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-   -   One and ONLY symptom?? (https://www.neurotalk.org/peripheral-neuropathy/40226-symptom.html)

Cowcntry 03-01-2008 09:49 PM

Tested For....
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by cyclelops (Post 227580)
This is a long shot and I would think your doc did test you for this. Most of the rarer sequela do not appear neurological except for transverse myelitis....there is also that osteomyelitis possibility...Like I said this is a long shot, but animal bites and scratches, with symptoms developing afterwards, are always suspect. You indicated that you had an infection and I wonder if they cultured the wound for any organism?

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic84.htm

Glenn is utterly correct when he says that a lot of SFN never progresses past burning sensations in the feet, and hopefully, the disease process will stop and begin to reverse.

They did test me for cat scratch but they ruled that out. I didn't have much puss, but I was on antibiodics and that cleared it up, but my healing takes longer cause of the diabetes.

The report came back as polyneuropathy and this is what the doctor assumed that I got this from diabetes. I of course gave him my history with the diabetes... I never took care of myself until last year, so I guess I did do at least 9 years of damage to my nerves.

You don't know how bad I wish I had the SFN and it would reverse itself. But I am pretty sure this was caused by diabetes and the damage is done. :mad:

Thanks,
Michele :hug:

Cowcntry 03-01-2008 10:04 PM

Bet you are right....
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dahlek (Post 227811)
similarly Cycleops...but there is really very little connections. SOOO what my thinking is maybe... Michelle did you get a tetanus shot afterwards? Or have you had a cold or pneumonia rite before or after the cat's scratch? Do you know the cat's history? Was it a pound cat, stray or do you know the 'family' the kitten came from?
Pound cats are usually checked out for most common and many esoteric diseases that may be common to your area.
Tetanus shots can cause reactions- tho quite quite rare. Any pneumonia or getting a flu shot at the same time mite have 'started' something, but again, it's quite quite rare.
Something else does seem to be 'going on', and I can sense the distress in your writing. I've walked in similar shoes [can't wear those anymore]. What I would do is go to the stickies and read posts here about the diagnosis of various PNs...and especially the diabetic and auto-immune aspects...Not to scare you, mind you! Not at all! Just to give you a handle on what kinds of testing should be done, and how docs normally do them [aside from glacially slowly-especially when numbness is marching thru your body]. Remember that stress with neuropathies is a rampant issue. Also, that eliminating soo ever many things is the key to neuropathy diagnoses. And, DUH? Who wouldn't be stressed out? Thing to do is read, learn figgure out things in your life that could add or not to this big problem and sort it all out in your mind. Tho far easier said than done. Be sure to get copies of all your tests and med records as you can get them! They will be invaluable to understanding things in the long run...[MRI's for example, come with summary sheets for the docs, sometimes you can get copies thru the doc offices, but others you have to go to the MRI places]
Bet you still have that cat! :hug:'s - j

Yes, I still have tha cute cat!! :eek: He was a baby when I got him, he was the cutest persian I ever did see. A friend of mine sells Persians and that's where I got him from. But I did get a cat scratch test done after he did that, lyme disease and a few other blood samples, but nothing. I didn't get sick from my cat when he did this, but I did get a booster after it happened just in case

I have noticed when I get stressed the pain comes back on me at full force. Now I am getting shooting pains that go down my back, in my butt, down my arms and wierd pains in my stomach walls. I don't know what the heck is going on there. I have had diareah for 3 weeks now.......... Augh I feel lke such a painful hot mess.

Is it me, or does anyone think, why me? Should I not be out of that stage already? I know my antidepressant isn't strong enough because I cry everyday about this and when I get the pain, its two-fold.

