What Is Neuropathy

Posted by Lew on October 28, 2008

Hi and thanks so much for returning to my blog. RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Hello Everyone.

I had written a small little tribute to a condition that I have come to live with everyday and that symptom is part of the Churg Strauss disease that I now live with…the condition is called Neuropathy.

There is a lot to talk about on this subject and I will be  breaking the topic up into several different posts all related in some part to either Churg Strauss or to Diabetes, so there will be more to come on this subject, but for now I want to start out with how I got this condition and what I went thru to get a diagnosis as to what type of Neuropathy I had…

Starting back in the middle ( not quite sure of the exact time line involved here now ) of May, after being from released from the hospital for the first time and being back home, I had started to notice a sort of tingling sensation in both of my feet.

Now, mind you I really did not take too much notice of this and did not make a big fuss about this either because I just thought that the tingling would just go away after a short time. Now I was already on prednisone and I believe that the dosages that I was on at the time had caused my feet and legs to swell up on and off for a short period of time. So, I thought at first that due to this factor and very little activity, that maybe I was having a circulation problem that would eventually correct itself.

I would be proven wrong in this thinking, I just did not know it at the time.

So, as some of you know who read my other blog, fanboy@50, I would again be in the hospital on what should have been a long ( for myself and family ) Memorial Day Weekend.

During this visit, I would again be fed tons of antibiotics, intravenous medications and other goodies that would swell up my legs and cause some Edema in both of them.

I really did not notice too much of the tingling sensation in my feet in the hospital, but it was there.

After my diagnosis of Churg Strauss and my eventual release from the hospital for the second time, I returned home to again start my recuperation.

By the beginning of August, the tingling in my feet had started to spread a bit. Now it was starting to move a little higher up my right leg every once in a while, and both my feet felt as if the condition had gotten worse, so it was time to quit ignoring the problem.

I contacted a endocrinologist because after doing a little research on the web, I ran into some information about Neuropathy and Diabetes and I found this info at a site called The Neurology Channel and the following information comes from there…

Overview

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Peripheral neuropathy is a general term referring to disorders of peripheral nerves. The peripheral nervous system is made up of the nerves that branch out of the spinal cord to all parts of the body. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

What I’m Up To Now

Posted by Lew on October 27, 2008

Good Morning.

I just wanted to let everyone know that while I have not posted anything here for a few days other than an update to my last Prednisone post, I have been doing some writing….I have a post that I am waiting to post, but for this particular post, I have asked my Yahoo group to take a look at it before I post , because this post is a kind of tribute to a person who is part of this group and I want their feedback and how they feel about talking about someone they know and are very close to, thru the group message board.

In the meantime, I have two other posts that I am working on…

One has to do with the ” Mind/Body ” connection and the other has to do with Neuropathy.

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

Prednisone and It’s Uses For Churge Strauss

Posted by Lew on October 21, 2008

Hello Everyone.

Here is another part to my earlier posts about prednisone ( which if you missed, can be found here and again here ) and how it relates to treatment for CSS patients.

In my case as well as a lot of others who suffer with this disease, Prednisone is used as a cortico steroid that is tapered as treatment using the drug progress…I’ll use myself as the prime example here…

When I first came home in June from the hospital, I was placed on Prednisone at at dosage of 120mgs a day or 6 pills a day ( each pill being 20mgs per pill ) and I was on this dosage for at least three weeks, and slowly brought down every few weeks ( I was brought down by 40mgs per 3 week period ) and dependant upon my body’s response to the taper.

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

The Unseen Enemies

Posted by Lew on October 16, 2008

The Unseen Enemies

I was thinking about this the other day ( not sure exactly which day…but I was Actually Thinking! ) that if you didn’t know me, as in know me by sight, or know me personally, if you were to see me walking down your street in your neighborhood, or on your city street, nine out of ten times…you would not realize that I had anything wrong with me.

