Well, this is a relief to hear! I cannot imagine what must have caused that, but I hope it is gone for good and that you don't have to experience anything like that again...

Did this just go away all at once?

Cathie

Hi Cathie,
Yes it started overnight, and was that way all day until I went to sleep that night, then was gone the next morning. Scary.

Do any of you have bodywide muscle soreness? I'm up right now 4:09 a.m. because my left arm is aching. It's sore too. I am having this problem all over my body, anywhere I rub something I find soreness. I mentioned this to my doctor and he pooh-poohed it and said well you are getting old and people have osteoarthritis. It's nothing. But this started all at once, it hasn't been a gradual thing. I started having deep tissue massages like Liza Jane and everywhere the massage therapist rubs is sore, even the attachment points.

Billye

I've just read this thread from it's start to the last by Silverlady...Billye. Am I missing something? For 20 years I have had constant numbness from my lower shoulders to fingertips and from upper thighs to toes with the worst being in my legs/feet from the lower calves down.

Am I to understand that most of you have numbness and the other PN symptoms like tingling, pins & needles, burning, etc., which comes and goes? That there are periods of time when you have no numbness or other symptoms at all? If this is true I find this amazing because my numbness and other symptoms are constant and it's always been constant...the same as my pain is constant and the most severe pain is from my calves down. All the pn symptoms in my extremities vary from mild to severe but they too are always there. If memory serves, it took about 6 months for my PN symptoms to reach the stages it's now in. I've had PN for 20 years and all the symptoms reached it's present stage after the first 6 months or so and has remained this way for the last 19½ years! And now I'm learning that some of you seem to be saying there are periods of time where you have NO symptoms, or at least only some of the symptoms at varying times.

I just find this incredible as I thought everyone's PN symptoms was similar to mine with the exception of varying degrees of severity. It just never occured to me that the pain, pins & needles, burning, stinging, electric like shocks, numbness, etc were sometimes non-existent. None of my symptoms have ever gone away - not for an hour, or 1 minute, or 1 second. They are constant and have been with me all these years. The symptoms in my calves down are constant and severe. The other affected areas run from mild to moderate but they are always there. My pain medication makes life liveable by reducing the pain from the calves down to a tolerable 2 to 4 on the 1 to 10 pain scale and makes the pain in the other areas almost non existent - as long as I don't forget to change the patch when due!!!

Would someone please confirm to me that there are times when they have NO pain, no numbness, no pins & needles, etc etc etc ?

Hi - in regards to having constant symtoms - my PN is pretty much body-wide - but the only real constant is the numbness.... the pain, the tingling, pins and needles, etc.... come and go depending on how worn out I am - and how much physicall stress I've put on my body in the prior day or so (even though the NCS results still show the same amount of damage)........ also, I get IVIG and my foot - which is super numb - starts to tingle during the treatment - and does for the next day or so - and I think its a good thing in that I can tell my body is responding to the treatments in some manner...... (assuming that perhaps the type of PN we have (small fiber, large fiber, sensory, motor etc. - may make a difference?)

PN is a strange creature - I think we all suffer differently!

My numbness in my feet, which is severe, is constant. They have become more numb over time, but the numbness never goes. My pain symptoms do vary from throbbing, to burning to stabbing. My feet also hurt the worst. The only constant pain that I have is the broken bones feeling on the entire bottom of my feet, everytime I stand or take a step. Its always there, sometimes worse than others but always there.

Now I am quite variable. In the past before my thyroid was "fixed" I had '
constant foot pain (like walking on broken glass).

I was left with some numbness in the tips of the two middle toes..which has
not gone away.
My carpal tunnel comes and goes too, depending on use of the hands.
Right now, I am working full time (not for long) and it is flaring up. Also my car
has been giving off fumes...new fumes...and my hands are much worse. I think
that might be connected. I am wearing my braces at night again.

I have epidsodes of burning in my feet..that is worse in the hot weather.
And after certain foods...some tomato sauces set them off. When cold weather comes, my feet don't burn much at all. Very infrequently I get a shooting pain in either foot..but that does not last long. When I had an infection last year (upper respiratory) I had full body burning for about 2-3 days. That was very unpleasant, and the first time for me. I do alot of supplements, as you know, and I think that helps tremendously for me.

--the searing, bruning pain ones--have been slowly receding over time (though I'm still prone to flares there that start up very rapidly, hang around days to weeks, and then disappear with the same rapidity), I do get intermittent tingles and shoots that are not painful so much as annoying. I have attributed them, and my neuro tends to agree, to a cerain amount of permanent damage to my nervous sytem that results in my being far more prone to compressive symptoms than a normal person would be.

For instance, my recent muscle tear in my right shoulder has resulted in numbness/tingling symptoms in my right hand (thumb and index fingers and back of the hand extending over to the space between middle and ring finger--a medial nerve distribution). These symptoms are quite distinct from my usual painful ones, and are likely due to compression of the C6/C7/C8/T1 nerve root area, or compression of that nerve further towards the throacic outlet. I am still waiting on results of cervical/thoracic MRI's (though I'm still trying to get them to MRI the shoulder itself). My thinking is the muscle tear moved the shoulder blade into a position in which it compressed the nerve somewhere--possibly several somewheres. But I also believe it's quite possible I would not be having these symptoms, or having them to this extent, if my nerves had not been compromised to some degree by my initial syndrome.

Wings and I have both speculated that anyone who has nerve damage from any cause is far more likely to have compressive problems with their nerves in the future, with compressive symptoms that "normals" would not get or not get to this extent. This is well-documented for neuropathy from diabetes, but we suspect it may extend to neuropathy from almost any cause.

If you are experiencing sore spots all over your body, and PN, you really need to Google myofascial trigger points.

Steve,
Thanks for this post. I suspect you are right. I've been treated for myofascial pain in the past. It seemed to go away when I retired from work. Probably less stress and less upper body strains from computer, paperwork, really tight schedules, etc. But it just seemed to come back all at one time. I am really stressed and trying to do more than my body can in order to prepare for this trip to Mayo. So I may have stirred the old devils up again.

I haven't thanked all of you for your posts in answer to my queries. If I fail to or forget, please know that I do so much appreciate all your answers.

Billye

Aaahhh... a subject I have come to know well... Before PN, I thought pain was what a teenager caused his/her parents... Afterwards, well, that is a whole new ball game...

I am sore all over, particularly after repetitive movement, like when you use the same muscle group, lifting, straining, reaching or just using them period-even if it is simple light use. Also, I have pretty much all over burning pain, which right now really is bothering me, maybe because it is raining here and pain increases with a drop in the barometric pressure.

I have some numbness and tingling, but not a lot now, as the steroids I take help check some of my problems.

If I go to the Natatorium, the cool water feels good on the pain. I am trying to keep down use of pain meds as much as possible, because of elevated liver enzymes, sed rate and C-Reactive Protein.

Cathie