Reply To: Excessive Physical Exertion Takes a Toll

Hi Jim,

Thank you SO MUCH for your message. It answered a lot of questions I have had: 1.) Can CIPD get better w/o treatment? I certainly feel better than I did 6 months ago, and I have had no treatments. Unless you count the 1 week of a tapering high-dose of Prednisone. I went to see a spine physician when I had the tingling at the beginning – she thought some vertebrae were compressing nerves, so hence the Prednisone. I don’t know if that somehow affected the speed of which things happened. I have had an extensive work-up… everything from MRI’s/CT scans, blood work… no Lyme (tested 3 times) the only thing coming back positive was the NCS, think it showed a conduction block and other things I can’t remember. I’m a fairly health 39 year old, no diabetic issues, my neurologist looked at the arches of my feet briefly and didn’t say a word, so I do not think it is CMT. I do feel like I fall within no category though based on the timing. 2.) What defines CIDP? That was so helpful to read. I specifically asked about that and never heard an answer that made sense. I have had some symptoms reappear when I over-do it, but they are not even close to what happened to me 6 months ago. My ankle reflexes have been almost absent, but my knee reflexes have been fine. LP was normal (think it was a 19) and all blood work has been fine.

The only thing I have read about that I may never get an answer to is Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy. I shared this with all of my doctors and they disregard it, but my symptoms started a few days after I hand mowed over some ginormous decaying mushrooms while doing yard work. I was literally in a cloud of purple/black dust for a minute, inhaling who knows what. I knew it was bad when it happened, I forgot they were there and I had some people out to aerate and seed our lawn the week before. I don’t know if they sprayed the mushrooms with anything. Anyway, since I don’t seem to fit into any typical diagnosis, I always have it in the back of my mind. None of my doctors seemed to know how to test for toxin exposure, and my thoughts are they didn’t feel like they had to. Just in case, I have taken charcoal tablets and I take clay baths. I will do anything to feel better! Jim, do you know anything about that? It seems to me like the timing is too coincidental.

I appreciate your prompt reply and am happy I joined this group. I’m sorry to hear that you have gone though GBS/CIPD/MFS. You are providing a great deal of help to those of us going through this since most people in the health care community are fairly unfamiliar with it.