That medical model is sure powerful.
This subject continues for many people who fall thru the cracks with modern medicine.
I've been watching Discovery Health once a week. They have two series called Mystery Diagnosis, and Dr. G.
Yesterday, they had a poor guy on who was bleeding heavily from the rectum whose doctor told him for 2 YEARS that he had hemorrhoids...when his insurance changed he went to a new
doctor who found COLON CANCER!
There are other more obscure cases with more rare conditions that go YEARS before diagnosis.
With my thyroid, my serum blood work was not seriously abnormal. I went 15 yrs with pain and fatigue only to find that my thyroid gland was malfunctioning anyway. A radio isotope scan showed what blood work did not, and I finally got the treatment I needed. It took about a year for my feet to wake up and my carpal tunnel to recede. Finally when my gland swelled up internally and pressed on the laryngeal nerve, did the endo order the more expensive test. Even with the abnormal scan and goiter, he made me wait 6mos to see if it would resolve on its own, which it did not. When I took these tests back to my internist, she comments..." I always thought you were hypo, but unless the tests show something, I won't treat!" Lovely!
We have very high tech medicine today. BUT many people do not get better treatment because of that.
The new information on mercury content in our high fructose corn syrup foods is alarming. TV commercials are now promoting this nasty sugar, saying "you know what they say about it?"..and the other actor says, "yeah, what?" and goes on to tell how normal it is.... all the while it has 5 times the mercury in it than fish!
Drinking water from a water bottle? Say hello to Bisphenol A which is poisoning babies and children like the mercury HFCS in juices, which may be setting them up for who knows what disorders as they get older?
I wonder how many people have had Cipro or Levaquin for an upper respiratory infection and turned up later with neuropathy symptoms and never make that connection?
Get a flu shot this year? Don't think these are innocuous either!
People with neuropathy do get angry. People with chronic anything get discouraged, depressed etc.
When PN starts, in younger people, like mine did so long ago, doctors don't really think it is serious. I was told, "what do you expect when you stand on your feet for 13 hrs a day at a high stress job?"
We live complicated lives. We get exposed to many nasty substances that are hidden in our food/water. We catch viruses and infections that do subtle things to our immune systems.
We paint our homes, strip antique furniture, buy a new home with formaldhyde fumes and carpet outgassing, use teflon cookware ( fumes from which will kill pet birds), take drugs for various other problems, etc etc and think, none of this will make us sick.
The bottom line is that our bodies CAN heal if given the opportunity. People with PN really have to be detectives.
This requires homework, and patience.
One patient may have a drug reaction, another may have arsenic in his well water undetected, another a diet deficient in Omega-3s and high in HFCS, another an autoimmune issue triggered by an infection or vaccine (GBS).. how will all of these respond to one cure? Is there one cure for them all?
I don't think so. Some may be demyelinating. Some may have mitochondrial damage within the cell wall itself. Some may have toxicity at the dendrite endings. Some may have combined effects, some at the spinal cord level. Some may have only central pain issues after an initial trigger (Fibro) in the brain.
PN is really complicated. And doctors just do NOT spend that time with you. They may think it will be self limiting, because some do heal up.
Back to Mystery Diagnosis on TV. Last week was a young man with a GI food gastroenteritis. He was sick for many days and finally went to the ER...and they did tests and gave treatment and support for it. He lost 30 lbs in a very short time. While he was there, he started to develop a neuropathy in his legs. All the doctors and nurses ignored it. When he became paralyzed finally, someone sent for a neurologist, who then diagnosed GBS and put him on IVIG. Explaining to the camera.. Campylobacter food poisoning is known to cause GBS!
This guy ate chicken that was contaminated and poorly cooked at a friend's house.
His PN didn't show up right away either! So then I wonder how many others get milder forms of this food borne illness and go on to develop a PN? Very complicated. And sadly not all doctors know everything. That is why we all need to keep up with what is going on in medicine, not just PN, because illnesses spill over and cause other things as well.
(of course they didn't say what drugs they used to treat the gastroenteritis...if Flagyl and/or Cipro...then the drugs could have caused the PN).
I was not happy with either of my doctors. I stopped going to the endo. My internist continues with me. And I continue to be my own doctor in some ways as well.
And with all our high tech medicine, we still do not have a cure for cancer or some other common things. We have resistant strains now of many dangerous bacteria, which are very frightening (resistant clostridia and MRSa). Medicine isn't doing too well with those either.
