I am sorry for all the questions, but I just had to type them before I went back to sleep and forgot them. PLUS, you guys put the answers in simple minded people terms aka ME. IDK, joonie...
I have PN and RLS and my RD and neuro believe it is caused by the inflammation of RA. But I've not found anything that really makes the case for RA being the cause...
I look forward to someone chiming in here w/ any reason/explanation/thoughts...
inflammtion causes compression on the nerve or it can also go the other direction and stretch the nerve out of shapeI read a study a while back that RA does cause peripheral nerve damage due to inflammation. Also, inflammation of the blood vessels impairs the blood flow to the small-fiber peripheral nerves and causes damage that way. Usually you would notice numb areas or have odd sensations, tingling etc where there is nerve damage.
Hope that helps.My neurologist I saw said it was the inflammation. Said it pushed on nerves and stopped them from getting thru??? And it takes about 6 months of no inflammation for them to go back to normal. He was right for me, it took 6 months on AP for the numbness etc to go away the longest being my middle fingers. And oddly, the reason I was sent to a neurologist was because it was both hand and one foot. The other foot was fine and they said that was 'unusual'.
Pip
Humm... very informative replies. Sorry, ya'll have nerve damage.
My neurologist did not say specific spots I had nerve damage, except my hands and arms are worse than my legs. Which he thought my legs were going to be worse, and was surprised.
But other than that he did not say much about how I got nerve damage and how it is corrected. He just said he was not adding to my many meds I already take.
I was suppose to go back to him, but I had to cancel because my mom had surgery that day, and I did not want to be somewhere other than home, if something did happen to her.
I go for an MRI of my back on Aug 4th... I think he wanted the MRI of my back while I was still flaring, so he could tell if inflammation was causing my problems. I am sure I will not be getting the Remicade for a while, so not too hard to give him what he wants. I will be making another appt to see him in Aug. Maybe by then he will have more answers and be able to rule out stroke, but I wonder what he will say about my blood work that shows high for fibrogen... it can be a couple of things to make it high inflammatory disease is one, stroke is another, and I think corenary heart disease and a couple of others did not sound like me.
Well... thanks for replying everyone. It answered my questions and helped me to think a little more and will be doing some more googling on it soon.
Thanks!
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