Suspected peripheral neuropathy - not sure what to do
 

Hi,

For the last 2.5 weeks I've been experiencing buring in my feet. It changes sometimes to my ankles, sometimes its shooting pain, sometimes it's an "icy-hot" sensation. The funny thing is that it tends to go away at night and most mornings I wake up fine and it comes on shortly after. I went for acupuncture and for that entire day there were no symptoms. They returned the next day however, but then disappeared a day later for the Easter weekend when I went skiing and they were gone completely until Monday night (3.5 days)

The doctor suspects peripheral neuropathy and is sending me for nerve conduction tests (which will likely take a few months).

In the meantime he did all the bloodwork and it came back clean. The only idea he has is that it might be the Propafenone that I am taking for my heart. He has advised me to try and stop it. He also gave me some amitriptyline to try.

Obviously I need to wait to see the neurologist but does this sound like PN to you guys? Rapid onset and having it come and go seems unusual from what I've read.

Does anyone have any advice? I would love to hear it.

Monty

Yes, Propafenone as been shown to cause nerve damage in some patients.

You can Google "Propafenone neuropathy" and read more about it.

Thanks. I did that before and it came back with just a couple of case studies. I'm going to try and stop anyway.
My question is more along the lines of, does this even sound like PN?

Monty

it might be--
 

--but one cannot go exclusively by presentation; while there are some typical patterns, and acute onset is not as typical as gradual, acute/subacute onset does occur, particularly with toxic (that includes drug induced) and autoimmune etiologies.

Why is it taking months to get a nerve conduction study, may I ask?

I live in Canada and it takes that long to get a referral to a neurologist. I had an episode of atrial fibrillation and took a large dose of medication yesterday and today is unbearable. I'm stopping the med today and hoping that this begins to resolve. That can take months from what I understand.( assuming it does at all)

I took this med for over a year with no problems though. I don't understand how this can happen all of a sudden.

AFIB Cure
 

I cured my AFIB by recognizing/discovering my triggers and eliminating them from my life. I had six episodes with AFIB the first year. After researching the web and learning everything I could, I've been AFIB free for fifteen years.

The fine people at the Lone Atrial Fibrillation Bulletin Board will willingly provide all the information you will need - http://www.afibbers.org/toboards.htm

Amazingly/luckily, this AFIB forum has a retired nurse (Jackie), who is very much the equivalent to our mrsD.

Thanks Joe. I am already a member of that forum and have taken much of Jackie's advice over the last 5 years. Unfortunately an easy cure is not in the cards for me.