Quote:
Originally Posted by glenntaj
It does sound, though, as if some other areas should be explored to determine what exactly is causing this. From what you've written, the symptoms could be coming from the spine problems--is there any cord compression? You do mention radiculopathy of the legs--that implies there is some pressure on the nerve roots at some level of the lumbar and/or sacral spine; do any of your imaging reports mention foraminal narrowing or impingment at any levels there? (The foramen are the spaces through which nerve roots pass through as they exit/enter the cord--"radic" is root in Latin.)
And, to examine another possibility, plenty of anti-cancer agents are neurotoxic.
Moreover, you may have an ongoing post-herpetic neuralgia with all those herpes zoster attacks, and those tend to occur within dermatomal distributions similar to radiculopathies.
Is suspect your neuropathy may be multifactoral, with one contibuting factor superimposed on another--and only really detailed analysis and testing might tease out these factors. With motor symptoms, first thing I'd really look at is the spine, though--do you have any recent imaging reports you could share?
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First of all thank you for you interest and input and your very prompt reply.
Multifactoral sounds reasonable. Many things piling up until the scale just tips over. I will ask for a copy of my records.
I only know that the lumbar spine had mild stenosis and 2 mild bulges, cervical and thoracic have moderate moderate strnosis, The herniations I could see on the mri image, and believe me, I usualy can't tell anything on an mri, but I do not know the degree. I suspected some cord involvement because I have mild hyperflexia
which the doc says could be from the cervical and thoracic herniation. One doc wants to look more closely at the discs, the other is vague when I ask about it. Negative plantar reflexes, thankfully. When I was in my 30's I developed calcifications in my thoracic spine and t10 was completely fused. The arthritic disease continued leaving me with what was decribed as the worse bone spurs see by a rheumatologist I refered to 5 yrs ago.
I have received extensive testing. One of my docs is the head of neuromuscular disease at this major teaching hospital. The other is the best doc to get an EMG exam from. Both doctors are also psychiatrists. With their credentials I know I have the best diagonsticians. They are considering compression as an issue. The EMG/NCV showed axonal damage, inflamation, and polyradiculopathy in the L-S spine.
I want to call my oncologist to ask if this could be from taxotere, but I do not want him to feel threatened or think I am complaining about my treatment. I owe him my life.
So my biggest problem really isn't so much as to why this happened. It's the fatigue when I try to walk that scares me.