New to neuropathy. Need some help please!

[samrose86]

Can neuropathy get better or is it always progressive? I don't know much about it other than what I've researched online which from what I could find, doesn't look promising. Is destroyed myelin the only cause? And if so, can it repair itself? Ever?

So, I'm only 25 years old and early one morning in August I woke up to what felt like an electric shock feeling in my inner left calf! It was the worst pain I had ever felt in my entire life, thus far. I'm healthy, active but not TOO active to where it could've been from injury. I have NO idea where this came from. It would last .25 seconds (it was local - felt like I was being tazed, not traveling down my body or my leg) and was gone. It would come and go anywhere between 3 min and 3 hrs. Got further and further apart as the day went on. However, since that day, I haven't felt it that severely again, BUT I still get mini versions of the pain every day - these however, aren't enough to stop me in my tracks & make me cry out like the more severe ones did. But they still hurt and are very disturbing. And occasionally now as time as gone on, I sometimes feel it in my right leg.

Has anyone ever felt this? I'm young so of course I am TERRIFIED I'll never get rid of it and have to live the rest of my life like this. I have bad anxiety and hypochondria too so now that has kicked in as well and is causing a myriad of other weird symptoms and sensations.

My neuro didn't seem to have any answers for me, but did a lumbar MRI last week which came back fine (at least I assume so since they never called to tell me otherwise). I was frustrated with that...of course I don't want anything wrong with me, but clearly something is, and if something would've shown up on the MRI like a pinched nerve or something then at least we could start to treat it! I don't see my neuro again for 2 weeks so he can go over it.

Is this something that will get better over time, or will it get worse? Like I said, I only felt it that severely for one day but every day since then I've had some form of pain that feels electric-like. How do you treat a pain like this that is so sudden and is gone within a second? I'm a mess.

Also, through all my online research on this, I've come across acupuncture as a potential help. Has anyone done it for nerve pain? I've never been one to believe in alt medicine but hey if it's worked for anyone I'm totally doing it!

[Sallysblooms]

Welcome! I am sorry that happened. There is so much you can do to give the nerves what they need to feel better and heal. Diet and supplements are very important.

Everyone is different and there are many causes so you can do everything possible and hopefully you will get much better! I have. I have Autonomic Neuropathy/Dysautonomia. Also Peripheral Neuropathy. I have improved so much. Takes a while.

Alternative medicine is the only way to heal many problems so I always do that first. Meds can cause so many problems.

There is a lot of information here and I just want to tell you to stay hopeful and learn all you can. Sally

[mrsD]

It depends on what is causing the neuropathy.

If it is hereditary, called CMT, it will likely progress, although
different people have different experiences with that.

If it is a secondary problem, like hypothyroidism, which I had, I
had a reversal to almost PN free 30 yrs ago. Now that I am borderline with diabetes however, some burning has returned.
Controlling blood sugar, will also help those with diabetic issues.
Many non-diabetic PNers also see improvements when sugar is dropped from the diet, as well.

Some toxic neuropathies do not regress, and others may when the drug or toxin is removed. If you continue with a drug that causes PN, then of course you will get worse.

Autoimmune PNs often get worse too. Some doctors give IVIG treatments to stop this progression.

Nutrient deficiencies can reverse symptoms when corrected.
Gluten intolerance and other food intolerances will reverse as well.

There are over 100 different PNs so it depends on your unique situation, lifestyle, exposure to toxins, and internal medical state.

In a young person with sudden onset, I'd examine lifestyle first.
Do you cross your legs alot when sitting? Or kneel alot?
The peroneal nerve goes thru the knee near the surface along the back and goes down the calf to the feet. It normally has a cushion of fat to protect it. If you are very thin, this would be absent. People can compress this nerve and create symptoms. It can be damaged by any activity that causes strain behind the knee. The most common is crossing your legs for long periods. But sky divers also get this from landing hard with a parachute. Squatting and kneeling also can compress it.

Here is an article with a diagram:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_fibular_nerve
compression of this will not show up on MRIs reliably. the nerve is shown in yellow in this diagram.

[samrose86]

Originally Posted by mrsD

It depends on what is causing the neuropathy.

