Worst Neuropathy Pain Ever? (updated)

I have wondered how it would feel if I got a really bad neuropathy pain attack while wearing a cast? Luckily, even though I did experience a few attacks while wearing a cast, none were too bad.

Well, one of the worst attacks just started about twenty minutes ago. Unfortunately, the location is in my right foot, near the top of my inner sole. The pain level is probably nine on that pain scale. It is at the “involuntary screaming” level, and I have experienced that a few times before. However, in the past, my entire lower leg was not swollen and sore from physical therapy. I tried using a percussive massage on the location and of course, I can barely feel the massager. Even worse, the pain attacks are coming in fast, sometimes every ten seconds. I already took an oxycodone pill, and it is not helping at all. Other than lying down and screaming several times a minute, I do not know what else to do.

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So, it has been almost three hours and I have not been able to sleep. The oxycodone pill did nothing for the pain; I think it has gotten worse. Additionally, another two locations on my right foot are starting to experience pain.

What is worse than super painful neuropathy? Super painful neuropathy in three locations.

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I have tried to massage the pain spot so much that I have broken the skin, and I am now bleeding. The wound is pretty small, but I still had to put a bandage on it. The pain intensity has not decreased in the past four hours.

Fuck.

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In the past, sometimes I would shake 0r swing my lower leg vigorously, and that would alleviate some of the pain. I think it gets more blood into my lower leg and foot, though I am unsure why that helps. Today, when I tried to do the same thing, my lower leg and ankle would swell up due to my ankle injury. My entire foot is numb now from the constant nerve pain. I am still unable to sleep or even feel tired. I also do not know how long I have to wait before taking more painkillers. In addition to the worst neuropathy pain ever, I may get addicted to opiates too.

Fuck. Fuck.

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My right calf is so swollen and sore right now.

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Updated: Saturday, April 20th, 2024

I ended up falling asleep around 3:00 am Tuesday and woke up at 6:00 am. The pain was still there but more muted. Throughout the week, I would get occasional flare ups at the same spot, which has not happened. This evening, six days later, the pain came back in the same spot, though around a six or seven on the pain scale. I had finished taking all the Norco I was prescribed for my ankle operation, so I tried taking 5 mg of Oxycodone. Even though it is supposed to be stronger than Norco, I really do not feel any difference in pain afterwards. Maybe I need to take Tylenol at the same time? It has been two hours since I took the pill, and again, I cannot sleep. At least the pain is not as bad as Monday’s attack.

The Worst Neuropathy Pain Ever

I had the worst neuropathy pain I ever felt during the last hour. My physical therapist told me to not use the walking boot anymore, and just wear regular shoes on my right foot. After the session, my ankle was pretty swollen, but it felt okay. However, when I tried to go to sleep earlier, about four to five attack pointes appeared on each foot. For almost an hour, I was in constant neuropathy pain; it was about level seven or eight on the pain scale. I was about to get out the oxycodone I received for surgery pain.

Since then, the pain has subsided. Both my feet are still sore and numb, and there are still attacks but more spread out. I also skipped dinner so I will probably eat a snack, and reconsider if I need to take the narcotic painkiller still.

Neuropathy Insomnia

I cannot sleep. The general numbness in my right foot is unbearable. I do not know if it is the cast, since my left foot is numb too. I still feel terrible overall, but not as bad as yesterday. My blood pressure seems in control since I did not have any aged cheese today, even though I do not really know if tyramine is the actual cause.

I did go home to my house today for about six hours and it was not as smooth as I imagined. The primary issue was that I fell off the knee scooter in my bathroom. The scooter is large and hard to maneuver in small spaces. In addition to banging my knee, I do not remember if I put any weight on my right leg, and if that is the cause of my discomfort now. It is also 72°F in the house but it feels hotter.

I am going to take on of the Norco pills to see if that numbs the numbness or makes me drowsy so I can sleep.

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Well, I did take a Norco and fell asleep. Right now, it is 2:30 AM so I slept for a few hours before getting up to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, my blood sugar was low as I was chasing a high with extra insulin after dinner.

My sister does not have that many sugary snacks in her pantry.

Post-surgery Neuropathy Attack

I had a wild dream that my foot and ankle operation would somehow stop the peripheral neuropathy attacks. Wishful thinking of course, and my first post-surgery neuropathy attack just started this morning at 2:00 am. This time, the pain is in my right heel. With the splint on my leg, I cannot reach the site to try and massage it. My right heel is also the entry point of a metal rod that runs up and into my legbone.

