Middle March, 2013. The mildest winter I have ever seen becomes the worst March weather in my lifetime. At one point with the temperature in the high 20s, warm comparatively, I run outside to try to stay ahead of the impending snow and clear my driveway. No gloves. Not long outside, as there was not much more than an inch on the ground. I come back into the house. Hands cold. Really cold. Hmmmm. I was not outside that long, was I?
Three or four days later. Have to dig out driveway, buried under 2 to 3 feet of snow in parts. It's a struggle. Yes, I wear gloves this time.
A week later. My fingers have been numb for seven days, with no improvement. What is this? Frostbite? No external damage, so that does not fit with the pictures I have seen. Starting to worry now. I have not been to a doctor for a physical in ten years. As I had a milestone birthday this year, I was already planning to go, if I could find a good recommendation. I called to make an appointment. Two months away. Woman I talk to tells me to go to an immediate care clinic about my problem. Whatever I have to do, I guess. The immediate care doctor is a young guy. Seems on the ball. Tests out the strength in my hands. Everything checks out. Doctor perplexed. Suggests that I have my blood checked. I agree. Nurse comes in. In awe of my veins. Seriously. Take your pick. Complimented by second nurse. Nice to have some positive in all of this.
Couple days later. Results in. I have hypothyroidism. No surprise, as thyroid problems are rampant in my mother's family. So that is what my problem is. I read that a thyroid imbalance can lead to numbness.
Another day passes. Now my feet are numb. This is not good. I call back appointment office to try to have my appointment moved up. She moves it up. Still a month away.
A few days later. Now my abdomen is numb. MY ENTIRE ABDOMEN IS NUMB. Before the problem had been limited to extremities. I call appointment office again. Wondering what condition I have to be in to see the doctor. Appointment moved up to the following week. Also having a horrible time sleeping. 4 to 5 hours (if I am lucky) and then I am wide awake.
The following week. Doctor is skeptical that numbness is caused by hypothyroidism. Doctor tells me more blood is needed. Ok. Sends me over that day to a neurologist.
Neurologist is mystified. He does eliminate multiple sclerosis, which was high up on my list of causes. Gave me a test in which various parts of my body were zapped to see if my nerves would respond appropriately. Passed the test, in fact he said I was above average. I now feel numb and beat up as those zaps really did a number on me. Has nothing else for me except a prescription of Xanax, which he says should help me sleep.
Few days later. Phone call. My B12 level is low. Very low. 115. Normal is around 500 and above. Ok. Have to go in for an injection. One injection a week for four weeks.
I see the neurologist again. He calls the B12 problem "weird, wild stuff." Evidently it isn't something he sees a lot, and he has been practicing since the mid 1980s.
After four weeks, I am feeling substantially better. But still way, way off. But I did not know it at the time. The neurologist and my doctor agreed that I should not be given any B12 for a month to see where I bottom out levelwise. Big mistake.
I begin to feel nerve impulses shooting through my body. From my abdomen up into my arms, and down into my spine. Certain movements set them off. I should now stress that during this entire ordeal not once did I feel "pain." And it is very difficult to tell a doctor how messed up your body is when there is no pain involved.
By the end of the four week period with no B12 I am feeling terrible again. Level is way down. Doctor puts me on every other week injections. After a few weeks of that, level is still not very high, so I am now doing eight weeks of weekly injections.
During this time stomach begins feeling amiss. Thinking it might be caused by injections. I had previously asked doctor about an endoscopy to figure out what is going on in my stomach and causing the B12 to not be absorbed. Pernicious Anemia is presumably the problem. She told me that we would deal with the B12 problem first. Well, when I tell her about my most recent problem, she acquiesces and sends me off to a G.I. doctor.
G.I. doctor agrees to do the endoscopy. Unfortunately the first appointment available is four weeks away, and that week I will be out of town so I schedule it for five weeks. Ugh. This is the kind of thing that you just want to get out of the way.
I meet with the neurologist again. He tells me that he probably should not have been so conservative with the B12 injections, and that it has substantially interfered with the healing process. He has had one other patient who was around my age with similar issues, and that person took close to a year to return to normal. He says that keeping the B12 at an elevated level for several weeks should help a lot. I am not sure why he did not have this opinion to begin with.
The endoscopy day finally arrives. I know that I am going to be sedated, and I am told that the procedure should last about twenty minutes. A second later I wake up an hour and twenty minutes later. Groggy. They had to cut a two inch polyp out of my stomach. The description in the paperwork summary called it "huge." A later meeting with the GI doctor reveals that the diagnosis of pernicious anemia. I also have a thin stomach lining. Oh, and one last thing. The biopsy of the polyp revealed gastric dysplasia, "the penultimate stage of gastric carcinogenesis." I will have to undergo another endoscopy in eight weeks to determine whether any of the cells with dysplasia remain in my stomach.
After that first scope, I feel discombobulated. Numbness feels more pronounced, and my stomach frequently feels unsettled. The problem is not that I feel like I am going to throw up. Rather it feels like a war is going on in my stomach. The only way to alleviate the problem is by keeping my stomach lined with mild foods. I begin eating plain oatmeal every morning. I chomp on crackers throughout the day. I start drinking stale ginger ale, though I am unsure whether it is helping or not. I finish up each day by eating a cup of plain white rice. Physical activity can also set off my stomach, so any exercise is limited to things that I really have to do.
This condition lasts several weeks. I feel like the numbness is starting to dissipate again, though it is a very gradual process. The day for the second endoscopy arrives. This time the procedure was very quick. Biopsies were taken, but that is all the information they provide me. More important, I wake up feeling great. Very strange. Stomach discomfort mostly gone. Evidently the trauma caused by the removal of the polyp significantly affected my stomach, causing the healing process to take a lot longer than the three days espoused by the doctor.
My fingers are still numb. It has now been seven months since it first started, and I am beginning to wander if I suffered permanent nerve damage. The biggest problem is not the numbness but the coldness. My fingers rapidly turn cold when the temperature is below seventy degrees, and it takes forever to warm them back up. Of course, during the heat of the summer this is less of a problem, but I am starting to feel nervous about the approaching cold weather. More cause for concern-my doctor takes my B12 injections back to once every two weeks.
After a rough week I ask about testing my B12 level. The test comes back "within normal range." I am still a bit concerned. Luckily after that setback I return to gradual improvement. During this time I go cold turkey on the Xanax. Luckily I do not have any withdrawal symptoms or cravings. I am not even sure how much the Xanax was helping. Maybe it was not helping at all during the last few weeks. I never took more than one pill in the morning and one pill at night, so my body probably built up a tolerance.
It is the end of the year, and the tips of my fingers no longer feel numb, and my hands are warming up like normal. I am pronouncing myself 100% recovered. It looks like I will need the B12 injection every two weeks for the rest of my life, but that is a minor inconvenience.
It was only after feeling better that I was able to reflect on what the B12 deficiency did to my body. Here is one list of potential symptoms:
- strange sensations, numbness, or tingling in the hands, legs, or feet
- difficulty walking (staggering, balance problems)
- anemia
- a swollen, inflamed tongue
- yellowed skin (jaundice)
- difficulty thinking and reasoning (cognitive difficulties), or memory loss
- paranoia or hallucinations
- weakness
- fatigue
I also had skin problems. But the extremely dry skin on my hands and feet, some hair loss on my legs, and the loss of pigment in a couple spots I am chalking up to hypothyroidism.
Time to go shovel snow.
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