You're right it's quite common. Though I think B12 specifically can cause all sorts of problems. I have burning pain, pins and needles, numbness, tingling, crawling skin and what feels like permanent nerve damage and I always feel fatigued all over the body. I don't know if all of this has happened because of B12 because I've had all this things a long while and only just got tested. I've had lots of blood tests and everything has been normal except this one. I'm going to see if injections make any difference but I don't have much hope I think the damage is done.
I fear that I already have permanent damage in several parts of my body. I'm already referred for a nuerologist but there is a 3 year waiting list. I did have a simple exam by my GP for reflexes he just hit my kneecaps with an object and he said my reflexes seemed fine.
Unfortunatly it doesn't work that way here. You can't choose which doctor you want to see. Even for private treatment you still have to go on a waiting list. Healthcare here is free but god is it slow slow slow and inefficient.
when I saw three year waiting list i immediately thought "you must be from ireland" and indeed you are
Gotta be honest with you, if you know what's causing the neuropathy (B12 deficiency) and you've already started the treatment, there's basically nothing else a neurologist can do for you except maybe quantify the damage a bit better than your GP. But since your main symptoms are pain/sensations then they actualy will not be able to find any objective measure of that in order to track the disease process. The examination (EMG/NCS) only shows significant damage to large nerve fibers and this presents with symptoms like muscle wasting, ataxia, paresis etc. Pain is transmitted with small nerve fibers, and there's very limited and indirect ways to detect damage to these fibers. If your pain was significant enough they'd presumably suggest trying an anti-depressant like duloxetine (cymbalta) or amitriptyline (elavil), or an anticonvulsant like pregabalin (lyrica) or gabapetin (neurontin). And they are fairly trash and mostly unhelpful for most people. They're symptomatic treatments as well, so they don't speed up nerve repair or anything.