I took a Norco pill at 2:00 am and it did help. However, the narcotic effect wore off hours ago and I need to wait eight hours between pills. The instructions said not to take other pain medications, so I am not taking Tylenol either. The pain seems to be increasing so this may be a bad attack lasting hours.

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Due to the pain, I cancelled my English call to Ukraine this morning. I have about three hours before I have to leave for my two-week post-surgery appointment. I am going to try and take a nap if possible.

Norco FTW

I woke up this morning to a lot of nerve pain in both feet. Since it was not limited to my right foot, it was probably my old friend “peripheral neuropathy” calling. i went back to sleep and woke at noon with about the same amount of pain.

In the past, I would take Tylenol or Tylenol PM and try to sleep it off. Because I was not 100% sure if the pain was surgery related, I took one of the prescribed painkillers: hydrocodone-acetaminophen 5-325 mg, aka Norco. The good stuff is 5 mg of hydrocodone. I swear, the pain went away in less than 10 minutes. It was like someone turned off the lights. No pain.

I know these things are addictive if overused. I created a new note on my iPhone to track what time I took the medication. The pain has not returned but it has been only six hours. I am supposed to wait at least eight hours and no more than three days. Right now, I do not think I will need another one today. I was also prescribed oxycodone, which I hear is even more potent. Crazy shit.

Post Surgery Neuropathy

First day after surgery and I am having double neuropathy attack in my left foot. My ankle and left outer sole is hurting like crazy right now with five second long attacks.

Can’t this wait one fucking day?

Worst Neuropathy Ever

It does seem each attack is worse than the previous one, but the current attack is probably the worst ever. I twisted my right ankle badly during a work party and it started hurting a lot more this week. I came home early because I could feel the swelling and the pain intensify. When I got home, I tried to take a nap but after thirty minutes, both feet exploded in neuropathy pain. After settling down a bit, ther are now four active sites that are hurting. The worst is right below the left inside ankle. On the right side, the entire foot is swollen and sore from the sprain, but there are three points of intense pain. I can barely walk and there is no way I can sleep, yet I still need to go to my sister’s house to take care of her two dogs.

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Since I could not walk that well, I called my parents to go and feed the dogs. I was able to get about an hour’s worth of sleep, and my fee3t seemed better, except tor the ankle. I picked up some dinner, then went to my sister’s house. I was so tired that I fell asleep fright after eating.

At around 1:00 am this morning, I woke up with both feet on fire. There were four pain sites on my left foot, and my entire fight foot was numb. If I tried too put weight on the right foot, sharp numbing pain would engulf the right edge of my foot, and I could my ankle hurting below all the numbness I can barely walk to the bathroom now.

There is no way to sleep with both feel in intense pain non-stop. It has been four hours and I need to sleep more. This feels like the worst case scenario for my neuropathy: 24/7 intense pain and sleep only when you pass out from fatigue. Great.

Neuropathy and Balance

Last night at our company holiday party, there was a small roller-skating area set up along with roller skate rentals. One of my coworkers used to figure skate and suggested we try. Growing up in Canada, I spent hours each weekend skating in our local community center ice rink It has been a long time, but skating is like riding a bike, no?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

No. I wiped out pretty bad right away and then a second time where I skinned my knee. I did not know that since my long pants did not rip, but it turned out there was a lot of blood, but it just stayed on the wound. Since it was also fairly cold last night, I did not feel anything until I got home. Ugh. I should not have sucked that badly.

When thinking about this today, I remember that I had zero sense of balance. I can also ski and ride a bike, so I have some balance. What else could it be? I then saw this and many other articles:

Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy
The main symptoms of peripheral neuropathy can include:

• numbness and tingling in the feet or hands
• burning, stabbing or shooting pain in affected areas
• loss of balance and co-ordination
• muscle weakness, especially in the feet

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/peripheral-neuropathy/

I am ususlly so focused on the first two items that I forget about the other two. It was stupid to even try since I know my core muscles are already weak. I am glad I got away with just a scrape and that I did not break any bones or fall on my head and getting traumatic brain injury. Stupid idiot.

Multi-Point Neuropathy

In addition to my bad cough and sore throat, my peripheral neuropathy is really bad right now. There are five areas that are hurting all the same time, three on the left foot and two on the right foot. There is really no pattern to the pain, and all of it seems pretty random. My refrigerator is mostly empty, so I need to go to the supermarket to get some groceries. Hopefully, some of the neuropathy will go away as I walk.

Spiritual Neuropathy Attack?

This is the fourth time in the past four weeks that I have experienced a neuropathy attack Saturday night or Sunday morning. An attack just started about fifteen minutes ago while I was still in bed. I was actually awake from 4:00 am to 6:00 am and there was no pain. Now it is 7:30 am and there is massive pain at the outer bottom of my left foot.

I mentioned this to my cell group last week at church. The pain started at 3:00 am but had subsided by 7:00 am so I could attend church. They think it may be a spiritual attack to keep me from attending Sunday service. My church is pretty charismatic on things like Holy Spirit, healing, and prophecy. I am a bit skeptical since I have had these attacks for a long time and have not previously noticed any patterns. However, four out of four weeks of getrting pain right before church is kind of weird.

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Ouch! This is a bad one. Instead of quick jabs, the paid episodes are lasting close to five seconds. If this keeps up for more than thirty minutes, which is very likely, I do not think I can go to church this morning.

Long Attack Neuropathy

Usually when an attack comes, the painful part only lasts a second or two. Then the pain would fade, and things would be normal until the next attack seconds to minutes later. Tonight, the attack pain is lasting over five seconds, and between attacks, there is a dull throbbing pain at the attack site. During the long attack time, the pain is more excruciating because it does not fade but lasts the entire long duration. Altogether, the pain level is probably close to ten times worse than previous attacks. Of course, the attack starts right at bedtime so if I cannot fall asleep (very unlikely), it will be another all-nighter of pain and suffering.

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It is now about 8:45 am. I did manage to fall asleep for a few hours. However, each time I wake up, the pain comes back immediately. The intensity is worse this morning than it was last night.

Continuous Neuropathy Attacks

F#cking hell.

The neuropathy attacks have been continuous for a week. Luckily, I got a reprieve during the sleep disorder study so I could sleep and provide data. Otherwise, my feet would have been in constant pain. The latest attack started about 2:00 am. Initially, both feet were in pain, but that has been resolved to one major pain point on the fourth toe on my left foot. This is about the fifth or sixth attack in the past seven days and is about a 8/10 on the pain scale.

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Ugh. I tried using a wand massager to massage the top of the affected toe since I thought I felt something. However, I was wrong. I only managed to remove the layer of skin on my toe, and it still hurts like a bitch.

Double Neuropathy 20230918

It is now 3:00 am and another neuropathy attack just started in my left big toe. The problem is that the prior attack on my ankle is still happening. There is pain shooting though both sites on my left foot, so I am in constant pain.

Each time my neuropathy flares up, it feels like the worst attack ever. This time, with two pain points at the same point, I know it is the most painful attack ever. I have a sleep study tomorrow night at the hospital clinic. I hope this means I will have a pain-free night Tuesday so the clinic can get clear results.

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4:27 am. I have given up trying to sleep since the pain is unrelenting.

Neuropathy Attack 20230917

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This one is pretty bad. It started this morning as I was lying on my front in bed checking my phone. The pain point this time is right under the left inner ankle bone. Typically, the initial pain intensity is pretty low, and it slowly builds. This time, the first attack was about a six out of ten, and it has gotten more intense over the past six hours. My entire leg is numb after each attack and the frequency is still increasing. I have taken two Tylenol PM caplets, but they made no difference, and I have been unable to take a nap. Now my entire left foot is numb and experiencing pain in multiple places, albeit not as intense as the main ankle pain point.

Diabetes. The curse that keeps cursing.

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It is 12:45 am on Monday, September 18, and the neuropathy attacks are still happening. Luckily, they stopped for about six hours while I drove to LAX to pick up my sister, but resumed when I got home.

Meeting Hell

Due to the July 4th holiday, I moved all my Tuesday meetings to today (Thursday). After resolving some last-minute conflicts, I realized I have eleven meetings today. Some are one-on-ones with staff and peers, and some are meetings with potential software vendors.

My neuropathy is acting up again. Left foot started hurting at 2:37 am so I did not sleep much last night/this morning. I wanted to stay home today, but with eleven meetings, I really should be in the office. Hope my foot stops hurting before all my face-to-face meetings.

