![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Bad, Good, and Great
Ah, life. Always interesting.
I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but about six months ago I discovered that a small spot on the back of my right hand had become incredibly sensitive. Just drying it off with a towel felt like a blowtorch was being applied to my skin. The pain slowly faded over several weeks, and was replaced by complete numbness in that one spot.
The same thing then happened just above my right ankle. Over the next few months the numb spots regained normal sensation. I had no idea what was happening, so I mentioned it to my doctor at my next checkup.
She had no clue either; basic central nervous system tests all showed that my CNS was in great shape (go figure). So I was given an appointment to see a neurologist.
I'll shorten this up: he doesn't know what it was, but it was almost certainly nothing important. I had actually almost forgotten the whole thing, since I'd had no problem for months.
However, while I was there I mentioned that I'd also had surface numbness (but no pain) on the outer tops of my thighs for many years. I've been worried about it, off and on; I imagined everything from muscular dystrophy to leprosy. But it turns out to be Meralgia Paresthetica, which is also called lateral femoral cutaneous nerve entrapment. What is it? Well, there are two nerves which convey skin sensation from those areas of the thighs. In some people those nerves lose function; the condition is sometimes associated with obesity.
And that's it. It doesn't lead to anything worse, or cause any real problems; just a loss of a bit of sensation on the outer thigh. Which is quite a relief. So the bad thing turned out to be as good as could have been expected.
Coming up next, the great thing.
I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but about six months ago I discovered that a small spot on the back of my right hand had become incredibly sensitive. Just drying it off with a towel felt like a blowtorch was being applied to my skin. The pain slowly faded over several weeks, and was replaced by complete numbness in that one spot.
The same thing then happened just above my right ankle. Over the next few months the numb spots regained normal sensation. I had no idea what was happening, so I mentioned it to my doctor at my next checkup.
She had no clue either; basic central nervous system tests all showed that my CNS was in great shape (go figure). So I was given an appointment to see a neurologist.
I'll shorten this up: he doesn't know what it was, but it was almost certainly nothing important. I had actually almost forgotten the whole thing, since I'd had no problem for months.
However, while I was there I mentioned that I'd also had surface numbness (but no pain) on the outer tops of my thighs for many years. I've been worried about it, off and on; I imagined everything from muscular dystrophy to leprosy. But it turns out to be Meralgia Paresthetica, which is also called lateral femoral cutaneous nerve entrapment. What is it? Well, there are two nerves which convey skin sensation from those areas of the thighs. In some people those nerves lose function; the condition is sometimes associated with obesity.
And that's it. It doesn't lead to anything worse, or cause any real problems; just a loss of a bit of sensation on the outer thigh. Which is quite a relief. So the bad thing turned out to be as good as could have been expected.
Coming up next, the great thing.
no subject