Originally Posted by Mere

I was also diagnosed with skin punch biopsy as having SFN. I also have dysautonomia (which I am told is related to the SFN) and undifferentiated connective tissue disease (arthritis and autoimmune). My SFN started - in a frank sense - about 15 months ago when I was hospitalized for intense abdominal pain and diagnosed with gastroparesis. Although... I have had dysautonomia for about 17 years. I suffered "pins and needles" in my left hand with severe pain in my upper arm. It still acts-up. I also had numbness in my mouth, face and head for quite a while. The face/head/mouth problem slowly dissipated and has not returned... fortunately...

The worse for me is the dysautonomia. When I have severe dysautonomia, I feel like I am going to die... literally... when I suffer from that... not to get too dramatic, but that is how I feel... Luckily, it only flares in a dramatic proportion every few months, or so. I feel like Sh** every day, but, I get along. I have even started exercising in the hopes that it will help. It is difficult and I miss going to the gym sometimes, but I push myself and if I am too sick, I don't go.

I have these problems but I do not have a definitive diagnosis as to why this is happening. My doctors think it is all autoimmune - but my autoimmune studies are inconclusive - even though I have inflammatory arthritis and other AI symptoms (much like Lupus), my titers are negative.

I have learned to just "hang in there". Although at times, it just feels all to difficult to do so...

In other words, I understand how you feel.

Mere