Well, I went to the neuro last week armed with information I learned here. I have undiagnosed neuropathy which my rheumatologist says is not related to the arthritis and the endo says it is not caused by the diabetes because the A1c is not high enough to cause neuropathy. He did take a list of all my meds last time I saw him and checked to see if they could impact the neuropathy, which has been getting worse and spreading faster than ever. he took me off the simvastatin (sp) I was on for cholesterol. I have to say that the symptoms have decreased somewhat. he said if there was not significant improvement at the next visit he wanted me to go to the Mayo clinic and let them see if they can diagnose it. At this point I am even wondering if it will ever be correctly diagnosed, or if it is, will anything help with it. Seems like all I have is a list of chronic diseases. It is hard sometimes to keep positive about them and feel like there will be answers down the road. On top of everything I have been working close to 60 hours a week for the past few weeks, and looks like that will be continuing for a while. Stress level so high the roseacea has my face looking like one big sunburn!!!! And of course, that makes my face feel like it is burning too, so I guess it kind of balances out the burning on my feet and lower legs.

I am wondering how many of you have gotten an actual diagnosis of your neruopathic condition. If so, how was it diagnosed? I want to discuss this more thoroughly when I go back to the neuro next month. I don't want to simply go in for more tests unless I can have some sort of hope that they will do any good in supplying some answers.

Thanks for any info you can give me.
Elizabeth

--is educate the endo that one does not have to have a diagnosis of frank diabetes to have neuropathy caused by sugar dysregulation; thre has been mounting evidence for some time that impaired glucose tolerance can result in nerve damage, especially the small-fiber kind, well before the hemoglobin A1c levels or fasting blood sugar is highly elevated:

See the following thread:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...nce+neuropathy

And, of course, many autoimmune conditions can cause neuropathy, either through direct antibody attack on nerve or secondary to ischemic/vascular damage that starves nerves of nutrients and allows toxins to accumulate.

It is true that a good quarter to third of all people with neuropathy remain stubbornly "idiopathic"--no cause is ever found. Still, you're entitled to all the testing you can get, and often doctors are not well-versed in possible neuropathy causes or tests for them, which is why I recommend the Liza Jane spreadsheets, which were designed to list tests for investigate neuropathic symptoms (central or peripheral):

www.lizajane.org

Very good for tracking results over time and looking for patterns, as well as suggesting avenues to physicians who don't tend to think outside the box.

Hi Elizabeth,


I have had burning skin for 20 years, and just now we are starting to put the puzzle together. I was put on Remeron for severe depression this winter, and in 4 weeks my skin started to burn. I had the burning pain under control with cymbalta, neurontin and amitriptyline until this time. I stopped the Remeron and the pain settled. Now we are questioning the Amit which I was put on initially for insomnia before I developed neuropathic pain. When I think back the neuropathic burning skin started about four months after the Amit was started I am sure hoping it is your cholesterol drug causing you your problems and you will greatly improove.


Sincerely,
Janet