It has been weeks since I had pain of the sort that has dominated my life for years - the burn chill ache deep in my legs, burning hands etc has all but vanished! I still have pins and needles faintly tingling and a creepy crawling right up my legs - warm flushes up my arms and back and neck. But no pain at all? Yippee!!

Instead of pain I do have loss of sensation I think. Could this be the next stage of PN possibly? We've had a terribly stressful time with our house - have moved into more rental accommodation while lawyers, plumbers and timber consultants all try to get things sorted out for us. So I'm tired out and the dizziness has escalated - and when I say dizziness I mean all three types ie disequilibrium, vertigo and dizziness - but only when I'm on my feet. I'm fine when lying down or sitting still. So I don't know whether this is a proprioception thing or a vestibular one or both?

I did find a thorn embedded in one of my toe pads a few days ago which I'd put up with all day as a minor irritant - so numbness is only partial - same with my fingers and my face.

Meanwhile I saw some horrible GP about getting my Vit B12 checked. She agreed but I got a lecture about how this rarely changes. Well mine had gone from 360 to 620 in two years so she was wrong about that at least! Then I told a nurse that I was suffering from severe constipation and stool changes. She gave me Laxido to take twice a day, examined my abdomen and refered me to a GP because she was concerned about what she felt. Told me to bring a stool sample in as well.

Back to horrid GP (only one available - I wonder why?!) who couldn't find nurse's report/ referral and told me I was there on a false pretext, binned my stool sample and patronised me horribly for asking about my high inflammatory markers. I had only met her twice but asked my usual doctor for a printed summary to move to new GP in new locality with. I found she had written on my notes that in her view my symptoms were psychological/ functional and suggested that a referral to some mental health counselling might be the next step for next GP.

I also got my last neuro's letter printed so then found that he had started this functional thing in relation to last year's left sided hemiparesis - which I agree was due to trauma from surgeon cleaning out deep wound infection with no anaestetic, two weeks in hospital from Imuran allergy (pancreatitis) and a UTI sepsis, pneumonia and trauma caused by coming off Cymbalta. I think even horrid GP would have succumbed to a few stroke like events under those circumstances? But the notes also clearly show the nurse referral for abdominal review and her concern. So I've written a letter of formal complaint now and plan to give this to new GP. I would avoid doctors from now on but my face keeps going hot, sore and swelling up and the nurse took me off Amlodopine again to see if it resolved. Unfortnately it hasn't so I need to review Losartan next. All such a muddle!

I see another neurologist in a different much larger teaching hospital at the end of this month. I've googled her and she's a young German woman who specialises in Parkinsons. Not sure what she will make of my crazy journey - if anything.

Meanwhile I still have a diagnosis of RA that has gone astray along the way somehow, paired Oligloclonal bands which no one of the doctors seems to understand, a history of allergies as long as my arm stretching back to infancy, fluctuating inflammatory markers CRP, PV and ESR and a high total protein. Surely these don't go with functional/ psychological do they?

So it's me and my walking stick for the time being - prodding the ground for black holes, spinning if I turn my head quickly, shifting if the lighting changes, having to stop mid stride if the floor patterns or ground surface alters. The best thing about life just now is that I love our new home and location, Spring is here so Raynauds is fading, and am having loads of ideas about how best to represent this anaesthesia business in my drawings/ artwork.
Mat