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Hi, My name is Shelley. I was recently diagnosed by a neurologist with polyneuropathy. I actually think the neuropathy started 3 years ago from an intestinal infection. I was sick for 2 months then hospitalized for 9 days. At the end a certain pain doctor said she thought my parasympathetic nervous system was out of whack. She put me on the two meds. I had all of the same symptoms as now- they got better with treatment including Cymbalta/Gabapentin for nerve pain. I weaned off of the Cymbalta 6 months ago and started having nerve pain again about 1 month ago. I have some autonomic dysfunction as well especially with digestion. It is painful to eat. Some of my nerve pain is also in my abdomen. Hands and feet get numb. I am going back on Cymbalta even know I did have unwanted side effects. I am going to try to stay at a lower dose. This will probably not make sense- but I think I am having neuralgia in my teeth. I have had some uneeded dental work done. Extractions/ root canals/pain keeps moving around. I now also have TMJ from all the dental work. If some of the pain is nerve related- I am hoping the Cymbalta will help. I am confused as to the cause and want to find out. I guess you can only find out so much in one appt. I have autoimmune disease (ulcerative colitis/ankylosing spondylitis) I wonder if it could be immune related. I did have the H1N1 shot abou a month ago. The doctor seemed to want to treat but not find out cause. I am frustrated and may go to a neurologist at Mass General Hospital. I am seeing one in NH right now. I guess right now I just want to feel better. Thanks for listening. Shelley:wink:

Hi Shelley and welcome to NT!

Many of us at NT suffer from nerve pain and we understand your frustration. This is a great place to learn about your condition and to make friends who really "get it."

The link to our PN forun is:

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

Cheers

Welcome to Neuro Talk!!!:hug:We have lots of amazing folks hanging out here. Hope you can adjust to the meds and start to feel better soon!
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Welcome to Neurotalk--
 

--and I agree with your idea to go to see the neurology department at Massachusetts General, which is an excellent one, well-versed in peripheral neuropathy.

Given your symptoms, especially the autonomic ones, this sounds like a post-infectious autoimmune small-fiber neuropathy, possibly due to molecular mimicry processes. Hockey's given you the link to the neuropathy forum here and you can definitely find info about that kind of situation there; I've written about it in anumber of posts and so have others. One can analogize it as a sort of small-fiber Guillain-Barre syndrome, and like that syndrome often the situation is worst for the months immediately after the cascade, and then there is some recovery, but the recovery is often partial and patchy. Nerve especially heal very slowly, and it may be years before you know how much recovery you may get.

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Hi Shelley, and welcome to NeuroTalk! This is a wonderful place to come to for answers, new friends, information and shoulders to cry on, if needed. There are a lot of friendly, helpful, and caring people here.

We're so glad you found us!