In the previous post, I defined CIDP and gave its typical known causes. In my case, the doctors told me there was no known cause. Personally, I think the cause was fatigue. For the previous two years I was in a high pressure information technology job that required me to work many weekends and late nights. In addition, I am a poor sleeper and often went days without a good nights sleep. If you are familiar with CIDP and GBS, I would be interested to hear your comments on this.
Interestingly, I had experienced minor tingling in my arms and legs about six months before the onset of CIDP. My family doctor referred me to a neurologist who administered an EMG (Electromyography) and nerve conduction study. EMG measures the electrical activity of muscles and nerve conduction measures the conducting function nerves. The neurologist said I had excellent neuromuscular function. When I mentioned being highly stressed, he said this could be a potential cause of the tingling, but didn’t offer any suggestion about changing my behavior or that this could lead to something more serious. I think the tingling was a warning sign, but my understanding is that it’s unlikely that any neurologist would have given me a different answer than the one I saw because of my excellent EMG and nerve conduction study results.
Below is a list of the questions doctors asked me about a potential cause and my answers.
- Did you traveled outside the country recently? I was in Boston a few weeks ago, but otherwise no
- Did you travel through mountains during your trip to Boston? No
- Did you have the flu shot or any other shots? No.
- Did you have any surgery? Yes, minor. I had a sebaceous cyst removed from my neck a couple of weeks ago.
- Did you have any infection after the surgery? No
- Were you sick in the past few weeks? Yes, I had sore throat and a slight cold, but it cleared up quickly. Usually it takes me over a week to get over a cold.
- Anything else that you think was unusual? I had a beer at bar on the same day my symptoms first appeared. The beer had an unusual taste.