Peripheral Neuropathy

[bruce5755]

I have today been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, from what I can make out the nerves have been damaged and cannot be repaired leaving me with numbness in my feet/lower legs and fingertips.

The thing I can't work out is if my feet etc are numb, why do I get such awful pains in them, especially at night making it impossible to sleep?

Any help appreciated

[islasmum]

You need to see your doctor, I have been on Amitriptyline for my neuropathy, I take 75mg at at night and it really helps

[Sqad]

bruce:

\\\The thing I can't work out is if my feet etc are numb, why do I get such awful pains in them, especially at night making it impossible to sleep?\\

You do not say as to what is the cause for your peripheral neuropathy as it is often secondary to something else..e.g diabetes or pernicious anaemia.
As you know it affects the nerves of the leg and maybe arms,the larger of which contain nerves to the muscles (motor)and also to sensation (sensory) and amongst those sensory nerves are the nerves of pain (separate from the nerves of touch)

Pain receptors in the skin can also become oversensitized, so that people may feel severe pain (allodynia) from stimuli that are normally painless (for example, some may experience pain from bed sheets draped lightly over the body).

Seems odd I know, but it is a well known symptom of peripheral neuritis.

islasmum has given you one of the ways in which the pain can be treated.

[Sqad]

P.S Sorry about the "gap"....no idea how it happened..LOL

[dunnitall]

My other half suffers with this and some years ago advised by a nurse to use Opsite flexigard to relieve the pain and it worked!! It is a dressing for wounds so not widely used for PN but was discovered to relieve this type of pain quite by chance. We have recommended it to several people over the years who suffer PN and to their amazement and relief they became pain free. It is available on prescription but also can be bought over the counter. My advice is to buy a small packet and try it first and see how it goes. It will certainly stop you needing drugs to control the pain which bring their own problems with side effects. Good luck and please give a thought to this because it has worked for a lot of people. No harm in trying I think.