Question
QUESTION: I'm a 23 year old male, leading a fairly healthy lifestyle with
taking no medication other than an albuterol inhaler for my
asthma (I also have allergies, but not to any medications.)
Anyway, about five years ago I found out that I had a disorder
known as "peripheral neuropathy" affecting my entire body in
the form of sensory nerves.  Basically, my skin felt as if it lost
a layer of sensation.  Almost like wearing thin gloves over my
skin.  I could still feel things like temperature and pressure and
touch however.  I had burning/tingling sensations in different
parts of my body, and my back always felt hotter than the rest of
my body.  A type of numbness or lack of sensation is everywhere.
At that same time I also found out that recently
to having that symptom, a blood test came back showing that I
had caught mononucleosis as well.  I went to a neurologist about
this condition and he did some tests on me and found that I did
in fact have peripheral neuropathy, but he wasn't sure if the mono
caused it or not.

Fast forward five years and over the past few days things have
suddenly gotten worse and I don't know if it's related.  
Over a month ago I had what's called "sudden hearing loss" in both my ears
which caused me to lose a little bit of hearing, but not much.  Enough to
produce noises in my ears called "tinnitus".  This condition is still
present in me at the moment.  I had just woke up one day with a
ringing in my ears and fullness/pressure in them.  I went to see an
ENT doctor and he said it might be caused by a virus so he prescribed
some steroids for my inner ear and vitamins.  The steroids ended up
getting rid of the fullness/pressure but not the noises.   

Aside from that, a few days ago I was just going about my life
when I noticed that my face felt different.  It felt like it had
novacaine in it, or perhaps the feeling of being asleep like when
you sit on your hand or something.  That's the only way I can
describe it.  It was on both sides of my face and all over.  
Pretty soon I noticed that this new type of neuropathy or
whatever is all over my body for the most part.  I'm not sure
if it has to do with muscles or skin.  But the muscles do feel
tender.  Now a few days ago I noticed that I'm having a bit
trouble walking on my right leg, in particular it feels weak for
some reason.  My feet feel like they are turning into liquid, like
an intense burning sensation.  My muscles still feel strong and
everything though.  
Naturally, I was pretty freaked out, so I checked myself into the Emergency
Room and they performed things on me such as a CT Scan, and MRI of my
brain, MRI of both parts of the spinal cord, as well as blood tests.  Everything
came back normal.  I am currently going to a new Neurologist, but he is
convinced that I have some sort of chemical imbalance with the brain.

Is there anything that could be causing this peripheral nerve problem I'm
having? Any kind of inflammation of skin tissue or something? What about
degenerative diseases? Please give me your expert opinion on this.

ANSWER: Brad,
Can you send me XRay/MRI pictures of your Cervical Spine?  
Yours in Best Health,
Dr Robert Arnone
Upper Cervical Specific Doctor
"Brainstem Specialist"
711 Old Ballas Road
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
(314)995-5719


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes I can do that, I have a folder with the cervical spine
images on my computer.  How do I send you these?
What's your e-mail address? This website will only let
me send one of them and not the entire set, so that
won't be very useful to you.

Thanks so much,
- Brad D.

Answer
Brad,
Have you tried to send me any pictures yet?
Has there been any twists or turns with your health condition as of this time?
Yours in Best Health,
Dr Robert Arnone
Upper Cervical Specific Doctor
"Brainstem Specialist"
711 Old Ballas Road
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
(314)995-5719
[email protected]