Hi. Just 7 days in. Life going down hill. Help.
 

Hi. My name is Ryan, I'm newly 40, single, never married.

I'm barely 7 days into this right now. I'm clicking and pasting my self notes below in case anyone is bored and wants to read them. This is what I typed up last night to try and keep track of everything. There my self notes more or less, spelling errors and all. I guess I"m actually a bit further in, but it was just about a week ago in my head that I really started to take this super serious enough to seek immediate attention. I have been prescribed Tramadol for pain. I have been just taken ibuprofen as needed. I was reluctant to take these pills, but now I'm thinking I might need to. They are 50mg tabs. Too strong to start off with?






"For a short while, it seems like at times that I have steep in warm water on the side of my right foot. The sensation is at first very fleeting, and rare. This is maybe going on for maybe 2 to four weeks or so? Or less? I didn't keep track. At first I think I have steped in warm water especially when it it happens in the bathroom or the kitchen.

December 24th to 25th 2015. It is around this time that the foot sensation is lasting longer. It feels very weird. I will soon start to think it is a lifestyle circulation issue and I start stretchign again, and doing abs again and cut out all alcohol and start to go to the gym to do my stretchign as well to prepare for the new me for the new year! Other then this it all seems good.

December 27 to 28th 2015. The warm water sensation starts to turn to burning. At first it is just in the middle of my right foot. Other then this I feel fine and am not horrible worried but I do for the first time google it and find out about Neuropathy. I tell myself that this is unlikely though and continue with my life.



Tuesday December 29th 2015. I go see the movie the Hateful Eight. My foot sometimes burns some during the film. I think about leaving at intermission, but stay. It's not too bad though. I still feel like this is a circulation issue maybe. The anxiety though starts for the first time.


Thursday New Years Eve. Dec 31st 2015. I spend the day at several stores buying some more stuff for my evening meal. I go workout and stretch and do some abs and butt stretching. I feel pretty good for most of the day. Only my right foot burns. Other then that I feel actually really good body wise. Just that foot pain. It starts to increase though in intesensity. I start to majorly worry for the first time. I call my mom to ask her to find out if the emergendy outpaitent center at Parkland is open tonight. She says it closes at 8pm. It is right now 7:50pm. They say it is open until midnight the next night though. I was planning on making up a prime rib, and drinking some wine and champange. My meat has spoiled though. I forgo the alchole and just eat some shrimp and a quarter of my favorite pizza. This is the last real meal I have eaten since typing this up. I worry all night. I go to bed at about 9am the next morning.


Friday. I wake up at about 3pm. I think I maybe go workout to try and get the blood flowing. Abs, stretching, butt stretching. I finally go to the outpatient center to see a doctor at about 10pm. I go into the hospital. I'm told they closed at 8pm! I'm really put out about it. I feel like I really need to see someone. I go home and prepare to see someone the next night as they are open until 8pm. Other then my foot, I feel fine at first, except when I get home the soles of my feet are hurting some and my calves feel
weird like I need potassium. Other then that it is still just my right foot that burns, except for the growing anxiety as the only thing that pops up when you google burning foot is Peripheral Neuropathy. I watch some games and maybe eat a few bananas. This is the worst night for my foot. The burning is the worst. This is also the last day I don't have any upper body issues.

Saturday. I sleep tell about 3pm and get up. I watch the games and prepare to go to the outpatent center at around 06pm as I was told they were open until eight. I watch some games and don't eat as I'm not really hungry. I go finally go at 06pm. I get there and am told they are no longer taking paitents. I could cry. I think about going to the ER, but know that I will be there for forever, and get no real help.

I go home and watch football and worry until I fall asleep at about 9am the next morning. As I go to sleep, my arms are burning and sensitive for the first time.


