pain and polyneuopathy

[cottoncandy99]

I was on the interferon for 4 times and now have been virus free since last tx but encountered all kinds of other problems and know that I am not the onlt one out that going through this as my case happens to be a little more severe than others.  I went froma  rolling wheelchair and now in a powerchair and have nuropathy in both arms and legs, as this all attribited to the interferon that I told last time around.  I am in braces on both arm and both legs and in SOOOOOO much pain that you guys will never undstand.  I am taking therapy to keep what little muscle I have left.  Wish you all the best anyone starting the tx.

[cottoncandy99]

As a matter of fact I was walking with a walker and doing really well as it was after getting off the tx that everything started to slowly go south and in fact I am not the only one that is going through this as I wanted to let others know.  Yes I had those surgeries from 1985 to 1990on back and I was not a lazy person in fact I walked 3 to5 miles a day if not more at times.  I have been in this wheelchair 6 mos after completing therapy and Hepatologists told me that it was from the interfeon and ribavirin, as I was cut off the therapy 2 mos shy of what I was to be taking because the side effects where already starting then, as I am taking water therapy and  strengthing exercises as well. I am a fighter and this nor any thing else has taken me down yet and believe that this is something that I am going to have to work at.  It's in my hands and there was no surgery at any time there as EMG test are done from time they took me off tx every 3 to 4 mos and is getting worse as time went on, now braces on arms and legs to help me transfer from chair to chair but water has been a help cause it is warm, as body moves easier with the water than on ground.

[orphanedhawk]

Thank you for taking the time to look into cottoncandy's past. It's so hard to know fully what's going on when we hear part of the story.
I commend you for compassionately sharing information about this machine.

This post makes me think how important it is that we all have hepatologists we trust and that we are certain to report all our sxs to them.
I asked my hepatologist about neuropathy recently and he told me he's had to pull patients off treatment for beginning to develop the signs of this potentially debilitating side effect.

[Gerbils]

Hi,
I was reading your post and your profile and am glad that you are virus free. I read your profile and noticed that you have had many trying health issues over the years. You mentioned that you have had five back surgeries, knee surgeries, and surgery on both feet. That is a lot and I am sure that you have been in a great deal of pain with all of that. I am sure you did not need neuropathy on top of all that. It sounds like you might have been in a wheelchair prior to developing the neuropathy?  Either way, you mentioned that you are in a lot of pain. A few years ago, I did some work for a company that made a passive exercise machine that could be used by people who had little or extremely reduced mobility (such as quadraplegics). One of the things that the users reported was a great reduction in the pain they were suffering. I want to be clear that I did not ever sell these machines and am no longer in touch with the company but  I was impressed by the reported benefits of passive exercise for people who cannot move on their own. This seems to be well supported in the medical community. This is not for people who are lazy and no one is going to lose a bunch of weight by laying around letting a machine exercise for them. These machines may provide benefits to the user such as increasing circulation, oxygenating the blood, etc. It may also help patients in producing endorphins which may be partly why patients report a great reduction in the amount of pain they experience. Obviously, this may not be right for you and the pain you are experiencing may be due to something else. I wanted to mention this to you as something you may want to consider at some point. I wish you the best and hope you get some relief soon.
G