Unfortunately my general practitioner seems to have got it wrong when he said high levels of Immunoglobulin from the spinal tap - so was a bit acerbic with me this time and gave me a copy of the neuro's letter to take away. It seems the trauma of the tap meant that half the CSF was contaminated with blood but "accounting for this the constituents were normal." Goes on to say "She had paired oligoclonal balance which are not specific and are unlikely to represent CNS disease. As you know her rheumatoid factor is within normal limits and her ENA profile is negative."

Heck this has depressed me - I was so relieved when GP said that something had shown up from the LP and now it seems it was just contaminated by my blood!

All the other serum tests (Glucose, serum ACE, immunoglobulins, VDRL, Lyme serology and cryoproteins) were either normal or negative - nerve conduction normal too as I already knew - including galvanic skin response. I think this was the one he had to keep blowing on to keep it cool enough to operate

MRI showed "only minor small vessel disease" which makes me feel like a dying plant MRI of cervical spine showed "degenerative changes but no evidence of cord decompression .. possible left C6 root change, however this doesn't correspond with her symptoms".

Conclusion seems to be that "despite clinical evidence of a mild small fiber neuropathy there is no supportive evidence on investigations". He says the next stage will be for me to have a skin biopsy "which she is keen to have so all possible investigations are performed". He will therefore be writing to the consultant neuro-pathologist for advice and make arrangements for this once he's heard back.

He refers to Erythromelagia but says there's no evidence of a secondary cause for this. Suggests I try low dose Aspirin (done and dusted!) concludes "I have not found convincing evidence on which to base any increase in her immune suppressive treatment".

Oh well perhaps with my gastric problems and drug intolerences (GP feels dyspesia worsened by Asprin) it's all as well that I'm not about to try any major new approaches anytime soon.

GP suggested that some of my drug intolerences may have been caused by too much introspection! How one consultant's letter plus negative/ normal results can change his attitude towards me in the space of a week - it's amazing! After the most appalling night of stomach and nerve pain I combusted and told him that I haven't got time to be introspective just now - am off north next week to be part of a major inspection of strategic health and care services. I asked him about autonomic neuropathy but he said he didn't think this was likely to be causing my stomach problems

He agreed to let me try stopping Duloxetine to see if my present symptoms improved and the nerve pain remained unchanged. He told me to stay on Omaprazole 2 a day for the time being until the tummy settles back down. End of.

Thanks once more for all of your support.

PS What's the "paired oligloclonal balance" can anyone explain?

PPS And if there's nothing rheumatic going on then why does my ESR fluctuate so much according to how stiff and achy I'm feeling - i.e between 17 and 70? Not that they bother to take full blood counts from me anymore anyway now I'm off immune suppressant meds.