The Gun Counter

Well, I'm out on disability. Idiopathic Peripheral Neuropathy in the feet, legs and now arms and hands. Kind of hard to work tornado debris fields or HAZMAT scenes when you're unsteady on your feet, don't always know where your feet are, and can't stand for long periods of time. It's also distracting when random jolts of pain fire off in your feet and hands.

The state retirement system will pay me 40% of my base pay and I am in the process of applying for Social Security Disability (required by the state system). The financial bite continues in 7 or 8 years when I hit retirement age. The disability stops and with only 15 years in the state retirement system won't pay shit. Will also be getting registered with the VA system.

I can work (if pre-approved by the state system), but I'm going to have to see what is out there that I feel up to doing. At any rate I'm not going to do anything about that until after the first of the year. Going to relax through the holidays.

In the meantime the state system has assigned a case worker who will monitor medical treatment with my doctors and see if they can't come up with some way to fix the issues. I don't hold out much hope as it is by definition "unknown cause". Not an MD, but I'd feel a lot better about treatments if we could work on the cause not the symptoms. One that everyone with neuropathy seems to ask about is gabapentin or some such. Looked it up. Treats symptoms, not cause. Side affects include depression, suicidal thoughts, and aggressive responses. JUST what I need. It also has some studies that indicate issues with "toxicity" in people with kidney issues, which I also have. Probably why none of my doctors have recommended it and it gets a big nope from me. "Cure" worse than the disease.

For the near future, I've go honey-do's around the house, some stuff to help out at the VFW, and once I get some work done on my antennas I can start playing around with that more. Don't know how much the budget (once it settles out) will allow shooting. I know National Match is right out, as I can't get into a sitting position and maintain it anymore without a lot of pain and the slow fire standing is problematic as well.

This being Thanksgiving week I should say that I am grateful as it could be so much worse. My issues seem pretty trivial compared what some of the guys on this board or at my VFW post are going through.

DAMN, that just sucks. Thoughts and prayers sent.

Just winging it here, but you might try reading "The Barbell Prescription" by Dr Jonathon Sullivan. There's something to be said for working on neuromuscular efficiency by lifting weights having positive crossover into better proprioception. There are a number of studies showing positive neuromuscular effects from weightlifting in Parkinson's patients, which counts neuropathy amongst its constellation of issues.

ETA: Also, have a Happy Thanksgiving! Like you said, it could be a lot worse.

Couple of thoughts. I have neuropathy in my feet and fingertips. The cause of mine is rather specific and permanent, chemo treatment. I did nothing for over a year and I could live with it, not comfortably, but live with it. My fingertips are rather annoying as I cannot pick up little parts easily and don't have the dexterity I used to have. My feet I can mostly ignore except at bedtime. My PCP wrote a prescription for Gabapentin. I have stopped taking it. It did not seem to alleviate any of the symptoms and actually seemed to aggravate my fingertips. Somehow I missed reading about the side effects you mentioned, but they justify disposing of the remainder of my prescription.

I went on SSDI at age 61. It was a first submission and accepted. At the time the usual was 3 rejections before acceptance. Don't know if things had changed or I wrote the right words. I received the same $ amount as if I had waited for full retirement. When I turned 65 and the SSDI dropped off, it continued at the same rate. I did have 40 quarters of employment plus my 22 years active duty. Hope this helps.

Also at 65 Tricare for Life kicks in with Medicare as first payer, then Tricare. Financially it has been a lifesaver for me.

Hope and pray you get better.

You might look up Mckenzie Exercises also. That's what I'm doing and it does seem to help. https://www.verywellhealth.com/mckenzie ... ck-2696222

randy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:54 pm HAZMAT scenes

I think we may have found the culprit- think back over the last year or so before this started, were you exposed to anything nasty, no matter how brief or minor?

g-man wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 11:52 pm Just winging it here, but you might try reading "The Barbell Prescription" by Dr Jonathon Sullivan.

Thanks

Rumpshot wrote: ↑Thu Nov 22, 2018 2:39 pm Also at 65 Tricare for Life kicks in with Medicare as first payer, then Tricare. Financially it has been a lifesaver for me.

I didn't retire (92 RIF), so no Tricare for me