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.

Thanks,
Michele

Yes, I still have tha cute cat!! 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

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

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

....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

--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

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 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

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

Thanks,
Michele