peripheral neuropathy zingers in bed
 

After a nerve conduction study, I was diagnosed with "acquired distal mixed demyelinating and axonal essentially symmetric motor and sensory peripheral neuropathy." I have had the symptoms described below for about 18 months. Long before the diagnosis above, which was about 2 1/2 months ago. I am currently taking 300 mg of gabapentin about 90 minutes before bed, which makes me tired and most of the time prevents the symptoms (sx) below. Not always.

I get electrical type shocks (I call them "zingers") after I have been in bed a short time. About every 15 seconds or so, I get a jolt in the sole of my foot. Sometimes its the right. Some nights its the left. Only twice in the last 18 months, have I had it happening to both feet at the same time.

If I sit up and put my feet on the floor, they stop. I get back in bed, they start up again. Sometimes I can do deep calf stretches for a couple minutes and I get 10-15 minutes relief and can sometimes I can get to sleep. Other times, I have to stretch more than once or get up and ice my foot for 20 minutes.

There is some question whether these sx are from PN or from a lower back issue. A recent MRI revealed that I have some disc bulges in the L5 S1 area and some lateral stenosis. But not anything more than might be expected for a man my age (58) who is quite active and has been for the last 40 years. Neither my neurologist or my radiologist will commit to saying the slight bulge
(6 mm) could cause this kind of radiculopathy.

So I don't know if the zingers in my feet are from the PN or a back issue. I do have other sx during the day, i.e. mild tingling/burning in the soles of my feet. Sometimes bilateral, usually just one sided.

I am new to this disease and am in the research phase. Any comments are much appreciated. Thank you.

Welcome brianmdv. :Tip-Hat:

Hello Brian
 

The Dr. will most likely want you to go up on the mg/d w/ the Gabapentin. I have seen where there was as much as 3000 mg/d consumed. I stopped @ 900 mg/d as I saw no good improvement. Others get relief. Are your blood glucose checks OK? Diabetes was an underlying condition for me when I had a car accident. Let us know, Ken in Texas

Well since there are some bulges , I might consider trying some expert chiropractic, just in case it is coming from the spine.
MDs rarely suggest that option, for them it is rx more meds, or maybe some PT, or some procedure..

If the spine is part of it, you just may get some relief..

You might want to see a corrective chiropractor, such as Dr. John Bergman that I just posted about, in southern CA.
Ron

Blood test was negative for diabetes.

Thank you.

Thanks. I've been going to physical therapy for the last 7 weeks. She has "unloaded" my T-spine and my L-spine. Today was my last visit. I haven't really seen an appreciable difference. We talked about a chiropractor. Her concern was that chiropractors like to "pop"your back. She has seen folks come in to her who have had their backs popped numerous times and the ligaments are so stretched that there is not to work with any more. After all this and the tingling/itching I feel in my right foot (especially), which sort of feels like the zingers I get but much more low grade, I am not convinced that the zingers are a manifestation of the PN, but for some reason they are positional. I don't know. I just don't know.

Unfortunately that is kind of the standard line , seems there is a division or competition of MDs & PTs vs DC..:(:(

I did say expert chiropractic, meaning extra training, knowledgeable, highly skilled... You don't have to let any DC pop your back numerous times..

I did go for 6 years as I am hyper mobile and things moved out of alignment quite easily & it took so long due to my chronic RSI injuries and muscle spasms and long time misalignments.
I finally got to a stable place and just go for a yearly check up now.

Be careful in that regard. The normal blood tests used for diabetes screening don't tell the whole story. My fasting glucose and A1c results are well below even pre-diabetic levels, but I definitely have a problem. It showed up on the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test in the form of a high 1 hour reading, and subsequent self-monitoring of my glucose levels at home show just how high my glucose levels go and remain when I eat carbs.

Between my body type, cholesterol levels and other criteria, I was not considered a diabetes risk. If not for the SFN, I would have never requested the OGTT and done the self-monitoring.

That being said, I still don't know what is going on, and I probably won't unless I go to an endocrinologist. All I know for sure is that my glucose levels run high under certain circumstances for prolonged periods of time, and that can cause the nerve issues associated with SFN.