Sunday Jan 3rd. I wake up at 3pm and my hands and forarms are achy. I go to gym to stretch and I might have done some ab workouts. I worry about losing my arm and hand funtion for first time. I start thinking about what I need to do to prepare for a live of infirmary. I clean up my house just a little and my arms and hands now ache far more then my right foot burns even though I didn't do a ton of stuff. I'm not hungry, but I go out and buy apples and lots of banannas for my legs which feel heavy. I pack up a gym bag full of stuff incase I have to stay at the hosipital. I want to sleep but I can't. At midnight I eat three banannas and force down some yogurt. I do get some eurphoria around midnight thinking that maybe this is just gout or diabeties or Guillain Barre syndrome, and I'll be fine and try to go to sleep at 2am, but can't. I stay up and go to hospital at 5am.


Monday, Jan 4th. I go into Parkland clinic at 5:30am. Blood test for diabetes negative. Right foot Xray negative. Blood pressure at times very high! 150 over 115 at first. 125 over 90 when I leave. Doctor scheduals me for a podiatrist appointment and to go see a general practicioner for followup. Prescribes tramadol for pain as needed. When I leave, my left foot now for the first time is starting to hurt and my fingers are so sore. I start using hand cream on them immediatly. I go put in my prescriptions at the

Parkland prescription center, and go buy a humidor at target and set it up in my room. I come home, my feet are killing me, espeically my left foot for the first time. My feet ache, espeically my toes. I try to set up my doctors appointments.

The podiatrist office says that they only have one doctor, that she is out for the week, there are no openings, I can be wait listed, and that it will be months to get in. I call to set up an appointment with my general practicanier who I apparently saw a few times at the Parkland doctors office a few years back. He is now an OBGYN.

I eat a small bowl of fettachine and take some iburofean, and go to sleep at 2pm. I have been up about 24hours. At 5pm I wake up fast! My butt muscles are spasiming. It takes a good two hours to calm down and I'm cold. I finally calm down. I call my mom and we set up an appoinment with a paid podiatrist for Thursday at 3pm.

I feel like maybe my hands and arms are super dry as my face and eyes feel dry. I go buy some cotton sleep gloves and eat two filet a fish sandwiches from Mcdonalds. I finally get some more sleep maybe around 10pm to 1am. I get up and call my mom. I'm up all night just trying to stay calm and massage my hands and keep putting moisterizer on my hands, arms, and face and finally fall assleep at around 6am on Tuesday morning. I sleep with cotton gloves on.


(Day I typed this up. Wed Jan 6th 2:00am)
Tuesday Jan 5th. I wake up around 2pm in the afternoon. I needed sleep so badly! I have a cup of coffee and a few banannas. The burning isn't as much in my feet as it has been in the past at the moment, but my hands feel raw. I wonder if I have over done it with the moizterizer and sleep gloves. I put on some different shoes, wondering if I have old shoes and need new ones, and go get my meds, go buy new shoes which will take 5 days to arrive, go to wallmart to buy water for my humidor, and pick up 2 filet fish sandwiches to try and keep my energy up. I don't eat all of the first one, and only the fish in the second one.

I spend the evening trying to convince myself that this is just nerve damage and that my upper body problems are all in my head. I learn about CDIP for first time. I think back to that flu shot a year ago that hurt my arm so badly.

1am Wednesday morning I use a 20Lb weight to help rehab my arm and take away some of the arm and hand weakness.

2am Wednesday morning. My finger tips feel sensitive, the insides of my fingers feel dry and rough, my hands sometimes hurt, my arms feel weak and weird but not dry today. My face feels less dry. But it definitly hurts to type this on my finger tips. My foot burns on and off on my right foot. My left foot is not as sore as yesterday, but the toes can be sensitive. My right buttoch maybe feels weird at times, and maybe even the back of my upper theigh. My body under my clothes feels hot, and my balls might feel overly
hot. I have no sexual interest despite normally masterbating once or twice every day. The last time I masterbated was probably Dec 30th or so. I feel doomed. I just now realize it is 2016 for the first time. 3am. I eat a few banannas.

Wednesday morning at about 6 or 7am I fall asleep. I go to sleep and wake up at 2:30m. At about 3pm I go to the hospital to get my xrays and then spend the next 7 hours in the outpataint clinic. I get blood tests, but can't do the urine alyanize because I can't pee in public. My blood comes back negative for liver or kidney issues. They set me up to have a person tommarow get me an appointment for what they call ARC. It's a special place where they will do lots of tests and expedite everything, but it will still take 2 to 4 weeks to get in. It makes me feel so much better to hear this though. I still plan on going to see the pidiotrist tomarrow. I finally leave.

I feel really good hunger wise. I stop for three steak tacos. There not to big and I'm still hungry after eating, but I don't eat anything else, and am quickly not hungry anymore. I talk to my mom for a while and feel really decent for a short while, but I can tell I over did on how long I had my shoes on maybe. It seemed like a long day. I then get up at about midnight to go brush my teeth. I feel kind of wobbly when walk. I then have some weakness in my right arm. This upsets me a bit. I spend the next four hours watching tv, working my arm a bit, and trying to feel good about the future. I come up with a plan. I will one, start taking vitamins more. Two, lose weight incase this is caused by my weight. Three, start working out more in case that helps. Four start getting massages, in case this is just a pinched nerve. Five, write my book! I go to sleep feeling pretty decent emotion wise, but I can tell that my body is not fully fine. I finally fall asleep at about 5am

Thursday Jan 7th, 7am - I wake up after a few hours sleep. My whole body feels weird. It's not an acute pain from my hands or feet, but from all over. I find that I have sweated, and now any part of me that is sweaty, my face, by upper back, the back of my neck, is super cold and weird feeling. I take a few ibuprofen and change my shirt and put a towle on my pillow. I try to go back to sleep. I'm so cold now. I can feel every inch of the towle on my face. I lay down. It all just hurts so much. Why does my body feel like this?

Is this how I will alwasy feel from now on? I start thinking about just taking a whole bottle of pills to stop the pain. I could live with the foot and hand pain now, but not this. This is all to much! I get up and call my mom. I then type this up. It hurts my finger tips to type. This sucks! It's only the 7th. It's only been a week."



I then got up and looked up my tramadol pain meds that I had gotten and found this website on a search and decided to post in case anyone can help me out with any info. Thanks. :-)

Sorry you are having troubles.
 

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Your journal(good idea) sounds like the start of Neuropathy.We as a forum have a desire to help if we can. If you read long enough you will find that all people are individual in their symptoms and remedies and not very many hard and fast rules. My first questions would be are you diabetic? My second question is do you know your b-12 number? I had taken Metformin for years and my b-12 was at 119 where 400 is bottom of acceptable. My advice about the Tramadol is to take it as prescribed for pain. It is just a little better than Tylenol and not that radical. If you experience burning and tender skin surfaces, Mortons Epsom Salt Lotion allowed me to use bedsheets again. You can use the search function here in the toolbar(minimum 4 charachters) to read about the specific things you want. Join the fight on the Periferal Neuropathy forum. Just scroll down until you see it. Good Luck, Ken in Texas.

Just took some a while ago as my sensations are only spreading and getting worse by the hours. A 50mg tablet. (Should I just keep taking it every six hour now to keep the sensations away? It says to start it early as it takes longer to work if your already in pain.)

I am not diabetic. I have no idea why this is happening. I do own a B-50 Complex from Puritan Pride. I'm taking that now daily as well as Vitamin C, D, E, a probiotic, and omega 3,6, 9.

Is Tramadol best for what I have? Now that I am pretty sure I have some form of Neurphothy, and just now finally relise that I need a drug to help with the sensations, is this the best drug to be on? I want to not be in pain so I can function and sleep, but also want to be able to work hard on mending my life. Like trying to stretch and workout. Any links would be great. Thanks.

PS. God I feel funky. I feel so weird. I never take meds. I usually never even take over the counter stuff. As it hits me it is really shutting me down. Man this is strong stuff. I hate that it is so strong! It does seem to be lessening the sensations though.

PSS. I have no idea what my B level is. My hospital says they don't do that test. Should I have it done elsewhere? Is that worthwhile?

My mother is flying in on Saturday to help me out. When she does I want to go see a neurologist at the ER at Parkland hospital here in Dallas. What should I say to the Neurologist?

Tramadol can make you feel weird.

Does Tylenol work to help you ignore your symptoms?

When you go to the neurologist, you will most likely be offered
Gabapentin or Lyrica... this too is quite sedating.

Sometimes people get over anxious when they have paresthesias... then things actually get worse. You have to learn
to meditate some and learn some relaxation exercises.

Until you get a handle on things, I'd avoid the gym, as that places a stress on the muscles to work harder, and the stretches the nerves many of which are in tendons.

Watch what you eat. No sugar or breads/cereals for a while as they cause swings in blood sugar, which then cause MORE nerve symptoms.

You may have picked up a virus in the gym. Gyms are breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses from people, as objects are touched and handled all the time.

Hi, I just saw your post here. I already gave you comments on the supplements post. For me I never heard of the nerve damage issues until a bridge friend talked about her agony with "ideopathic" nerve issues..turns out she had been on statins for 30 yrs and left with 15 yrs of nerve damage, which her doc never brought to her attention....grrrrr and she's not online so did not do her own research and trusted doctors.

For me, I ended up with nerve damage from hip replacement in 2010 and was living with burn/tingle in right thigh and to this day my thigh is 80% numb...over 5 yrs. But, thru a naturopath I was given names of nerve supplements and I took Inosine and Sphingolin for 3 months and the burn is gone. I've talked about this on the PN group. This worked for me at the surgery area. I was looking for a nerve damage support group and NT was there so I joined.

Now my friend with the 15 yrs of nerve damage did the doc's drugs, neurontin and gabapentin and talked about the side effects: nausea, vertigo and I don't know what else. She has been taking grape seed ex for about 5 yrs now and is so improved and off all the meds. Still takes tylenol or advil as needed but overall she is much better.

Some yrs ago I got a script for tramdol but it didn't help me with the arthritis I deal with. Ibuprofen and Pain RX herbal supplement are my best BIG pain relievers. And I've been taking DGL to protect my stomach. I ended up in ER years ago from a pharma anti inflammatory drug and it was an ulcer. DGL works so good. Something to keep in mind.

So hope you can slow things down, maybe don't work out so hard. I went to gyms all my life but worked in moderation. For me never nerve issues until hip surgery.

Let us know how you progress. A lot of good help here. My grandkids are athletic and both take grape seed ex as does their mom... they've heard this from gram for years.

Thanks for all the responses so far!

I need to clarify something though. By going to the gym, all I was doing was stretching my hamstrings, my buttocks, and then doing some crunches on a crunch machine. That is it. No weight lifting, and no cardo. I was just trying to stay limber and keep my abs strong. I had yet to go back to anything else.

Exercize to tolerance
 

is a concept that many follow here. I believe you should not be stacking weights on a bar or trying to stick your left toe into your right ear. Some forms of Neuropathy affect tendons and the nerves inside. Maintaining what you have now is appropriate without any painful stretches involved. This is my opinion and it is submitted as such. The b-12 number is worth knowing as that was one of three things that have improved my Neuropathy.The other two being passage of time and exercize to tolerance. Tramadol is not the strongest med available but you may never need anything more. Gabapentin is usually the first drug to be RX. It helps some but I couldn't tell it until I quit it. It gives a little "brain fog" and can be stepped up to over 3000mg/d. Lyrica is also RXd and makes some sleepy w/mixed reviews on effectiveness. There are so many types of PN and so many causes. Toxin exposure, chemotherapy, trauma induced(my brand), antibiotics(floroquinolones) diabetic, the list goes on and if no cause is found, they name it idiopathic. You need to quell the feelings of panic and anxiety if you can, worrying never helped anything and can definitely make the symptoms worse. PN will cultivate patience as symptoms will change and improvements are almost always slow to evolve. Good Luck, Ken in Texas.

floroquinolones -- I have heard horror stories on this class of abx. HOPE I never need them but I would HOPE there are other abx drugs to use vs these. This class contains fluorides which I've been battling in our public waters for years. Some drugs do contain fluorides..prozac for one.

I take 2 tramadol 50s 3 times a day and have no problems . don't see why you cant up them... good luck

So I went to see a doctor, who is going to run some blood tests, hope to try and see the reults by Monday or Tuesday, otherwise they are going to mail them to me. Anyway, he set me up to see another doctor on the 20th, who will then set me up for more doctor appointments. sigh!