If it is hereditary, called CMT, it will likely progress, although
different people have different experiences with that.

If it is a secondary problem, like hypothyroidism, which I had, I
had a reversal to almost PN free 30 yrs ago. Now that I am borderline with diabetes however, some burning has returned.
Controlling blood sugar, will also help those with diabetic issues.
Many non-diabetic PNers also see improvements when sugar is dropped from the diet, as well.

Some toxic neuropathies do not regress, and others may when the drug or toxin is removed. If you continue with a drug that causes PN, then of course you will get worse.

Autoimmune PNs often get worse too. Some doctors give IVIG treatments to stop this progression.

Nutrient deficiencies can reverse symptoms when corrected.
Gluten intolerance and other food intolerances will reverse as well.

There are over 100 different PNs so it depends on your unique situation, lifestyle, exposure to toxins, and internal medical state.

In a young person with sudden onset, I'd examine lifestyle first.
Do you cross your legs alot when sitting? Or kneel alot?
The peroneal nerve goes thru the knee near the surface along the back and goes down the calf to the feet. It normally has a cushion of fat to protect it. If you are very thin, this would be absent. People can compress this nerve and create symptoms. It can be damaged by any activity that causes strain behind the knee. The most common is crossing your legs for long periods. But sky divers also get this from landing hard with a parachute. Squatting and kneeling also can compress it.

Here is an article with a diagram:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_fibular_nerve
compression of this will not show up on MRIs reliably. the nerve is shown in yellow in this diagram.

Well, last year I woke up one morning with some numbness and got sent to see a neurologist. He checked for MS and my MRI scans came back clear. After a couple of days the numbness was gone but I also had hair loss so they did a myriad of blood tests to look for any autoimmune causes. Still, all came back normal. No one in my family history that my parents or grandparents know of has any autoimmune diseases either.

So that's why I'm here thinking it's just some other form on neuropathy. But me being so young it's nearly hard to believe the drs didn't miss something. I just had some blood work done recently that showed slightly elevated glucose, but apparently that can be high if you eat before? I don't remember if I ate before the test or not. I'm a healthy weight, I'm 5'2" and 115 lbs. I eat mostly healthy foods but I splurge occasionally.

The week prior to my current symptoms I didn't do hardly any exercise or anything strenuous because I was sick with a stomach bug for about 4 days. I pretty much stayed home and in bed, then out of nowhere that zap pain came a few days after I was feeling better. And ever since then....all these other symptoms have reoccured but nothing has gone away (like the numbness did last year). I can't help but think it's MS even though I was cleared for it last year. I suffer from health anxiety.

[MYWILLOW]

Hello, I currently have what is being called a Ididopathic Axonal Neuropathy. I have been reading up on neuropathy since it began in 2008, does that make me an expert, no! But, if you look at an anatomy book that shows the layers inside the human body it becomes very clear that with all our nerves running this way and that way, near bones and joints, under muscles, that are nerves can be crushed, pinched, and trapped in some very tight spaces. Some people can develop a mononeuropathy just from crossing their legs all the time.
When I was younger, I had sciatica all the time. That pain was a sharp, excruciating agony that signaled for the next week I would be miserable. It ran from my hip to my foot, and anyone that has had it will agree, OWWWW!
What I have now is progressive, slow but progressive. It did not just stay in one area. My first neve pain I felt was like a two foot long sewing needle had been jabbed through my right inner knee to my ankle. It knocked me back onto the bed, when I suddenly could not feel my lower leg at all. Fourtunately it only lasted a minute. Since then the nerve and muscle pain has moved from body part to body part, including my face. I have aches and pains in my muscles, cramps all over, twitching, tremor, and edema.

I mentioned both problems for a reason. My sciatic was painful, but it never progressed beyond that area. It was a pinched sciatic nerve. This axonal neuropathy is a polyneuropathy (a lot of areas of the body) that signals a condition or disease that is systemic.
If you think about your lifestyle, is there anything that you do repetively to that area, or perhaps a one time thing where you lifted something heavy an akward. My sciatica came on because of my weight, hard work, and holding children on my hip while I carried them. Not good to walk with a shifted stride.

I hope it turns out to be something like the sciatica, because the past four years for me have not been fun.