Peripheral Neuropathy

[hepcandme]

Any experiences to share about Peripheral Neuropathy and Cirrhosis? I have been feeling dizzy the last few days and the long time pain in the joints of my toes seems to be related to my ongoing advanced liver disease. Drugs have been recommended of course including Gabapentin. Would a high regimen of Vitamin B help? Any and all shared experiences are most welcome. Oh, and Happy Holidays everyone!

[Kristina538]

Did your Dr check you B12.  B12 is the only vitamin that we can't absorb unless an inosital glad in our stomach secrets something to allow the B12 to be absorbed.   You can have a test done on the inosital factor to see if it's working.  My nurse read it incorrectly and I was given a B12 injection (which, seriously, cured my sciatica), and then the tests were read again and it appears the nurse read it incorrectly and I can take B12 tablets.  Many hvc patients can be low in B12 and I was lucky enough to have a very old Chinese Doctor whose wife had active HepB and he did some really good checks on me prior to me being able to treat.

With the dizziness, I noticed somewhere you said you had become vegetarian?  You body, especially with cirrhosis, needs digestible protein (fish; legumes), and, if you're not eating fish, you need to combo your protein so that it's an ingestable whole protein (from memory legumes/grain and.... can't remember the third - but it was a 3-way combo.   Also, eating 5 smallish meals a day instead of large meals put less stress on your digestive system.

(I'm pretty sure B12 is noted with peripheral neuropathy but I also know you'll be looking that up).  

Congrats on everything you're doing!!  Keep it up!! :D:D  Also, while I know wyou're checking bilirubin and alts;   albumin and platelets are the ones I was keeping an eye on once I had my diagnosis.

(also HVC can lead to inflammation - I was gettting tendonitis prior to treating.

[hepcandme]

Well, there is this interesting case of a cirrhotic patient who was reluctantly given a transplant and his neuropathy was cured after transplant. Further research makes me wonder if the pain in limbs or feet is actually caused by liver disease and not just an additional,  unrelated malady. http://www.news-medical.net/news/2004/12/01/6586.aspx

[ceanothus]

I'm sorry you are having these additional problems. I can't offer advise but will be watching to see what others contribute. I have a very long history of sciatic pain in my lower legs and feet due to arachnoiditis (a rare spinal cord disease that I acquired as a result of spinal injury during a spinal fusion surgery 30 years ago). Just in the last 3-4 months the pain has been getting a little more severe, and I've been wondering if it really is a worsening of the old pre-existing nerve damage or if some new source is piggy-backing on the old. I am also cirrhotic due to the HCV I acquired in that same surgery 30 years ago, so I am curious about how cirrhosis might contribute to neuropathy.