Thanks everyone.
I heal very quickly, so I am lucky that way.
I have a severe idiopathic peripheral neuropathy. Cause is undetermined, but most likely it is due to an inherited gene. My Dad had it, he lost toes then, eventually, both legs beneath his knees. I have been very careful with my feet and legs and have not had problems there. I also have very good circulation, luckilly.
Neuropathy is something diabetics can get also, but not this severe, usually. None of the drugs that can help with the diabetic kind helped me.
Medical staff are used to people with numb toes and feet, even some numb fingers. They don't understand or have experience with people without any sensory nerves left. I can't give them feedback or tell them if something is hot, or if it hurts.
It starts at the sensory nerves farthest from your spine, then works its way slowly back. It also includes nerves that control muscles, too. I have lost some control nerves and most of the sensory nerves in my hands. I have no sensory nerves in my feet to half way up my shinbone. I am numb from there up to just above my knees, and half my thighs feel like they have a bad sun burn mostly.
So they just do their best to deal with the symptoms - mostly, dying nerves cause a lot of pain. The other big deal is that I lost a bunch of fingernails starting 2 yrs ago when I lost nerves in my hands. Last July this infection started in the tip bones in several fingers. (I had been doing a lot of yardwork building a big flower bed and had hauled 12 or 13 yards of amended topsoil.) The finger tip (distal) bones were more susceptible than I knew because those bones are very close up under fingernails, they are very thin bones (kind of chisel pointed), and the nail bed skin isn't like normal skin. It is softer, more porous, it needs nail protection.
Infection in bones is called osteomyelitis. It is very hard to get rid of. It can kill you by going from your bone into the bloodstream, and from there it can land on a heart valve. Get a bacterial infection there and pfft, you are gone.
Now they have figured out the bug. It was a weird one, they say. I am on IV antibiotics that Amy, my wife, gives me once a day. (And at $1, 000.00 a dose I am glad it is only once per day.) It is nicer to do it at home instead of having to go to the infectious disease doctors office every day. Tonight I get an MRI of my left hand. Hopefully they only need to take the tip of that pointer finger's end bone. Then I hope to finally have it out of me.
No more yard work for me.
Larry
