DaveC--my neuropathy is similiar to yours. My face is involved sometimes, but its more rare than anywhere else. My cheeks will feel like they are on fire, I feel flushed and my cheeks will just burn, yet if I look in the mirror, I look perfectly normal--well, as normal as I can look ! The doctor told me I have periphreal neuropathy in my upper body and small fiber in my lower body. I also have celiacs disease and occasionally one of my intolerances flares up and I will want a heating pad on my tummy--many times I can't feel the heat of the pad, so I turn it up, only to realize, its working very well, I just can't feel it on my tummy surface. Somedays it's my hips hurting me, or I will have the feeling of a cramp in a butt cheek ( not being to revealing, am I)--my point, my neuropathy travels all over the place and I never know where it will land on any given day. My feet always hurt, that never goes away and my hands will go numb at anytime they feel they are being given too much to do!

So, YES, some of us are similiar to you!

I am certainly living proof.

I have a predominantly samll-fiber syndrome that involves primarily burning nerve pain, and went from the bottom of my foot to my whole foot in four hours, to my hands in three days, to all over my body in ten--a very acute onset.

The all-over body presentation, especially if acute in onset, can really make neuros think you have a central nervous system condition such as mutliple sclerosis. It took me many months to get to a tertiary facility--the Cornell-Weill Center for Peripheral Neuroapthy--where the doctors were not only familiar with the possibility of body-wide neuropathy but could test very specifically for many types of syndromes. A skin biopsy showed I have extensive small-fiber damage (the fibers that subsume the sensations of pain and temperature, as opposed to the larger fibers that are measured by nerve conduction studies and control movement, vibration, and position sense).

I think the only part of my body that has NEVER experienced symptoms is a small patch around my Adam's apple.

When one has such a full body presentation, autoimmune processes should be suspected, including those from molecular mimicry (such as happens in Guillain Barre syndrome), from gluten sensitivity/celiac (that tends to be less acute, though), and those that are secondary to occult tumors (these usually can be tested for by lookign fo specific antibody markers, such as the anti-Hu).