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Well, I got through all my meetings today. One was postponed until a later date, and one was added so I still ended up with eleven meetings today. My foot did stop hurting sometime during the day so I was not grimacing through all my one-on-one meetings.

Neuropathy 20230529

So, after having the pain point move around all weekend and losing two nights of sleep, I took a nap in the late morning and got up at 1:00 pm. As soon as I woke up, the pain started up again in yet another location. This time the pain is happening on my right foot insole, and it is very painful. Each attack also leaves the entire foot numb as well. I messed up my ugly feet diagram so I will need to find another one to mark the pain attack locations.

This sucks. It seems like each time there is a holiday, I end up at home and exhausted due to an intense neuropathy attack. This current one has been happening for about four hours and is getting worse.

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Th make matters worse, I have not really eaten anyt5hing since lunch yesterday. It was an AYCE shabu place, but I really did not eat that much. With the CGM readings spiking after every minor bite of food, I have been trying to not eat anything to see if I can get the readings lower, but now I am feeling really hungry.

This is from the Libre 2 app. The only thing I have had today was a small protein shake at 8:00 am.

Neuropathy Weekend 20230528

My feet have been hurting all weekend. It is actually worse than that. My left big toe (#1) started hurting Thursday during the day. The attacks were pretty far apart, and the pain was not very intense. It was still bothersome, and I did not sleep well for a few days. Then the pain shifted to the toes in my right foot (#2) Friday night and was also very intermittent. The pain seemed more diffuse as I could not even pinpoint which toe was hurting.

Because of #2, I could not sleep last night until around 4:00 am. I was up moving some furniture and computers around in my home office. I finally fell asleep and just woke up 20 minutes ago. As soon as I woke up, my right big toe (#3) started hurting. The pain is spread out across the entire toe and the attacks are still minutes apart. In addition, each attack lasts about 3 to 5 seconds, which causes a lot of numbness as well. I am heading out to lunch with a friend; it would totally suck if this was just the beginning of another 24 hour painfest.

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Ugh, the pain jumped back to area #2 last night as I was trying to fall asleep, and I ended up awake all night. I am so tired. Luckily today is a holiday so I do not have to work.

Neuropathy 20230507

I have been telling people that I get peripheral neuropathy attacks monthly but since I have been marking pain points on a diagram, it has been happening weekly.

This one is a bit strange. I am supposed to go to church this morning since two brothers in our group are getting baptized. However, I was dreaming my foot was hurting while at church. I ended up sitting in a back room and did not see anything. When I woke up about twenty minutes ago, the marked location on my left foot was only sore. Soon, however, the real pain started. Was I experiencing the first few attacks while asleep and my brain converted that to a dream? Or was it something like PTSD since any nerve twitch will trigger a feeling of dread? I wish I understood the immediate triggers because it is literally random at this point.

Neuropathy 20230501

Ugh, another peripheral neuropathy attack. The timing is terrible this time since I am visiting a software vendor this afternoon. That is going to suck if the attack continues until then.

This time the apparent pain point is on the outside bottom of my right foot as marked above. Interestingly, I can push hard on my calf muscle and trigger pain or numbness in my foot. However, I could not find the location that matches the current pain point. Instead, I am just making my foot number overall.

I hope this attack ends soon so I will not have to hobble around the software vendor’s office later this afternoon. I have been trying to sleep since 11:00 pm. It is now almost 3:00 am and I have not slept at all, and I am very tired.

Neuropathy 20230226

Every time a new attack occurs, it feels like the worst one ever. The top of my right foot near the toes just started hurting and it already feels like an eight on the pain scale. Usually, the pain and numbness get worse over time before the pain subsides. It is hurting so much that I cannot even pinpoint the pain. The entire front of my right foot is hurting and very numb.

Lately, I have been getting a pain attack every few days. This sucks.

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I was pretty happy when the pain started fading after only a few hours and I fell asleep for a few hours. I just woke up at about 4:00 am. The pain is gone in my right foot, but a new attack just started in about the same area on my left foot.

I just booted up my work computer. May as well get some work done since I am not sleeping for the next few hours.

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Awesome! It is now about 5:00 am and the pain in my right foot has returned from yesterday. I guess we are back to double neuropathy again. Remember, when you feel like your life sucks, it can always get even worse.