Wow, spent 5 hours at Costco pharmacy to get my Rx filled! Since the eye doctor didn't get the report to my Rheumy, and she was at a Doctors conference, I had to get a emergency pill advance, then after two hours, I found out the doctor didn't send my thyroid prescription, so they said it would be another two hours, then when the pager went off, they had filled the pill advance again, so I had to wait some more for the thyroid meds. The lady working the counter was very rude, and after 5 hours, even worse... You would think I would get a apology forthe 5 hour wait... Not the best thing to go through with neuropathy pain.
Wow, $25k would be a lot to pay a month, since I am a cash customer! I wonder if it is inflated for insurance, usually I get 50% off for paying cash.
Dorsal root damage would make sense, where in the spine wold the damage have to occur? My cervical and Lumbar spine look pretty good, but the thoracic spine is in bad shape, with a couple of possible spinal cord restrictions. T12 was had a old fracture, that didn't heal right, it is just under the bottom ribs. The entire T spine has OA and thinned discs. My chiropractor seemed to think I had a couple of bad falls possibly surfing to cause that much damage. I showed my Neurologist the x-ray, he just shrugged and said you can't tell much from x-rays... (he was done with me...)
I will have to read up on the Dorsal root, if it was damaged by SLE, that would fit, or Maybe the fracture? it makes sense that the hydroxyclorquine would not heal a 30 year damaged nerve system, but one can always hope!
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I realize that I would need some MRI views, this was taken 7 years ago...

I read that the dorsal root is usually damaged in the lumbar spine, for me the damage just seems to be to the Thoracic spine...

Damage to the dorsal root is not always something you would 'feel' like a back injury. I have damage to the dorsal root confirmed by a new MRI that specifically looked at the DRG and it was bilaterally enlarged and had increased signal...both consistent with ganglionitis. In my case it is from Sjogren's, in which autoantibodies have attacked the DRG causing PN (pain, sensory loss, allodynia, and loss of proprioception). It's not like I have a back ache...the damage is internal.

That makes sense, since we are talking about antibodies, they can attack anywhere. is there any procedure that will reverse the damage to the dorsal nerves? Or is it one of those diagnoses that have no cure?

No, sorry to say, there isn't. But getting the autoimmune disease under control will help slow progression. IVIG can also help halt progression of neuropathy in AI disease.

This is why it's so important to look for cause and treat early.

Correction: the Neurologist did both the Epidermal nerve density and the sweat gland nerve density tests, (I just got the bill, another $650)
On the calf, the epidermal nerve count was normal, but with the swaet gland nerve density is was low normal, by just one point. The sweat gland nerve density would signal Autonomic small fiber neuropathy. I was going to ask him about the sweat test, but I guess this is similar.
Has anyone gotten this done?it is a fairly new test, I don't think it is fully recognized as a "gold standard"yet.

Testing of autonomic fibers from skin biopsy is not new. It does provide a good indication if there is autonomic dysfunction. BUT, there are more precise autonomic testing that is done if the patient is experiencing autonomic symptoms. QSART, and thermoregulatory sweat test are more specific in some ways...and there are also many cardiac testing for autonomic dysfunction (tilt table, 24 hour BP, etc).

Although autonomic function also comes from small fiber nerves, there are autonomic ganglia along the spine. The autoimmune process can attack this ganglia, just like the dorsal root ganglia.

Do you have autonomic problems?