Hello everyone:

Well I've quietly been developing numbness and tingling in my hands and up my forearms over the last year or so, maybe 18 months. Haven't brought it up here because I didn't think it was related, and the initial diagnosis both by my regular doc and a rhuematologist (this after negative tests for nerve damage) was something called Raynaud's Phenomenon, a circulatory condition resulting in sensitivity to cold.

This week I was back at the neurologist for another round of nerve conduction studies, and he found damage. He's calling it "Polyneuropathy" and it seems to involve the sensory - touch - nerves and not the motor nerves. I had blood drawn and numerous tests will be done on it.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone in the group who might have expeienced similar symptoms. The numbness is quite pronounced and I have trouble with small motions - buttoning, using a TV remote, turning pages, etc. The tingling is especially bothersome and it rarely goes away. It feels as though my hands and forearms are continually halfway to coming back from falling asleep.

Of greater worry is that one of the tests being done is something for a little goodie called "Anti HU antibodies", which arise when the body is mistakenly attacking nerves instead of a malignant tumor. The neurologist opined that at first glance my problems may have arisen back when my body was fighting the SCC in 2009. But the more I read of these Anti-HU fellows, the more I'm concerned that, should I prove to have them in my blood, they may be indicative of a tumor in my lungs. And as we all know, sometimes this can happen a few years after SCC. Add to that that for the last... oh... 6 months or so I've had a dry cough that ebbs and flows.

Thanks for listening.

(OH and since I didn't have chemo, the neuropathy was not a function of that treatment, as I'm aware it can be)