You wouldn’t know that I was Pre-Diabetic and that I have Churg Strauss just by looking at me…and I started to wonder not only how that effects me, but also how we as a society think about one another…and I suppose your all wondering where I’m going with all of this?

Well basically, I think that sometimes a disease does not openly present itself in a manner that would outwardly suggest that someone actually had it…I’m a perfect example of this situation.

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

One of My Hospital Stories from May of 08

Posted by Lew on October 15, 2008

I felt that for some of you who have never been over to my other blog,fanboy@50 that I should share one or two of the posts I was doing on that blog while in the hospital between May and June of this year ….

My Hospital Story…

It’s officially Wednesday, the 14th of May and I felt that it was time to tell my story now…

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

Is Weight Loss Important For Diabetes Patients-Part One

Posted by Lew on

While driving to work this morning I was listening to one of the local radio stations and heard one of the jocks talking about going on a weight loss diet, and this brought me back to a conversation I had with my endocrinologist this past August concerning my weight and how it relates to my Pre-Diabetes condition.

When I first came out of the hospital this past June, I had lost so much weight ( to the tune of around 40lbs ) I really did not recognize myself. And I was dealing with a few different problems at that moment in time…

• I had just been diagnosed with Churg Strauss Syndrome
• Physically, I was very weak from the ordeal in the hospital
• I was still being treated for C-Diff
• The tingling in my feet, that was the onset of the Neuropathy Condition had started

The last point above was what eventually would take me to see an endocrinologist in the beginning of August. I had done a bit of searching on the Internet ( isn’t the Internet just the greatest thing ever! ) about Diabetes in releation to my feet.

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

A New Post in ” Lew’s Journal “

Posted by Lew on October 14, 2008

Woke up this morning with some real pain in my right leg and foot again. Thought I was past this nonsense, but apparently the dreaded Churg has other ideas. So I have decided to write a little piece here today titled..

Neuropathy Is My Friend!

by Lew and you can read it here in my journal, won’t that be fun!

CSS Medications-Prednisone Part Two

Posted by Lew on

Hi Everyone.

This is part two of my post about Prednisone and it’s uses. If you missed the first part of this post about Prednisone you can read it here.

Prednisone has mutiple uses as a Cortico Steroid, including treatments for Asthma and Churg Strausse Syndrome.

If you’ve had Churg Strausse Syndrome for any length of time, than Prednisone is more than likely a daily maintaince medication for you.

Listed below are a partial list of side effects associated with Prednisone from Web MD…

Side Effects

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

What Exactly Is RSS?

Posted by Lew on October 11, 2008

Hi there.

If your new to the Internet and to the concept of blogs and RSS, than I want to explain what exactly RSS is…

The term RSS stands for ” Really Simple Syndication “, and if you will notice on the blog that you are reading right now, you will notice a pretty large symbol to the immediate right side of this page, right underneath the search box.

This is the universal RSS symbol and if you click on it, it will take you to my Feed Burner link so that you may subscribe to my blog.

For a more detailed explanation of what RSS is all about please go here for a more detailed explanation about RSS.

A Most Insidious Disease

Posted by Lew on October 10, 2008

Last Saturday night after myself and a guest finished watching Iron man on DVD, I joined my wife in our family room around 11:40 pm and was watching a repeat of ” Extreme Home Makeover Edition ” ( I’m not sure what channel exactly-over a hundred cable channels and maybe ten are worth watching! ) and they were doing a home for someone who had been recently with Multiple Sclerosis, and Montell Williams was featured as a guest on the show, making a donation to this person so that she could keep her dance studio open for another five years with out worries, a very kind and generous thing to do.

Montell was diagnosed back in 1999 with MS, and told the world of his condition several years later.

What struck me about this, was Montel’s description of MS as being ” An Insidious Disease ” referring to what it can rob people of, and how it effects the person(s) stricken with the disease, and while I do not make light of anyone suffering with MS or any other disease for that matter, people are aware of MS and what it can do to said person who is afflicted with it…but the same cannot be said of CSS.

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »