Skin Biopsy

Hi Angel,
After two years of steady decline without help from the normal protocol of treatments to do for CIDP, my Neuro wanted to see how bad the damage is.
I had had a Sural Biopsy near the time when they finally diagnosed CIDP.
But then they wanted to see to what extent it had progressed.
They did the skin biopsy, of which the results show small nerve atrophy as well, which explained why I was having problems with my autonomic system. With small nerve atrophy, CIDP attacks the nerves controlling the different organs. It attacked the nerves controlling my: heart, (it gave me tachycardia); bladder, (I am now on a permanent catheter); my phrenal nerve, (it hit the diaphragm and I can only breathe in shallow breaths); my stomach, (the food comes into the stomach and the stomach doesn’t work, so I must take pills to make the stomach digest the food); swallowing, (they did a swallow test on me since I was having trouble swallowing, and saw where the food was bouncing back into the windpipe area); bowels, (I only “go” once a week now, and have to use a lax if I can’t); and waiting to see what NEXT will happen. My team of doctors gave me a bleak prognosis, and said I would probably “go” when I would get the flu or some type of lung infection, that my body is too weak to handle, especially since the diaphragm doesn’t work right. I am currently on Chemotherapy now, as a last ditch effort for them to try to put it into remission.
But, yes, it helped them to see how far the CIDP had progressed. It is a good tool for the doctors, if the current protocol of treatments, (i.e. IVIG, steroids, plasmaphereses, etc.) doesn’t seem to be working.
I hope this helps.
KEDASO