Eileen, you know I have had a bad neurologist too. Someone else I know has had a bad expierence with their first neurologist as well. I don't get it........ are they all insensitive??

My new neurologist has done more for me now than my first one did. The last appointment I had with my first neurologist, he asked me how I was doing and I told him I felt like my neuropathy was moving into other parts of my body. He said, well thats what happens when you have neuropathy. He didn't even say ok, well lets do some tests to find out whats going on. He just said to me, lets increase your medicine by one and see you back in two months. When I walked out of there, I told myself time for a new neurologist. My new neurolgist is taking me off my neurontin & tegratol and putting me on Lyrica, I am taking the cymbalta for the depression and the pain.
Hopefully the pain management doctor will be able to help him out. I am going to mine next week to have a epidural shot into the disk that is bulging. He is going to place the medicine on both sides....... wouldn't that be something if that took care of my foot pain too? We can only hope and pray. Anytime you want to talk just chat away....... I am on here a few times a day. Take alot of breaks at work to check this site out and to stretch.

I must say, (and somebody back me up here), if he was lifting something, and something popped...and he has been in pain, well, to me it sounds like a visit to an Orthopedist might be in order.

Have you done this already.

Like I said, in my husband's case, the chiropractic neurologist literally saved his life. If the ortho is a no go, might be worth a visit (to a chiropractic/neurologist, that is if you can find one near you).

I assume, he's had back x-rays, etc. etc.mri's????

If so, what were the findings??

I agree with Mel, any pressure on the spinal cord can cause trouble like this, usually [but not always] lower back pressure can affect the the lower extremities and cervical spine can affect the arms & hands, an MRI would be the shot to check this out properly.

Brian

i hope anything helps,been going through this for years..what tests has he been through? i would have a ortho take a look,mri i hope was done..i'm
not doing so hot right now,so please escuse. sue

--that a spinal/orthopedic consult is definitely in order.

The trouble is, symptoms of peripheral neuropathy can be exactly mimicked by those of spinal cord problems, or of radiculopathy--damage to the nerve roots nearest the cord (a special subcategory of neuropathy). Symptoms can include pain, numbness, weird sensations (parastheses) . . .this is part of why investigations into neural symptoms are often so time-consuming (and costly).

If you haven't seen it before, go to the www.lizajane.org site--these spreadsheets were put together as a way of tracking just about any test that might be relevant to neural symptoms (and of suggesting tests to reluctant doctors).

What kind of testing has he had? He should at least be getting MRI's of cervical/thoracic/lumbosacral spine, and probably EMG/nerve conduction studies to see if any disruption in neural signals between spine and extremities can be localized (e.g., stemming from spine, vs. nerve root, vs. farther along the peripheral pathways).

That was my first thought too! If that's the case than there's an underlying, treatable cause for the PN. And that's wonderful news! I hope! If they treat the spine issues the PN will clear up.

The spine, etc., needs to be checked out.

I've seen 4 neurologists since getting PN. Three ranged from arrogant, dismissive, and discouraging to downright abusive. One was adequate. While arrogant, at least he tried (unsuccessfully) to get a differential diagnosis of something treatable.

Why do these incompetent arrogant SOBs make such big bucks and not lose their specialty certification? They might be able to pass tests, but they don't help patients. Any medical help I've gotten for PN over the years is from this and previous forums and my wonderful and super-competent primary care physicians.