Gait improvment

    • July 14, 2013 at 8:47 pm

      Hi everybody just diagnosed Monday went thru 3 PE treatments in 5 days, after 1st I was amazed how good I felt, balance problems had the big improvement but I still have gait issue. Can I look forward to some progress there, this cipd has made life very challenging.

    • GH
      July 15, 2013 at 3:32 am

      Gait problems are due to damaged nerves. No treatment for CIDP repairs damaged nerves. If the PE treatments arrest the attacks on the nerves, then they will begin to heal naturally. Nerve healing is slow and may never reach 100%. The progression of my CIDP seems to have been stopped by my PE treatments, but a year later I still had noticeble gait irregularities. Two and one-half years out, most people don’t notice even though I am still not 100% healed.

    • December 10, 2013 at 3:08 am

      Hello. I was diagnosed in May 2013 and started treatment a few weeks later. Overall my symptoms are fairly mild (at least compared to some of the folks I see in here). One of my concerns was gait; I found it was particularly noticeable when going up or down stairs, where I found I had to make sure my hand was on or near the railing so I wouldn’t take a tumble. I’m 53 and gait had never been a problem for me until last year.

      I don’t completely agree with GH when he/she says “Gait problems are due to damaged nerves. No treatment for CIDP repairs damaged nerves.” The demylenation of the nerves is reversible, so it depends on if the gait problem is caused by demylenation, or by a more permanent kind of damage.

      In my case, my legs were getting weak, particularly the right one. Since I’ve been on IVIG they have strengthened noticeably. The “drop foot” is mostly gone, most of the time, and the muscles around the knees seem stronger. Those were the things that were giving me gait problems.

      But if I’ve learned anything in the past 8 months it’s that you cannot make any absolute claims with CIDP. It affects everyone differently. This is the way it affects me (and the way the treatments affect me). That doesn’t mean it will affect others the same way.

    • GH
      December 11, 2013 at 1:35 pm

      Tingle, you have misconstrued my post. I did not write that nerve damage is permanent, although some is. Demyelenation can heal, and if nerve function is restored by healing then muscle strength can be rebuilt. I, too, had foot drop and pronounced gait problems. Today, I walk normally with no orthotic devices. That is because the nerves healed sufficiently (although not 100%) to allow near normal muscle strength to return. PE did not heal the nerves. The nerves healed themselves when allowed to. It took time.

    • December 11, 2013 at 5:59 pm

      OK. I was just addressing the part where you said “Gait problems are due to damaged nerves. No treatment for CIDP repairs damaged nerves,” as that implies that CIDP treatment will not address gait problems. I see what you’re saying now, but that opening statement threw me.