I've been diagnosed with idiopathic PN for the last 2 years.

During the last month or so, I've been having my hands -- on both sides -- develop numbness during the night. When I wake up and get things moving again, it clears up.

Anyone else have these symptoms?

Could it be a clue to underlying issues -- e.g. circulation?



As always, thanks in advance to my fellow travelers on this unfortunately PN journey...

Do you think that hand problem from your PN - is the PN in your hands / arms??
Or could you have some sort of repetitive strain injury?

Carpal tunnel can cause hands to tingle and fall asleep.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome can have those symptoms also?
But most likely you would have some neck and /or shoulder pain if it is TOS.

we do have a TOS forum with a RSI sub forum if you think it could be due to a repetitive injury. {or whiplash or some sort of upper body hit, bump or fall...}
TOS/RSI useful sticky thread - lots of info -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

Hope that you find out if it is PN or another underlying issues. Sometimes it is just difficult to know until other symptoms comes along.

Trish

Carpal tunnel is neuropathy. My hands do that too, not all the time anymore, but it still happens. My carpal tunnel was diagnosed long before I found out about neuropathy. If it continues, talk to your doctor about an RX for hand braces, or just buy some yourself...wear them at night and see if it helps. You must be holding your hands a certain way while sleeping, and pressing on the nerve, causing the numbness.

there could be pressure on the nerves anywhere from the vertebra to the wrist....good luck

--compression on the nerves and lack of circulation to the pressure of the position.

I certainly have both, and also suffer from developing numbness in certain parts of the body if I keep them in certain specific positions too long. Sitting too much on my left thigh, for example, will slowly bring on the feeling of the limb "falling asleep", which slowly ebbs when I shift or get up. And I have an unfotunate tendency to lean on my left elbow while reading or working at the computer, which will produce those symptoms in my ulnar distrubution.

While it's kind of difficult to explain, I can distinguish between the "circulatory" effect and the "direct nerve" effet--the numbness/tingling has a slightly more prickly, less global quality when the nerves are involved, and the circulatory issues fade faster upon pressure release.

What kind of testing have you had to find the cause of your neuropathy? A number of causes--vascultic autoimmune, diabetes/glucose dysregulation--involve a mechanism in which circulation to the nerves in compromised, and they begin to be damaged due to lack of nutrients/oxygen, so circulatory insuffiency can certainly be involved.

My PN started that way about 8 weeks ago. My PN started with numbness in my feet and hands when I wake up and then would go away slowly during the day. Doctor just started me on Lyrica and it is helping the pain and the numdness in my hands and feet go away much quicker now.

Hawky