HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

does anyone here have small fiber peripheral neuropathy?

Support Forums
>
Fibromyalgia
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 2/18/2014 12:38 AM (GMT 0)
I have recently been prescribed Gabapentin 100mg week 1, 200mg week 2, 300mg week 3 @ bedtime. I did a questionaire on PN and received an email about a TVAM procedure. The Dr. that sent me an email told me to ask my doctor to do a small fiber biopsy on the lower extremities bilaterally. Has anyone heard of this?
I have been experiencing a lot of pain cry, neck, shoulders to elbow, upper and lower back pain, the middle back hurts, but mostly when it is touched, my hips, legs, and the sides and backs of my knees hurt, and my ankles in the front hurt. I also have insomnia, confusion, vision, balance, and many other symptoms.
I was originally prescribed Cymbalta, but insurance would not cover the cost until I am tried on different meds first.
I started the Gabapentin last night and had crazy dreams, waking up only to go back to the same dream. Idk, but I am interested in what anyone has to say.
Posted 2/18/2014 12:49 AM (GMT 0)
I take gabapentin at bedtime but I've never been told I had SFN.
Posted 2/18/2014 12:56 AM (GMT 0)
Actually Couchtater, you mentioned the medication and I mentioned it to my doctor, thank you.
She tried to convince me that I had depression, but I had to shut her down because if I was any happier with my life I would be admitted. I do not sweat the small stuff, even with my brain tumor 7 years ago, I have never been depressed. I do have anxiety, but who doesn't in this day & age? So in the end, I throw those lemons back with a MLB's arm.
Posted 2/27/2014 6:09 PM (GMT 0)
I just found this article
(Am researching a dr a friend recommended)

Is this the same?

http://www.cortjohnson.org/blog/2013/08/06/small-fibe-nerve-study-suggests-new-era-in-fibromyalgia-and-perhaps-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-be-at-hand/
Posted 2/27/2014 7:25 PM (GMT 0)
DianeB

I happened to come upon a peripheral neuropothy questionaire, and took it. Later that day, I received an email from a doctor stating that all of my answers to the questionaire had a lot of the same symptoms of small fiber peripheral neuropathy and can be treated unlike fibro, which cannot. Only the symptoms of fibro can be treated, not the disease itself. With the treatment of small fiber pn, they dialate the juggular and repair the nerves, thus reversing the pain and other symptoms that mimic fibro.
He said the test they do to diagnose small fiber pn, ask your doctor to do blood work checking the small fiber in the blood in the extremities, bilatterally. This would prove small fiber pn or not. He said if the test is normal, then more than likely it is fibro, and the medication would help with the symptoms, but if the test shows sfpn, then it can in fact be treated.
I will try to find the info for you and send it to you.

Journey72
Posted 3/1/2014 5:30 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you'll so much !!
Posted 3/2/2014 5:43 PM (GMT 0)
Now if only I could get approval for these tests..

Going to follow thru with research on my own.. a possible way to treat / change pain levels !!??
Posted 3/3/2014 1:01 AM (GMT 0)

I take 600 gabapentin 2-3 times a day it was prescribed to me as I have Idiopathic polyneuropathy in feet and calves so far, but it could spread.

 Dr. do not know what is causing this problems( shooting pain , pins and needles pain, restless leg numbness in feet and toes, nerve damage) The cutting of the foot biopsy, was never discussed as I believe the same treatment would be prescribed.

My neurologist it the one that ordered all my MRIs and x-rays to find problem causing polyneuropathy but he said they did not know why, just some people get it. he referred me to pain clinic.

He did not know I had Fibro at that time, I had to go to RA dr. to find that out. not sure if there is a correlation but the more I read about Fibro, the more I see it is neurological too 

At first I felt kind of goofy on gabapentin but it is a life saver for me. If I miss a dose the pain and all the other symptoms intensify. I know it is an  anti-seizure med but it has crossed over to many neurological conditions.

hope that helps

Posted 3/3/2014 7:44 PM (GMT 0)
I don't know what I'd do without gabapentin. I have nerve pain in the outside thigh and it is debilitating. I was sent for an EMG and the doctor didn't ask for any kind of history and he made a remark that people weren't usually referred for an EMG for meralgia paresthetica (meaning that I was fat and probably wore tight clothes and that was causing the pain).

I was dragged by a car in 2002 and landed on my left thigh, and I also had a duck egg-sized fatty tumor removed from that area several years later. It was obvious it had been growing for a long time.

I hope you find some relief.
Posted 3/4/2014 4:01 AM (GMT 0)
Finding the "why" is everything! I went "under diagnosed" from 1991 to 2008. It's a long story, which you can read on this site, but in 2005, as my condition deteriorated, I was determined to find the "why"! No neurologist, and I saw prestigious ones, had a clue. They really should have put "all my symptoms", which I recounted to each and every specialist, into a med palm device. It was a very good gastroenterologist who finally did this, and out popped HCP, a type of porphyria. I had to get a DNA test to confirm, which meant going out of state, but armed with the "why", everything made sense...except why no one had ever done that before! Now I manage my "real" disorder, that I am expressing acutely, with constant neurological pain, and frequent attacks, with minimal medication. I avoid ingesting all toxins, including all drugs on the porphyria "do not take" list. So, the "why" is crucial to having the highest quality life that you deserve!
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply