Wanted to mention something that's not particularly troubling or important, more weird than anything else. I'm just curious to see if anyone besides me experiences it.

Today, when I got up, on two fingers of my right hand, it felt like I had a cobweb or something on them. Not painful, just like there was some very lightweight substance on them. I kept absent-mindedly brushing it off until I realized there was nothing on my hand to brush off.

Over the next few hours, that sensation turned into a mild burning pain that traveled up my fingers and up my forearm to the elbow. Then I went to my aquacise class and it went away sometime during the class.

The other thing is that over the weekend, I got a sharp pain in my right index finger that felt just like I had a splinter in it. I looked and looked for the cause, but there's no foreign object embedded there, not even a tiny one. It still hurts off and on.

This may have nothing to do with neuropathy. I honestly can't tell because I also have fibromyalgia.

Am I the only one who gets little pains like this?

fanfaire,
who is a parade of sensations

Are you aware of the "stocking and glove" sensation in neuropathy, in which it feels like something is gently touching your skin all around, but there is nothing there? Could be that. Although mine doesn't morph into pain, it just remains diffused.

Oh, do I feel silly! Wanna hear something funny? I thought "stocking and glove" just meant numbness from the elbows down and from the knees down, which is something I have experienced.

Thanks for the explanation. Now I can refer to it by its proper term the next time I see a doctor. IF I ever get the guts to go to another one, that is.

fanfaire

You have PN and fibro? How can you distinguish which is which? Or what symptoms are stemming from which illness.

and usually I can trace it back to carrying those plastic sacks of groceries, and straining fingers.

I also had problems with the scanning gun at work (UPC bar codes are now
used for accuracy)...since I left that job in early July, my hands are much better. I even trained myself left handed to do some and it still stressed me out.

I've had weird finger pains frequently. And I have long standing carpal tunnel.

fanfaire,

That is how my small fiber PN originally presented, as stocking/glove. And I never had numbness just burning and like you said a feeling of wanting to brush off or wash off whatever it was.

Anyway, the PN has gone from my hands since my two cervical fusions. But as of a few weeks ago I started to have pain in my forearms, especially the right one, pain in the shoulders, and in particular a tingling in my index finger. Too make a long story short I have radiculopathy again from the C6/C7...no impingement just contact with the nerves. I have just aggravated that level is all.

Sooo...as of two days ago I had a Neurologist appointment as a follow up. She did another EMG and also tested me for carpal tunnel. I DO have slight carpal tunnel in my right wrist...nothing too serious yet. She told me to wear a wrist splint which I have been doing. And it is helping with the hand pain and my finger is not tingling. And I also have an appointment with my spinal PM for an injection to get that nerve calmed down.

I realize that you are speaking of PN but I just wanted to throw that out there. I had such burning in my forearms several weeks ago that I thought I would have to put them in slings. Just know that intense pain in your index finger IS symptomatic of the C7...so is tingling. But, geez, it can be so many things too. But if you look at a dermatome chart, you can see how the nerve travels to the index finger.

I guess my whole point is that while I am a spinal patient...I do or have had PN. I just stay on top of the whole mess because I need to know if and when there are changes in my neck due to the fusions. So, as it stands for now...radiculopathy (nerve root contact) and slight carpal tunnel. But it all manifested in the way you are speaking of. It is such a pain sometimes to get it all figured out...I know!

--radiculopathy is just a particular kind of neuropathy--the kind that comes from problems with the nerve roots.

One can have both radiculopathy and other peripheral nerve problems--I certainly do, with my idiopathic acute onset body-wide burning neuropathy--now resolving--and my C6/C7 right side radiculopathy in my right thumb/index finger/third finger/dorsal and ventral hand (not resolving, and varying--I do have a bone spur in that area, and may need to have a foraminotomy one day, to get the pressure off the space the nerve root exits from).

The sensation of having something on the skin that's not really there is one of the most common symptoms of nerve disruption--along with pain, numbness, tingling and the like. It can be produced at any level along a nerve, from origin to terminal target. Some people say they get feelings as if an insect is crawling along their limb, or water is dripping down it. There are so many ways for the brain to interpret these erroneous signals.

Fanfaire--you're not wrong--"stocking-glove" has been used to indicate a certain common type of neuropathy pattern/distribution, but it also can refer to the feeling of having those things on when you don't.

Glenn,
If I'm not mistaken, isn't the autoimmune form of PN usually noted for it's "stocking and glove" presentation? And if so, then the Sjogren's could cause this presentation, right?

Billye

Oh yes! I have diabetic neuropathy (severe pain until exactly 17 days ago...for eight months) and in addition to the daily regular pain, I would have EXTREME pains all over my body. I might be sitting in a chair and all of a sudden it would feel like i had been stung horribly by a scorpion or something in one of my thighs, by stomach, a leg/arm...etc. Or suddenly one of my fingers might feel as if someone had just hammered a nail into the end of it...and on and on I could go....strange, horrible pains in various parts of my body...sudden / brief / but excruciating. I had begun to think I was losing my sanity...until I found out some people just have those...what a relief! (its bad enough to be in that kind of pain but much worse to think you may be crazy too!)

Now that I have been sugar free and virtually pain free for 17 days (woo hoo again!)....I have only had a couple of those pains and hope they will eventually leave me forever!

--have a stocking-glove distribution, especially if the autoimmune attack is directed at the myelin sheath (as opposed to the nerve fiber, or axon, itself), as this disrupts the signal most towards the endpoints of the nerves.

It's not a hard/fast rule, though. Some autoimmune neuropathies affect the whole body, and don't necessarily start in the feet or hands.

Sjogren's (of course) comes with a full range of distributions. Often, whether one would experience the stocking-love distribution here depends on the site of the nerve attack. If the small fibers are affected primarily, one would expect to have symtpoms first in hands/feet. But Sjogren's is also notable for attacking the dorsal root ganglia (technically, a neuronopathy), which would produce non-length-dependent symptoms that could strike anywhere. People with Sjogren's (unfortunately) sometimes report report symptoms in the peroneal nerve, the trigeminal region, the medial/ulnar nerves of the arms . . .in essence, anywhere in the body there is moisture gland inflammation.