I've been suffering fatigue, poor concentration for several years. In March, I had a virus/high temperature and started to get burning in my palm and fingers. A month later, I had another virus/temperature, and since then nerve pain has spread to all four limbs.

Symptoms include muscle cramps, it feeling like a saw's been taken to my wrists, needles and burning in my toes, sensations like my fingers breaking. My walking's also been affected. Legs sometimes go weak, and feels like I'm drunk below the waist. Muscles in shins and forearms sometimes go rock hard. It feels like needles are pushed in my finger joints. There are times when the nerve pain leaps around my body like tasmanian devil. In fingers, then hip, toes, arms... a few seconds in each... brief pause, then off it goes again! It's like living with a small, malevolent gnome who's equipped with a hammer and a spike.

MRI scans show nothing. Neck x-ray shows some deterioration, but I've no pain in my neck. Traction tried... no change in the nerve pain I had in the hand (at the time of the traction).

They've tried me on gabapentin (no impact on nerve pain, but I felt as high as a kite - and incredibly happy!). Walking was getting worse quite rapidly and I was existing on 3-5 hours sleep a day with nerve pain preventing me from sleeping.

Then they moved me to pregabalin. A little improvement in nerve pain, definite improvement in walking and some improvement in sleep, but some side effects I don't like. My hands feel like they've been dipped in oil (a really horrible sensation). I have 'brain farts'. I do a lot of writing, and reread a paragraph to find 'word substitution' and on rare occasions I've missed a letter out (imagine a paragraph with no 'e's). I also feel grumpy. Ratty as hell. It's not me, I don't like it.

Next we're probably going to try duloxetine as the side effects of pregabalin aren't pleasant for me.

The neurologist is convinced I don't have MS. While I do have diabetes, the symptoms all started in the hands and only recently moved into the feet. I don't have the tender spots you'd experience with fibromyalgia. Tests have ruled out lupus. The closest I have to a diagnosis is an odd variation of chronic fatigue syndrome and maybe a bit of diabetic neuropathy too.

..the most recent weird symptom is a feeling that my hands are slimy. I can't find any reference to this on the net. Washing doesn't help. It lasts anywhere up to a day, then *poof*... it's gone? Argggggg

Does anyone have any ideas (or does my ex-mother-in-law have a voodoo doll and set of pins)?

Joe