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Afraser's avatar
Afraser
Member
5 years ago

Never say never

https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Peripheral-Neuropathy-Fact-Sheet

I was looking for some information on PN just to check how long it may take for improvements to keep happening and found this site, which I think is pretty useful. Most tend to focus on pain relief, which is absolutely fair enough if you have pain, but I don’t and was looking for more info on sensory nerve damage. 

Because my feet just took another small step forward - absolutely no idea why but good stuff! I can feel most of the area between my soles and my toe tips - doesn’t feel entirely normal but definitely there! Toe tip feeling came back nearly two years ago. I can walk perfectly well, just don’t trust myself running!

Happily sensory nerve cells can revitalise themselves it seems. Seven and a bit years and who’s counting! But millimetre by millimetre we are getting there! 
  • Have you had any nerve studies done @Afraser?   Different nerve damage I know but my mother  had bilat knee replacements 7 months ago. One went perfectly and the other ended with her having a totally numb tingly foot that she called the brick.  So after 6 months of "gee that's never happened before" from guru surgeon he finally sent her for a nerve study that pin pointed which nerve and how much was damaged. As it turns out there's not much to be done until it regenerates itself which is about 1 mm per month so she figures its about 400 days away. :)
  • Chemo is so hard to predict - PN is just that, peripheral bits of the body usually, hands and feet. I didn’t get any pain to begin with, just tingling and a bit of loss of feeling. My toes did hurt a lot about 2 months in, which was worrying, but stopped, coincidentally with starting taking vitamin B (oncology nurse suggestion). No idea really if the vitamin helped or just happenstantial!  No pain since, but feet vary a lot - mainly feeling like you are wearing two pairs of thick socks! But over the last day or so, only feels like one, thinner pair! But as you renew sensory nerve cells (suspected but didn’t know that), it makes some sense. 
  • Wow. Good article. I just started taxol so am on the look out for this. One round down (and 3 days later) and I have experienced stabbing pain in thighs and buttocks. The pain is mostly st night. Panadol has relieved it but it makes me rather concerned about my hands and feet. I will certainly be talking to my oncologist on Thursday about symptoms so far.  Good @Afraser that your feeling has come back. Thanks for the article.
  • Great news @afraser!  Your body has been doing good stuff behind the scenes.