Thanks,
Michele :hug:

Silverlady 03-01-2008 11:26 PM

Another idea
 
Diarrea for that long isn't a sign of diabetic neuropathy. Have you seen a GI specialist? You need to be seen by a doctor that specializes in problems with the stomach, colon and the intestinal tract. Have you been tested for gluten sensitivity? Problems with gluten can cause neuropathy too. We have a wonderful gluten forum here at Neurotalk. http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum13.html

Getting your sugars under control and taking good care of yourself with diet and exercise (properly done with a physical therapist) can sometimes cause healing of the nerves. One of our faithful members...Brian...had pre-diabetes and has actually healed with his diet and supplements being carefully watched. It would be to your advantage to read the stickies at the top of the forum. http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread177.html

I know you are depressed over what has happened. You don't say how old you are. I have small fiber sensory neuropathy, axonal neuropathy, and some autonomic neuropathy. It burns, cramps, squeezes, makes my back feel like it's breaking, and bones are actually breaking. But by fighting back, I've managed to start driving again, yesterday I had lunch with 5 women I worked with for about 15 years, shopped to buy myself a new hat. And today, we looked at new cars. I drove three of them. That's hard work. Walking around parking lots to look at cars. I've only been off crutches for a couple of weeks. I broke my ankle, thoracic spine, multiple breaks in my sacrum, 3 breaks in my pelvic bones. All at the same time with maybe a couple of months between the worse breaks. Did I cry? You betcha Lone Ranger. But I refuse to stay down. After the initial shock of finding out that all of that pain was caused by more breaks, I started fighting back. Oh and I forgot to mention, these breaks were on top of the neuropathies.

I'm going to buy a new car. Mine isn't safe for me to leave town in. Not dependable any more. And I want to leave town in order to shop for the supplies I use in my jewelry business. Yes, I have a jewelry business. And it is growing. Sometimes I can't feel my hands and picking up the little pieces to do the work is difficult. Sometimes they hurt so badly that I can't use the tools I need. But I refuse to quit.

You can overcome the depression. Strong emotions are a killer for neuropathy. Get plenty of good food. Take vitamins and supplements. Take your B12. Watch those sugars. Get out and see people even if you have to do it in a wheelchair. Get your doctor to order physical therapy for you. Some people benefit by using a ReBuilder. There are threads on here about using one.

And if you need to rant, cry, or even celebrate something good, we are all here for you.

Billye

kiewa 03-02-2008 06:37 AM

Thanks for posting this link. I found it quite succinct & informative. ....Why is it that a policy from an insurance company is more informative than my neuro! :)

Best Wishes
Steve

kiewa 03-02-2008 06:54 AM

....just a footnote to my previous post.
As a new member I cannot yet post links, so I could not "quote" the link in my response.

Best Wishes
Steve

glenntaj 03-02-2008 07:14 AM

My knowledge of neuropathy--
 
--just comes from the hard-won expereince of having had a most unusual presentation (a full-body acute onset burning syndrome) that led me to do an enormous amount of research and compile a large database, much of which is available through links here and at some other boards (the Internet is a wonderful thing for those of us with weird health problems).

Yes, diabetes is the most common cause of neuropathy, such that if one has nerve symptoms, especially painful small fiber ones, most doctors are ready to attribute all of them to imparied glucose regulation. But it's certainly possible that you had a "smoldering" neuropathy for a long time due to diabetes that was greatly exacerbated by the infection--which would have put your immune system into overdrive, and there are plenty of immune mediated neuropathies--or even from the antibiotics (neuropathy is not an uncommon side effect from some of the more powerful ones, such as Flagyl).

There is a situation known as the "double crush phenomenon", which basically means that one may have something assaulting the nerves that causes no or minimal symptoms, but if another neurotoxic situation is added, one may trip over into major symptoms--the two assaults are just too much for the nerves. This often happens, for example, when diabetics get additonal compressive forces on nerves and develop carpal tunnel (or tarsal tunnel), or, as in my case, already damaged nerves became more prone to spinal arthritis radiculopathy (inflammation of nerve roots near the spine).

See:

http://www.emedicine.com/orthoped/by...l-syndrome.htm

http://www.emedicine.com/pmr/topic21.htm

http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/14/09/04.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/en...indexed=google

mrsD 03-02-2008 08:43 AM

antibiotics?
 
Do you recall what antibiotic you were given and for how long?

Some drugs cause neuropathy.

It doesn't have to be a "cat" pathogen you had. It could have been plain old
staph aureus which many people have living on their skin daily.

cyclelops 03-02-2008 09:27 AM

I would not wish SFN on anyone.

Small fiber neuropathy=polyneuropathy. It is very seldom reverses. I don't have diabetes, but I have small fiber neuropathy, which is polyneuropathy, because it affects more than 'one' major nerve, and I have sensory, motor and autonomic forms of it. I don't have diabetes, I have exactly the result of what happens to a diabetic, either due to my genetics or due to an anterior horn cell disease.

"Small" fiber does not imply a small problem, not just feet. I can suggest researching autonmic neuropathy to get a good idea of what small fiber neuropathy can involve, not to mention sensory and motor neuropathies.

Small fiber neuropathy develops in many diabetics and diabetes is the number one cause of small fiber neuropathy. 25% of people with small fiber neuropathy, or polyneuropathy, have no apparent reason for it, and of those 42% are thought to have untreatable hereditary PN, and the other 16% are thought to be Celiacs.

Polyneuropathy simply means more than one nerve is involved as opposed to mononeuropathy. It makes no implication on the kind of fibers involved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowcntry (Post 228016)
They did test me for cat scratch but they ruled that out. I didn't have much puss, but I was on antibiodics and that cleared it up, but my healing takes longer cause of the diabetes.

The report came back as polyneuropathy and this is what the doctor assumed that I got this from diabetes. I of course gave him my history with the diabetes... I never took care of myself until last year, so I guess I did do at least 9 years of damage to my nerves.

You don't know how bad I wish I had the SFN and it would reverse itself. But I am pretty sure this was caused by diabetes and the damage is done. :mad:

Thanks,
Michele :hug:


Cowcntry 03-02-2008 09:18 PM

Sfn
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by cyclelops (Post 228192)
I would not wish SFN on anyone.

Small fiber neuropathy=polyneuropathy. It is very seldom reverses. I don't have diabetes, but I have small fiber neuropathy, which is polyneuropathy, because it affects more than 'one' major nerve, and I have sensory, motor and autonomic forms of it. I don't have diabetes, I have exactly the result of what happens to a diabetic, either due to my genetics or due to an anterior horn cell disease.

"Small" fiber does not imply a small problem, not just feet. I can suggest researching autonmic neuropathy to get a good idea of what small fiber neuropathy can involve, not to mention sensory and motor neuropathies.

Small fiber neuropathy develops in many diabetics and diabetes is the number one cause of small fiber neuropathy. 25% of people with small fiber neuropathy, or polyneuropathy, have no apparent reason for it, and of those 42% are thought to have untreatable hereditary PN, and the other 16% are thought to be Celiacs.

Polyneuropathy simply means more than one nerve is involved as opposed to mononeuropathy. It makes no implication on the kind of fibers involved.

I wouldn't wish SFN on anyone either. This pain is the worst that I have ever in my life have expierenced. I will be 41 in about 11 days. I know I feel like a baby when this pain comes on, but I can not help it. I have such a low tolerance for pain.

It's possible that I could have gotten something from my cat and the kitty litter when he scratched me. I don't know..... but I guess when you have diabetes and you didn't take care of your sugars for almost 10 years, then you are right the doctor will say it's from the diabetes.

All I know is the test came back as small fiber polyneuropathy and when my feet hurt, it hurts like hell.

I thank all of you for letting me vent and talking. It helps.

Thanks,
Michele :hug:

Cowcntry 03-02-2008 09:23 PM

Antibiodic
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by mrsd (Post 228172)
Do you recall what antibiotic you were given and for how long?

Some drugs cause neuropathy.

It doesn't have to be a "cat" pathogen you had. It could have been plain old
staph aureus which many people have living on their skin daily.

I don't remember what antibiodic I was given. I know I took it for about 10 days, if that.

Thanks,
Michele :hug:


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