess!
~Jaime~
Quote:
Originally Posted by glenntaj
--is the term given for any dysfunction of nervous tissue that lies outside the central nervous system--the brain and the spinal cord.
It can certainly include carpal tunnel, as well as spinal radiculopathy (compression of nerve roots next to the spine by disk or bone), and damage to any nerves in between.
There are over 200 known causes of neuropathy, ranging from the traumatic (compression), to the metabolic (diabetes, hypothyroid), to the nutritional (many), to the toxic (many) to the autoimmune, to the hereditary/genetic. Different types of nerve can be affected--motor, large myelinated sensory, small unmyelinated sensory, autonomic. As many people here will tell you, teasing out a cause is often a long, difficult process, and the state of the science is such that as many as a quarter of all cases currently remain stubbornly "idiopathic"--without obvious known origin. And to make things even more confusing, certain conditions of the brain and spinal cord (MS, B12 deficiency, others) can produce symptoms that exactly mimic those of peripheral nerve damage, and in the same apparent body parts.
Carpal tunnel, BTW, doesn't have to manifest just in the wrist--it can involve the back of the hand, or side. Often there is other damage going on further down the arm, in the elbow/ulnar, or even the shoulder (brachial plexus) areas.
If your foot is involved now as well, that implies a more systemic cause.
Have you seen our lovely diagnostic spreadsheets at www.lizajane.org? This is about as comprehensive a listing of tests for neural symptoms as you can find, and is a great way to track test results over time, as well as suggest tests to physicians--I suspect you haven't had even a fraction of the tests listed there. |