Filipe...

Do you have pain in your feet? I am reading your older posts and I am having trouble finding a description of your pain.

You do say you have good days, and stiff hands. Is your discomfort only in your upper body?

Dear friend,

My name is Filipe and I'm Portuguese.

I'm really very depressed with everything. I've got a 10 month baby that needs a healthy father . My case is really a strange case, or a pure bad luck case. I'm gonna tell you everything and I hope you can tell if my symptoms are real or if they are psycossomatic, or if you think I have Neuropathic pain or not, or if it is reversible or not in my case. Because right now I see Neuropathic Pain as a real ghost and my fear is controling my life.

First of all let me tell you that I'm getting better from day to day. I don't feel burning sensations. I only feel sometimes a "pins and needles" sensation caused by presssure especially when I have tight clothes.

I started exercising with dumbells at home one year ago. One of the exercises made me feel something like an electric shock on both elbows. i started feeling parestesias that turned out to be a burning sensation on both forearms including the hands, and stopped exercising in May 2009. I went to the doctor's who told me it was a tendinitis.I began physiotherapy, and immobilised my arms to make them rest but the pain didn't go away. After one month of physyotherapy I had a tui-na (a very strong massage) massage to the whole body. I felt much worse with that. During the massage I felt electric shocks on my elbows and shoulders. Since that my neropathic pain symptoms have reached its highest level. I felt my skin hyper sensitive, I had a glove sensation on my hands/ arms, and my hands felt very "stiff" and burning. It was a nightmare. After 3 months since I stopped exercising I went to a neurologist and did an EMG that was normal. But the pain was still here. I started taking Lyrica. Then I did a magnetic resonance to my cervical. The result was that all was fine, however, I had a strange reaction /allergy to the MRI. I didn't do contrast. Since then, I got a strange dermatographism, and my pain seemed to spread to the whole body. Both have been decreasing,

My problem now is that it's been seven months since I've stopped that exercise and the pain, although weaker, is still here. I'm afraid I'm the one that is extending this sensation because I got very depressed and scared with the situation. I also still feel the hands "stiff". My blood analysis are fine , so I have no disease.The doctors say I'm fine and I don't need a skin byopsy. I took lyrica only two months.

What scares me nowadays is the fact that I almost sure I damaged my small fibers nerves, so despite I'm getting slightly better from my symptoms (or I think I am) and they are intermitent I'm affraid I already developed a Chronic Neuropathic Pain. I'm also taking Antidepressives and Anxiety pills, and I'm affraid they are the ones who are taking my pain away, is it possible?

So I ask you, do you think I developed a chronic neuropathic pain? Is Dermatographism a symptom of neuropathic pain? Should I perform a skin Biopsy? I'm affraid there is no way of knowing for sure if I have a chronic neuropathic pain because my nerves healed and my brain still receiving pain signals... Wit a normal EMG and a negative Skin Biopsy for nerve fibers loss, there is no reason for neuropathic pain, and no desease right? Even Idiopathic neuropathic pain can be seen on EMGs or skin Biopsys, right?

By the Way is the sensitive of a Skin Biopsy the same as LEPs (Laser Evoked Potentials)?

Thank you, and sorry for the long story,

Filipe

--my first thought would have been that you sustained an injury to the brachial plexus, the "switching station" for many of the nerves that come from the cervical spine and then go to the upper chest, shoulders, and arms, which might have resulted in all sorts of abnormal sensations in the upper body. But you said at a certain point the sensations spread further--to the whole body? (Including the legs?)

The other possibility, especially if you are reporting color changes to parts of your skin, might be reflex sympathtetic dystrophy/comples regional pain syndrome (RSD/CRPS), which has been know to involve skin discoloration and can occur after injury--small afferent fibers contine to fire signals in the absence of stimuli:

http://neuromuscular.wustl.edu/senso...tml#idiopathic

We also have a forum for that condition you should visit:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum21.html

When you damage tissue in the body including nerves, the body sends out inflammatory molecules called cytokines. These increase histamine release and cause redness/swelling etc that we call inflammation. Sometimes these cytokines do not turn OFF, and go haywire, and then the symptoms become confusing.

The reactions following vaccines are often cytokines causing inflammation. People "say" they got the flu from the flu vaccine, but in reality it is the cytokine storm they are experiencing.

Some people are prone to this effect and it can be influenced by diet high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in Omega-3. Increasing Omega-3s and especially fish oil, may suppress some excessive cytokine signaling.

Being under stress and having alot chronic fear will also increase the inflammatory response. So doing some relaxation exercises, or learning auto-hypnosis can reduce these subjective triggers for pain. Some people have been here and found Yoga done gently improves their PN.

I hope you don't have RSD....once this starts, it can be a very long painful path. At this time no one really understands RSD...and so why it occurs in some but not others is still unknown. There is an interesting study showing that incidence of RSD after foot surgeries was reduced by giving Vit C before and after the procedure. I find that very intriguing.

Hi,

I don't have any swelling or color changes on my skin. And the dermographism started with the MRI (very intriguing). Oher thing very odd, is that my hands still feel very stiff. My guess is that my nerves are still regenerating and pain is slowly going away. But what scares me is the explenaion that once you damage your nerves you are condeimed for the rest of you life . Is this true?

No it is not true. In fact the peripheral nerves can regenerate.

What is true is that a certain form of neuropathy called reflex sympathetic dystrophy has a poor prognosis, but it is not that common.

If a toxin or poison or whatever is continually present, and constantly harming the nerves, and is not removed then yes, poor outlook for that.

Some nerves may be permanently damaged, but that is usually done surgically. For example I had surgery to my left instep for a vascular tumor when I was 12. ( I had over 30 stitches) The area was numb for about 20 years, but it is no longer numb today. They all grew back.

If you sever the spinal cord, it does not regenerate, those nerves are CNS nerves. Medical science is still looking for ways to repair that, to help quadraplegics and paraplegics.

When nerves die because of a genetic hereditary disorder, they do not come back either.

This is why I suggested you stop reading the net... you can find all sorts of confusing, and perhaps inaccurate scary things on the net.

You said:

"No it is not true. In fact the peripheral nerves can regenerate."

And I ask, but when they regenerate does it means that the pain (pharestesia) also go away? That is my great doubt and fear...

For intances you wait 20 years for your nerves to regrow after the cirugy