Nerve damage: Has anyone found a way of... - Oesophageal & Gas...

Oesophageal & Gastric Cancer

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Nerve damage

blobby profile image
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Has anyone found a way of getting some relief from the pins and needles

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blobby profile image
blobby
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DavidP profile image
DavidP

I assume this is related to chemo? If so there is no standard effective treatment for neurotoxicity, although some approaches have shown some promise including glutathione, vitamin E, calcium/magnesium infusions and anticonvulsants. Here are a couple of references is you'd like to look at the background...

Wolf S, Barton D, Kottschade L et al. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: prevention and treatment strategies. Eur J Cancer 2008; 44: 1507–1515.

Amptoulach S, Tsavaris N. Neurotoxicity caused by the treatment with platinum analogues. Chemother Res Pract 2011; [Epub 2011 June 27] doi: 10.1155/2011/843019

chris_usa profile image
chris_usa

Nerve damage can result from an esophagectomy also. Whether it's from direct injury to a nerve during the procedure or resulting from nutritional deficits, nerve damage of this type can improve on it's own with time or may be permanent.

I use gabapentin 600mg three times daily for nerve pain resulting from nerve damage in the left thigh (axon degeneration) that occurred after the surgery. This does a good job. I have loss of sensation in the left neck and chin resulting from severed nerves by way of the neck incision for transhiatal esophagectomy. These nerves were cut, and very little sensation has returned after five years. Numbness is better than pain.

There are medications that can help certain types of nerve pain. A nerve conduction study may help. If there is another disease state at play (ie diabetes) that can also contribute to nerve pain or damage, controlling that may also help. Best wishes. \wc

Spikey profile image
Spikey

As David and Chris have already indicated, pins and needles can be caused either by chemotherapy or surgery. If they are in your extremities, i.e. fingers and toes, they are most likely caused by chemo and should get better with time, though this can take up to two years (mine took a year). If they are in your chest, they are most likely due to nerve damage caused by surgery and can take much longer to get better. In this case, in addition to medication, massage can help. Good luck. G

gutlesswonder profile image
gutlesswonder

You don't say where the pins and needles are.

One theory explaining this phenomenon is that the brain 'invents' the sensation in order to compensate for and replace the silence due to the absence of the normal stream of signals that were conveyed 24/7 before the carrying nerve was damaged - regardless of the cause of that damage.In essence it is 'white noise'

It follows that the brain might be re-educated by distracting it with a masking stimulus.Thus rubbing,pinching,heating,cooling etc nearby could provide alleviation.

Nerve re-growth is possible,particularly if the damaged ends are not very far apart.

But it is invariably slow.....1 to 5 years or more.

I regained the ability to burp 20 years after my Ivor Lewis !

healthylass profile image
healthylass

Not sure if this helps but I suffer from really bad burning feet and pins and needles up and down my leg after surfing numerous websites found out that Vitamin B-100 helps me. Had to stop the Vitamin B recently and all the symptoms returned but as soon as started Vitamin B they stopped. Might be worth a try.