I was thinking about having an EMG test done out of pocket. Does this sound worthwhile? My only reasoning being that whether it was positive, or negative, ect, that the results would tell me alot, or rule many things out? Does that sound right? Pretty new to it all. My only thing is, I'm right now 12 days away from seeing a doctor, and I doubt that If he gets me in for a EMG test through my free Parkland medical services, that it will take forever to get the appointment, or best case, another few weeks, which means it could be a month to get one, best case scenario.

Thoughts?

They also are staring me on one 300mg pill of Gabapentin tonight. My 25mgs every six hours of tramadol isn't perfect, but at least I was able to sleep last night and I'm not in constant pain. I'm am a little bit worried about going off the tramadol and just taking Gabapentin as wiki says it can take two weeks to get into your system as you slowly add the pills. Any thoughts on this?

Could I have Guillain–Barré syndrome or is that just cuckoo talk?

Ryan I wouldn't want to say what you have or don't have not being a physician and from just reading (though it is a thorough amount of info) but from books I've read many cases of GB, they can't even get out of bed. I could be wrong, though. As I said, layman here.

Neuropathy in of itself is tough and onset of any sort is difficult. Mine was not so sudden. I will reiterate the advise of attempting to stay calm through it as stress only exacerbates the symptoms, at least for me. I have a tremor in my arm that comes and goes depending on flares. Yesterday it was flapping away. Stress.

So if you can try and stay as calm as possible. I know, asking a lot when you have vibrating, burning et al, taking place.

I did not tolerate gabapentin well enough to titrate up so I can't comment on that. They wanted you to stop the tramadol though, huh?

Well, I wish you the best and hope you get quick appointments.

I wonder
 

if you didn't, intentionally or not, convince the Dr to take you off the Tramadol. You sounded pretty freaked out about it being too strong in your last post. Going forward, you need to be careful in your communication w/Drs. If you sound hysterical, BAM, you get the label. Some patients carry in notes written in the calm and peace of your own home and it will cut down on the emotions that seem to take over if given an open floor for discussion. The EMG wil be forthcoming soon enough IMO and it might confirm Periferal Neuropathy but that about it. Later on you might get a skin biopsy to confirm another form called small fiber Neuropathy. Good Luck, Ken in Texas.

GBS typically is mostly motor, and comes with paralysis of some degree.

Some doctors do suggest that sensory symptoms may be a form
of GBS, but there is no proof of that.

EMGs are only valid for motor issues for the most part.

Here is a good overall article:
http://www.aafp.org/afp/1998/0215/p755.html

[QUOTE=mrsD;1192277]GBS typically is mostly motor, and comes with paralysis of some degree.

Some doctors do suggest that sensory symptoms may be a form
of GBS, but there is no proof of that.

EMGs are only valid for motor issues for the most part.

Here is a good overall article:
*I had to remove link as I can't post links yet.

I was drinking kind of heavily for the last few months. Heavy by my standards anyway. Doesn't an EMG tell you if you have alcoholic neuropathy? I looked at that flow chart on the website you posted. It looks like an EMG could tell me alot by what it shows or doesn't. Right?




So last night I started my Gabapentin. Hopefully this will help. One pill a night for the first five nights.

Long standing neuropathy from alcohol abuse may affect motor nerves, so an EMG will show that.

Sensory neuropathies tend to not show up on EMGs though.

Here is our alcohol recovery thread where some posters there may be able to help you.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread104096.html

This is a long thread, but covers quite a bit about alcohol abuse and recovery.

Thanks for all of your help. The more I think about it, the more sure I have alcoholic Neuropathy caused by a b12 defecency. I take a lot of antacids as well as pantoprazole acid reflex disease. and according to the thread you posted, antacids also cause a b12 deficiency. I also looked up pantaproazole, and that to maybe causes b12 defecencys! sigh!

I have a bunch of b12 on it's way, as well as many other vitamins, but I want to get started on the b12 and benfotiamine right away. I'm going to go to the vitamin store tomorrow. Please let me know a few things.

One, which brands would you recommend on both?

