[JimBobWay]

I was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy about seven years ago now and no real cause. It is only in my left arm and I have loss a lot of muscle mass, strength, and flexibility in that arm/hand. Pain comes and goes depending on how much I’ve used that arm. At 56 years old, I’ve loss my ability to work out much now; I used to be pretty heavy into martial arts. I know if I even do a lot of walking, I end up terrific pain under my left shoulder blade and down my arm. The pain had gotten so intense that I was unable to even lift my arm to wash. Most of the time I am able to get along just fine. I do not have any issues with my other arm or legs.

After my last visits with the doctors, all they wanted to do is watch to see how I progress. The only thing I was told to do was take vitamin B12. I have been but now that I’ve started to research more, I see a lot of other vitamins I can take and I’ll be looking into that.

I am also interested into holistic medicine and treatments and if anybody has had any experience in that.

I’ll be reading a lot here and learning – great looking forum…

Jim

[glenntaj]

--though sorry for having a condition or conditions that led you here,

Please do come over to the neuropathy forum, if you haven't already, and post some details:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/fo...sprune=-1&f=20

A neuropathy that is limited to one area like an arm implies some sort of pressure/compression related etiology, or possibly a condition like thoracic outlet syndrome (we have a forum here for that, too):

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html

What type of investigation into causes have you had?

[watsonsh]

welcome JimBobWay

I am sory to hear about your arm. Hve the docs ever talked to you about Thoracic outlet syndrome?

SOme of what you describe sound similar. Here is a link to that forum especially the shoulder blade pain.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html

[azoyizes]

Hello Jim, and welcome to NeuroTalk! This is such a nice place with many friendly, caring, and helpful people.

We're so glad you found us!

I see you've already been looking around. Please feel free to ask for help if you need it.

[JimBobWay]

I have not heard about Thoracic outlet syndrome, looks like I've got a lot of reading ahead. Great site/forum. I'll post more of the multitude of tests and results later. Thanks for the welcome
Jim

[tamiloo]

Welcome to NT Jim...glad you found us...I guess I should say welcome to the family!! You have been given some great sources of info...hope you will just reach out anywhere!! Sorry about your pain..

[Darlene]

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help. We are all here to assist each other as possible.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene

[Kitty]

Hello Jim and welcome to NeuroTalk! Sorry you have to be here but you’ve found a great place for support and understanding. Join in wherever you feel comfortable. We’re happy you’ve joined us!

[(Broken Wings)]

Welcome

I have just now found my way into a holistic practitioner's door. I like the akaline water and most of what's going on with the plan. I'm not a good patient. I have done the Epson and Salts and the supplements yet. Will want to start Sunday night and Monday for sure.

I can't expect much for my buck if I don't comply with what I'm told to do. Detoxing sounds like something my body needs.

I've done the ionic foot spa. It's interesting but I ask her to just let it run in the water for 30 mintues, without feet being in the water just to see what color the water itself turned. She didn't do that so I'm going to ask again. It's just my nature to be scientific with what I'm doing. If it helps, great... for whatever reason. I don't have to understand everything, but if it's within reason I want to test it and see what it does.

She also does deep tissue massages. I'm going to give that a try too. I don't think that's going to be too pleasant but I'm going to do it anyway. I'll try it for 3 months to see if there's improvement, if I can afford it.

I'm open-minded and want to get healthier. There's lots of info on the internet about holistic medicine. But if I feel better, or can do better, I'll continue to go there.

...oh, yeah. She has been using the LED and infrared lights in her office for years. She says they've helped many of her patients.

(Broken Wings)


Not done a lot of stuff but will get to it.

(Broken Wings)

[JimBobWay]

Thank you all for the nice welcome.

I've been doing a lot of reading on this forum; what a great place to learn. I have also had my doctors send me their files so I can read what they actually said about my condition.

The last doctor I went to a few years ago was hard to understand because his accent was so strong. I should have asked for a report back then. What I did get from him was that there weren’t any cures available other than taking good care of my self and supplemental vitamins.

I was reading about the TOS symptoms, which sounded like I may have a good lead on something other than what my doctor suggested; however, now that I have my reports in hand I find that option not really available.

The prognosis was Amyotrophy, moreover, HNPP. This was based on the DNA results that there is a deletion of the PMP22 gene. I am very fortunate that it affecting only one arm and I have not had any symptoms on other parts of my body. I went for quite some time without any progression until recently; the past few months I have noticed a decline in strength and flexibility. I know if I over use this arm I end up with a lot of pain under the shoulder blade (muscle tension) and the whole nerve coming from the neck down to my wrist.

I’ll be searching the web looking for others with this anomaly and sites to learn from; any help in searching will be greatly appreciated.

Jim