Sensitivity & Balance

I'm sadly cursed with six different diagnoses, each one a struggle in its own way, but the hardest one to come to terms with has to be my neuropathy.

It's not just the loss of sensitivity, the tingling and burning sensation or the swelling, it's the constant pain and aching as well. The pain is somewhat manageable at daytime but unbearable during the night and therefore causes sleep depravations which leads to constant fatigue. And as I walk, I tend to constantly tighten all muscles due to my unsteady gait. I'm always afraid to slip and fall and to get unnecessary sprains caused by a bumpy surface combined with my weak ankles These subconscious tensions causes pain and stiffness both during the walk but mostly afterwards.

So what exactly is neuropathy? In order to briefly explain a little about cause, symptoms, treatment etc., I've done my best to translate some short facts about it from a Swedish information site about balance diseases.

What’s normal?

The balance-sense constantly collects data on our current balance situation. One important balance information system contains a large amount of sensing elements in the body's joints, muscles and pressure receptors in the skin. These sensing elements provide information on how we hold our body, which joints are bent and the soles of the feet tell about the ground we walk on. If the floor tilts up or down. If we go on hilly terrain or on flat asphalt.

What’s Neuropathy?

Neuropathy is a disease state in the body's nerves. The disease can affect both superficial sensory nerves and nerves that have the task of controlling muscles. Neuropathy causes the sensation to decrease or decrease completely from both soles and lower legs. As information on the basis you go on fails, the state leads to a kind of information shortage about the surroundings.

What's the cause?

Nerve damage is thought to occur due to a local lack of oxygen. What in turn causes this can be due to a lot of health conditions. Known causes are infections, autoimmune and hereditary conditions. Diabetes mellitus. Vitamin B deficiency. Longer alcoholism. Inflammatory diseases and tumor diseases. There is no explanation in 25%.

What’s the symptoms?

Most often, sensory impairment begins in the front feet. One can experience anesthetic feeling, pain in the feet and muscle weakness, but also a hypersensitivity to pressure on the soles of the feet.
The symptoms can then be spread to different parts of the lower legs but often develop symmetrically on both legs.

The onset can be sudden, recurring in flairs of sensory impairment or lead to a chronic poor sensation in the feet and lower legs. When one can no longer evaluate whether what one walks on is cobblestones, smooth asphalt, if the road is tilted up or down, this causes a feeling of constant unsteadiness and uncertainty when walking and standing.

How can suspected neuropathy be examined?

A simple examination is to check the vibration sense in the soles of the feet by holding a vibrating tuning fork against the soles of the feet, a toe or ankle. Do you feel the vibrations or not at all?

To distinguish polyneuropathy from other conditions, a careful neurological examination is performed. There are many different causal mechanisms that lead to neuropathies in the body, therefore, one usually carries out an investigation with different blood samples and also measures the conduction velocity in the nerves in a laboratory such as EMG.

Treatment

In cases where a triggering disease is found, this should be treated. Often, treatment with B vitamins is relevant, eg daily intake of vitamin B tablets and regular injections of B vitamins.
Sugar value optimization for diabetics. If drug-induced neuropathy is suspected, the drug list should be remedied. Treatment of Borrelia Disease. Treatment of alcohol abuse. Cortisone if immunological diseases are suspected. Foot care can become relevant.

You can make use of two "extra senses" in the form of canes or walking poles in connection with outdoor walks.

Contact with neurologist and physiotherapist is recommended.

                 

Source: Yrsel.com   www.yrsel.com/ywp/neuropati-i-fotter-och-ben/