Hello

Im fairly new to the site. I had cancer and chemo last year. My final treatment was just before Christmas. I was all cleared and released back to work Feb 1st. I started having pain in my feet just a few days after returning.

I went back to my oncologist and they suspected neuropathy from the Cisplatin. First they tried Gabapentin. It knocked me out and made it tough to work. Then they moved me to Amitriptylene but it caused some issues with my remaining kidney.

I was finally sent to a neurologist. He did a few tests and confirmed the neuropathy. Since starting with him my symptoms have gotten worse. My right foot is very weak. I'm having problems lifting back to flat. This is concerning since the neuropathy symptoms from chemo should have stopped. So he sent me for a lumbar MRI last week. I'll see him again Thursday for the results.

I lose track of whats happened and when but I've recently had severe cramping in my right calf and new last week was the vertigo. Every time I lay down or get up the room starts spinning.

The topper the last few weeks was losing my job of 22 years. It was totally unrelated to the issues but still something else to deal with. Any advice on job hunting with health issues would be greatly appreciated. I actually like working but the health problems are going to make a lot of jobs unattainable.

I apologize if this was a bit rambling. I'm pushing through the daily mid-afternoon fatigue but wanted to get my introduction posted.


I forgot to mention above... Neurologist currently has me on 600mg of Horizant and alpha lipoic acid.

--though I'm sorry about what is bringing you here.

Yes, unfortunately, many of the chemotherapy regimes have the side effect of neuropathy, especially those that involve drugs derived from heavy metals, which are notoriously neurotoxic. And the neuropathy may not only occur during the regimen, but well after.

Even some of the vertigo symptoms might be related if the nerves controlling your automomic functions were involved.

The good news is that, over time, many people with chemo-induced neuropathy do improve, though the improvement is often slow, patchy, and can be incomplete. Still, given that you've obviously been through a lot, a more extensive work-up into other possible causes might be indicated here if things are continuing to get worse. None of us are exempt from being "co-morbid" and can have conditions from multiple etiologies.

If you haven't seen it already, our neuropathy section here is very active with a lot of smart people and good advice:

http://www.neurotalk.org/forum20/

Hello jww: The Skeezyks welcomes you to NeuroTalk. I hope you find the time you spend here to be of benefit.