despite the fact that I am insanely jealous of Alan's new doctor, I'm going to go ahead and share something with you.

I think it's very interesting that Alan got relief from a chiro, and also that his PN pain seems positional--it occurs when he's in certain positions.

Not to go into a long story, but those symptoms have some similarities to mine.

In my Internet research, I came across something interesting in talking to the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome people, which is a different kind of compression neuropathy. There's a doctor in Pennsylvania who specializes in TOS, and has written about small fiber symptoms among TOS sufferers. He believes, though he can't prove, that some people get small fiber symptoms when their TOS is still mild, because the small fibers are more delicate and more easily crushed. Well, they are called small, after all. So these folks can get burning, prickling, etc., without experiencing the large-fiber symptoms like numbness or motor problems.

If that's true, then perhaps the same kind of thing can happen when nerves are compressed in other areas of the body. This would occur when the compression doesn't show up on diagnostic tests like nerve conductions or EMGs, because it's the small fibers that are involved here. And because there's no test, most docs don't know much about it.

On the other hand, if it is what's happening, it can be helped. I found a big relief from going to a physical therapist who found that the connective tissue around my vertebrae were very, very tight. She loosened up my back with something called a "wedge"--it's painless, and you can't believe it's actually doing anything until you stand up and move your neck.

That, plus myofascial trigger point massage, is what brought me around.

I later learned, by the way, that weightlifting can increase the risk of something like that happening. I still weightlift, but now I do some simple stretches that keep me out of trouble.

So that may be something for Alan to try. Ask the doc!

Hope that's helpful. Happy Thanksgiving!