Nueropathy And Stress Q's?

[roxie]

For about a month now I've been dealing with feeling pricked by pins, needles, and tingling randomly throughout my body. It's not excruitationg but different and annoying. I'm having a really hard time deciding if I should talk to my dr. If I tell him I'll afraid he'll send to me a neurologist and do a ton of tests. That is soo hard on my body when it may be nothing more than stupid POTS anyways. There had been a lot of stress swirling around my life lately nad my mom seems to think that it could be a reaction to all the stress. I guess when you are stressed out and breath shallowly the tinlging and such can happen.

then, i also read about neuropathies on the this forum and I"m just all confused as to what I should do.

SO I have a few questions about neuropathies if y'all would kindly answer.

What does a neuropathy feel like? I read that it is sharp, tingling to the bone. Mine isn't to the bone just the top of my skin

Is the pain constant? Mine isn't, it comes and goes. i can go a week without it and then a week with it.

Is it localized or random? mine mostly moves through my shoulders, arms, neck, legs, and feet.

Can it be made worse by sore muscles?

can it be made worse by a lot of prolonged stress?

and lastly, the one I'm dreading most (deep breath) if after 12 yrs of POTS I've developed a mild neuropathy, does this mean my POTS is progressive?

~a very confused bananas

[Guest tearose]

Well, stress makes thing everything worse even for the non-POTS people!

I have neuropathy. My symptoms range from tingling and burning to lack of feeling. I don't sweat normally on my legs or in my pelvic area. These come and go. I am worse in climate changes. The cold is the worst for me. Summer is okay until the temp goes over 82.

I had a real bad bout of trigeminal neuritis in the past too.

Yes, you can develop a new symptom. I hope it doesn't then mean "progression". I just like to think of it as "changing" symptoms as we age.

We will only know over more years if it was progression...hopefully they will understand dysautonomias and find the cure for us before too long!

[lifesaver]

I have neuropathy---the testing for it is not stressful at all.

I get vibrations in my feet and legs, feeling like wires being stuck in my toes, twitching in my leg muscles, ache, agitation, restless feeling are other manifestations of the neuropathy. Sometimes I have to wiggle my feet to remind myself they are there--very odd feeling.

I did read that there are 3 types of neuropathy----Sensory, motor, and autonomic. The conclusion is that some types of nerve damage cause one type of autonomic disorder.

It would be good to talk to a neuro if your doc thinks you need to---many, many things can cause neuropathy and finding the cause can lead to treatment.

Becky

[roxie]

thanks, I couldn't get an appointment with my dr for two weeks so I still have some time to think about how I want to approach it.

A couple years ago i did have a nerve conduction study done that showed carpal tunnel, i don't know if that holds and clues.

[vemee]

If you go to a neurologist find one that does a q sweat test. This test is simple and painless and can detect small fiber neuropathy where the regular conduction test will not. You probably will have to have the conduction test also to make sure your main nerves aren't being affected. It is best to get these tests done to rule out something other than pots or if you are really lucky find something that can improve your condition.