Is this peripheral neuropathy?
 

This is my first post on this site.

I am a male 65 years old. I have always been extremely healthy. I don't have any medication, never been in a surgery. During my over 40 years in work I was only a couple of days sick. I don't have diabetes, kidneys are ok, liver is ok, thyroid is ok, all standard blood tests are ok, no infections. I am on pension but I work still a few days in a week as an IT specialist. I am in a very good condition and walk a lot every day.

One month ago I was shopping with my wife and we were 5-6 hours on foot. I had bad shoes and got problems to the bottom of my feet. Palms of the feet became numb and there were pain between toes and also in the middle of feet. I went to physiotherapist who is specialiced on feet and he said that I have a lot of problems. I bought special wide shoes and did some exercise like rolling tennis ball under my fee and did some other exercises.

After about two weeks when the situation did not improve I went to a orthopedist. The doctor checked my legs. Blood pressure was ok, reflexes ok, I could do everything that he asked like walk on my toes etc. Finally he did a test with a tuning fork. To my surprise I did not feel the trembling on two places on my legs at all or it was very low.

To my surprise the doctor did not examine the bottom of my feet at all. He seemed busy and wrote the diagnose. He said that I have polyneuropathy which is probably the same as peripheral neuropathy. He also said that I must go to ENMG test. I will go there in mid December as all the ENMG services are very booked.

During last few days all my time has gone to go through Internet pages about neuropathy and I am terrified. I don't sleep well.

Considering my overall health and history it is very hard for me to accept that I have neuropathy. A lot of questions goes through my head. If the patient fails the tuning fork test, does that automatically mean that the reason is peripheral neuropathy?

I would appreciate any kind of comments.

Welcome Max1956. :Wave-Hello: Someone will be along.

A few more comments & corrections:
With "palm of feet" I mean ball of feet

My B12 levels are ok. I don't smoke. My alcohol consumption is almost zero. I am not overweight. I don't eat red meat. I am 80% vegetarian.

Hi Max

Sorry to hear you are going down this road.
I am of a similar age & mine started of in a similar manor to yours.
Your nerve conduction test will tell you how far it has progressed.
Your only hope of a cure, is if the cause can be found & treated.
No cause was found for mine, so I have had to get used to living with it.

Hi numbfoot

Thank you for your comment.

The orthopedist did the sound fork test only on one foot and did not explain anything before the test. The "test" lasted about 15-20 seconds and after that he gave me his diagnose "You've got peripherial neuropathy":.

It seems that the sound fork used was 128 Hz tool. I just happen to have a 440 Hz sound fork at home. It is for guitar tuning. I made the same test with my own fork and I do feel the trembling everywhere on my feet. 400 Hz is higher that 128. I don't know if my own test any value. 128 Hz sound forks are quite cheap. Maybe I should be one. That might also bring me more stress.

Max, I see you are coming here from Finland. On your issues and telling us of your excellent health, I can only suggest a few things I've used and stgill do...The neuropathy I manage is from a hip replacement 11 yrs and nerve damage.

I rub my feet every night with Topricin for Feet and also some Ultra Tiger Balm and wear socks all day. Internally I have had great success withj Inosine and Sphingolin and overall good health due to taking Grape Seed Extract for decades. If these are available in Finland I don't know .

Do your feet burn/tingle?

Hi Caroline
Thank you for your comments.

Topricin - It seems that it is not available ion my country. Of course I can order it from somewhere.
Ultra Tiger Balm - I know this one and it is available in pharmacies.
Inosine - It is available here.
Sphingolin - Not available here.
Grape Seed Extract - I'll keep this in mind

Do your feet burn/tingle? - I don't feel burn very much. Only occasionally and it is not very painful. Same with tingle. The ball of my both feet are quite numb. Left foot more than right. I am puzzled that I might have something called metatarsalgia. There are quite sore places between my toes and the ball of my feet seem to be little bloated. I might still have neuropathy beside all this. There are over 2 weeks before I go to the ENMG test. I will meet a foot specialist before that.

Hang in there.
Still early days for you.
Might pay to hold back on the remedies until you have a diagnosis.

I get sore foot areas in hot weather when my feet swell or if shoes are too tight or don't fit well. My foot pain does fade away..
It may take a few months if due to poor shoes...but with good fitting shoes plus good shoe inserts , it's worth a try..

A skilled chiropractor may be worth a try to see it they can do some adjustments that will help... or acupuncture..

Hi Max,
Can you really diagnose polyneuropathy with a tuning fork? Why is a practitioner using a tuning fork in 2021? How sensitive and reliable and reproducible are those tests? You have no base line data to work with. What was your sensitivity like 10 years ago for example?

I have several of those symptoms you describe form time to time and they are not the end of the world. I barely notice them.
Peripheral nerves are able to heal themselves so adopt the optimum lifestyle for nerve health if you are worried by Peripheral Neuropathy. Diet, supplements, exercise, meditation, gratitude practises, for example.

Best wishes,

Atty

Thank you all for your encouraging messages.
Yesterday I met a foot specialist. Quite young lady who is not a doctor. She checked my toes and ball of both feet. She did find several places where a slight pressure did hurt. She said that the situation is not very bad but the nerves between toes might be a problem. She also found an extremely sore place in the middle of the foot bottom. In both feet. The reason for that is my high plantar arches. I passed all tests that this specialist asked me to do. The strenght of my toes are ok etc.
The foot specialist gave several exercises that I can do at home. For one of those I need a half of a tennis ball that I squeese under my toes.
I am also puzzled about the "30 seconds diagnose" of the orthopedist last week. I don't have a baseline. Maybe my feel of the tuning fork has slways been poor. I am a tall 6 feet 4 inches (192 cm) guy with long legs.

Hi Max1956,

Peripheral neuropathy is very common, and people usually get along with it, making some adjustments in their lifestyles. As someone has already said, the right type of shoes can make an amazing difference.

The most common cause of peripheral neuropathy is diabetes. This information is from the UK's NHS and might answer some of your questions:

Peripheral neuropathy - Diagnosis
- NHS

I hope you'll have good luck with your upcoming appointments.

Hi agate
I checked your link. During last week after I heard that I probably have neuropathy I have been working as a Google Doctor most of the time that I am awake. There is a lot of information but it is quite hard to analyze it.

These are from your link. I did put my answer to the symptoms :

Symptoms of sensory neuropathy can include:

pins and needles in the affected body part - I dont have these
numbness and less ability to feel pain or changes in temperature, particularly in your feet - I can feel if my feet are cold or not
a burning or sharp pain, usually in the feet - light burning is going on around left ankle
feeling pain from something that should not be painful at all, such as a very light touch - I don''t have any extra pains anywhere in my body
loss of balance or co-ordination caused by less ability to tell the position of the feet or hands - No problem with these

I don't have any signs of motor, autonomic or mononeuropathy that are listed at this site that you gave the link.

At this moment I have slight numbness at the bottom of my feet. The feeling changes during the day. Sometimes it feels that the feet are coming normal but then in a few minutes the numbness comes back. I also have the strange feeling on my left ankle. I did not have that a week ago. My toes are also quite cold almost all the time. All my symptoms became worse after I heard that I might have neuropathy.

"Peripheral neuropathy" sounds scary, maybe because it's a couple of long words with a definite medical flavor, but a diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy isn't a major calamity. People live with it.

Why not relax and wait and see what those tests show? It sounds as if you're getting too worried--and when a person gets too worried, symptoms often worsen.

One way of looking at it might be to tell yourself that everyone gets older, and as we get older we usually develop some health problems. It's inevitable. We wear out over time. Unfortunately!

If we're one of the luckier ones, our health problems are manageable--arthritis sets in, or peripheral neuropathy, or chronic something-or-other.

I'm going out on a limb by saying what I've said as I don't know you but thinking about all of the really disastrous problems I could have and don't is a thought I find calming.

I'm not assuming that you'll be diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy. I hope your symptoms will have a satisfactory solution!:)

Thanks agate
I followed your advice and have not searched neuropathy pages from Internet as active as earlier. Today I am feeling quite good. I got some exercises from the foot specialist but I found out that the best way is just relax and do nothing. At home I wear Crocs shoes that have soft layer inside and keeping those shoes I don't feel any problems on my feet. My ENMG test is on the 14th December.

There's a lot to be said for that ancient remedy, "tincture of time." So much medical testing is available now that we often get tempted to get quite involved in seeing doctors and having tests and procedures, and all too many people sign up for surgery when they might have been better off just letting time pass.

Good luck with your test on the 14th!

Today I had the ENMG test. Everything was ok. I don't have peripheral neuropathy. The doctor said that my reflexes etc are in a better condition than people at my age usually have.

I have still some numbness on my toes and ball of both feet. They are not bad as they were 3 weeks ago when I posted my first comment to this thread. I have done some exercise with my feet and have used ice packs. Maybe this is a feet problem. There is some new symptoms as I feel some burning feeling on both my ankles. I can feel it a few times a day. It might be a problem triggered by the anxiety that I've had during last weeks. Now I try to cool myself and concentrate to other issues.

Glad your test results were so good! It might be best to use the ice packs very sparingly--not very long at one time--as they will make numbness worse or bring it on.

Sometimes just changing the type of shoe you're wearing can work wonders. Even the type of socks can make a huge difference.

Remember--
 

--EMG/Nerve conduction studies can only reveal problems with larger, myelinated nerves that control motor functions and the sensory positional and mechanical touch/vibration modalities/

They cannot measure the more thinly myelinated or unmyelinated small fiber that subsume the sensations of pain and temperature, as well as mediate autonomic functions. That take other testing, including sudomotor sweat testing, qualitative sensory testing, or skin biopsy to check density and condition of intraepidermal nerve fibers.

Hmmm! Doesnt sound like neuropathy to me. I would just handle it as a foot condition. It could be nerves but not neuropathy. I have all 3 types of neuropathy and know the symptoms pretty well. I would look after my feet with some tender loving care