How much b12 can I start taking? I want to really load up on that ****. LOL

Two, it was mentioned in the thread that you posted that you have a vitamin list for alcoholic Neuropahthy? Can I get that exact list? Thanks. :-)

A point of clarification.

"Some drugs do contain fluorides..prozac for one."

Some drugs, like Prozac and the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics contain the element fluorine (F) linked in a covalent bond to the element carbon (C). The C-F bond is very strong - it is very unlikely that it will be cleaved during drug metabolism.

The anion fluoride (F-) is a controversial additive to drinking water in some places. The fluoride anion and a fluorine atom linked in a covalent bond to a carbon atom have very different chemical properties - fluorine and fluoride are not the same thing.

You can start with 5mg of methylcobalamin a day on an empty stomach. Just chew it up and swallow with some water. Walgreen's has it as well as Costco and Sam's club.

It is unlikely you will find benfotiamine in a local store. But maybe you will if you go to a good health food outlet. It will cost more locally. iherb.com, swanson's, vitacost, etc have it.
I use Doctor's Best brand. You can start with regular thiamine if you can't find it, at 100mg 3 times a day. All stores carry this form and it is less costly. Vitamin B1 is a mainstay for alcoholism recovery.

MANY pop tums like they are candy. One friend ended up losing most of thyroid due to calcium deposits on her thyroid as her MD told her Tums was OK for calcium needs!!!

I can remember my sil and daughter living on tums during their marriage. Sadly he died at 55 and she now takes DGL which protects the stomach and especially for ulcer issues...DGL addresses reflux, heartburn, gerd..... I found DGL about 6 yrs ago as I ended up with stomach ulcer from pharma anti inflammatory many yrs ago.

Hi all. Last night was a rough night of sleep. I took my gabapentin at around 2am, but it didn't make me sleepy at all. Then my body legs were feeling like they were freezing, but I was under plenty of covers. Around maybe 6am or later I was just lieing there trying to sleep and I had massive pins and needles on the tips of my knuckels, toe knuckles, legs, feet, arms, ect. It was all quite painful. I thought about taking some tramadol, but didn't want to, so I just tried to relax and finally fell asleep and had a good enoug sleep until 11:30am, so good enough I guess.

So I bought a bottle of b12 tablets. There 5mg, methylCobalamin, called fast melt, and desolve under the tongue. There by "Source Naturals" from The Vitamin Shoppe I took it on an empty stomach, right? I'm thinking about taken them twice a day. Is that too much?

I also bought a bottle of Benfotiamine from there called Life Extension Mega Benfotiamine 250mg. I'm going to take 2pills twice daily.

Sound good? Hope I wasn't too wordy. :-)

PS. Which would be better to take for pain, ibuprofen or tylenol? Thoughts?

Got back my B12 test result

Component Standard Range Your Value
VITAMIN B-12 211 - 911 pg/mL 456

Is there any chance this could be a thyroid issue. The only test I have though is this, and according to my research, .46 is excellent. Is that right?

Component Standard Range Your Value
TSH 0.40 - 4.50 mcIU/mL 0.46

Last night was rough. I had to finally take 12.5mg of tramadol to go to sleep as the pain was so bad. It worked though and I finally slept. Not well, but it was sleep and having gotten so little the night before, I really needed some.

I'm thinking of going to the ER and just sitting in hopes of seeing a neurologist.

Hi Ryan,

I think you will get more information and responses by Posting your Journey over on the Peripheral Neuropathy Forum.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum20.html

There are Members there who do not stray up to these Forums, but who have knowledge and experiences to share.

Dave.

Tramadol
 

It didn't work for my pain long term and we established I'm allergic to it. For my father who had horrid PN it worked well. Everyone is different, if it gives you relief then take it. No one should suffer in pain and you certainly sound like you are suffering.

Have you actually gone to your family dr and had a blood panel to check every thing that also includes thyroid .... Why don't you start there ?

I've done two blood tests so far, just not for that thyroid yet. I think it's a super rare long shot though that my issue is that anyway. I do go see a primary doctor next Wednesday though, and hope to go over all of my thoughts and additional concerns then. I also hope that he will schedule me to see a neurologist. Man those guys are hard to get into.