Today new symptoms have appeared. Little "zaps" in different places. Throughout the day, like an electric zap, or tingle, does not hurt but it will happen in my leg, then an hour later my arm, then back.

While it is not much now, barely felt, it has me scared.

Damaged nerves can play all kinds of painful tricks. You can have burning, numbness, tingling, electric shocks, and a host of other sensations. Some are tolerable and some severe.

Are you seeing a neurologist?

I found that not knowing what is causing symptoms of any kind is always a frightening issue. Once I know what is going on, I can deal with it a lot better. The not knowing really is frightening.

Keep us posted.

Hi Stacy,

I had something similar happen to me. One day out of the blue I started noticing what I have come to call "fireworks" because the zaps were so different from the typical sunburn-like pain which I feel. I think it helped for me to visualize them as the beautiful bursts of ariel fireworks (rather than white lightning?). Rather than being scared (well, ok, I was a little worried) I was able to take the attitude of "oh my, this is different, let's see what happens next." Fortunately, it seemed to go away after about a day and 1/2. Although every once in a while, I still get "fireworks" but it didn't progress into anything else.

I hope this little story helps a little bit. Try not to worry to much, just take it as it comes and see where it goes.

Mike

I had some pretty awful "fireworks" at the crescendo of my toxic drug reaction to lisinopril. Now I have very few of these, and mostly they are in my left foot which has the complex scar and spurring in the ankle (as per my recent Xrays).

I think stress will do it, as I was having major stress with that drug reaction as well.

It is possible that once nerves are irritated by something, they remain on hyper vigilant alert and perhaps get set off with very little stimulus. Just 2 days ago, I had pain shooting in the sural nerve area of that ankle, and so I put on the mag lotion just over that part (which I tend to ignore because of its location). The zaps stopped within minutes! I have to wonder if the zaps are revealing micro-circulation issues in various tissues of the body.

Inflammation triggers the local release of cytokines, and they perhaps are the culprits. These chemicals are in all our cells, waiting for some trigger/signal to be released. They don't as a rule circulate far... and typically remain localized.

That new info regarding fibro, and nerve bundles in the palms, acting as signalers for circulation changes, intrigues me. Could be connected to PN perhaps?

cytokines and fibro pain:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post977893-47.html

nerves in palm and circulation changes:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/06...gia/56233.html

No, I am not currently being treated by a doctor. Honestly, I see no point. The treatment is the same no matter the diagnosis, which is simply pain meds. I am not ready to go on pain meds until I HAVE to.

It's just scary, like it's a prelude of awful things to come.

Thanks for sharing everyone.

Even though I am so much better these days, I can relate to the stress you are experiencing. Every time I feel a bit less good than the previous day, my initial reaction is "oh ****, it's back, and now it's going to get worse". It takes a while to settle down and realize that stress about things to come will solve nothing and will probably make the symptoms worse. (I still secretly panic though )

Now, I don't want to hi-jack your thread, but:

I had missed that information before (probably because I assumed that fybro has nothing to do with PN ) and now I wonder too. Cytokines (like IL-6 en TNF) are produced, according to Sears, as byproducts of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, not only in the blood stream, but also in fat cells. In fact, they are the only way for eicosanoids to start an inflammatory reaction, as eicosanoids can not enter the bloodstream, where cytokines can.

I now wonder if my ridiculously positive reaction to quitting sugar and starting to eat healthy (+ fish oil) reduced the pain by limiting the number of cytokines.

It's a long shot, and I know the article talks about cytokines released from white blood cells instead of fat cells, but I'm just wondering if our "damaged nerves" are highly sensitive to cytokines?

Hi Stacy,

Seeing a doc doesn't necessarily mean you need to go on pain meds. I do not take any oral medication for my "zapping electrical shocks". I use a TENS unit or Lidoderm patches. I am on so many other oral prescriptions for other conditions and have so many contraindications that taking meds for the nerve pains was more than I could deal with at the time. I have done better with NON-internal relief methods, but that is just me. Sometimes just knowing WHAT is going on can be a big help in dealing with the pain. Some times the sooner something is diagnosed, the better the outcome and control. Not always but sometimes. It took years before I was diagnosed and I have learned that the damage done during that time has made things worse.

Wishing you the best.

I am sorry that happened to you. I hope it goes away. With so many things, it can go away the next day.