Finding the root cause
 

Background:
Mid-30's caucasian male, very tall, very overweight (BMI is 45.9).

Symptoms:
November 12th, I noticed the numbness in my left foot wasn't going away. At that point it'd been on for 2-3 days so let's say onset of November 9th. The following weekend I mentioned this to my girlfriend and she suggested I get tested.

November 30th, the numbness showed up in my right foot. Last Sunday (December 14th) I felt like both sides had gotten a little worse.

Medical Diagnoses:
12/4 I saw my GP and he ordered up a battery of tests. A1C, ANA, B12 and Protein Sedimentation Rate are all normal. The lab screwed up the SPEP so I'm gonna need to give more blood for that.

12/12 I had an EMG and nerve test. EMG says my muscles are great. Nerve test says motor nerves are fine but lower limb sensory nerves are all whacked out. I have a follow up appointment with neurology

Self Diagnoses:
I was leaning towards diabetes prior to the A1C result. Another hypothesis comes out of talking with my girlfriend, whom I generally only see on the weekends. The three weekends in which the PN got worse were all weekends where we had vigorous sex, largely with me on top. The two weekends in which it stayed the same, we didn't.

I deal with mild knee pain periodically and a bit of a snap-crackle pop noise when I exert myself under certain circumstances. Today I was waiting for the elevator at work and on a lark I shook my right leg causing the knee to crack. I immediately got a blast of pins and needles in my right foot and now have probably 50-60% of normal feeling back, at least this evening.

This has my wondering if I might not be dealing with some early osteoarthritis on account of my weight, and if I should talk to my GP about my having an X-ray done.

Welcome Sam Houston Zephyr. :Tip-Hat:

Exhaustive testing
 

Having read and posted here for 19 months, I can with confidence, say that you need to listen to your own mind. A simple B&W X-ray might reveal much and at a little cost. The old saying is, "What cost peace of mind?" There are somany differing types of PN and symptoms all over the map. At least with the knee there are mechanics involved that can be corrected if need be.In a best case scenario, loss of cartilage and high BMI may be crowding or inflaming a sensory nerve path. In a worst case scenario, your girlfriend may have an agenda,haha.Good Luck, Ken in Texas.

SPEP came out normal. Saw a neurologist as a follow up to my EMG. She wasn't that helpful... said a normal conduction rate is 40, I'm at 38, so it's "really early stage" and I should come back in six months or if it gets worse.

She did order up more tests (thyroid and vitamin D). Thyroid came back normal. D I'm still waiting on. I suppose if I made another appointment with my GP he could just order up an X-ray on request?

Hopefully and pose the question in a non-direct way and you might get it. Or, if you are lucky and your GP is helpful, just ask for it.
Hope it gets better soon.