Numb fingers and toes

Hi spirited,

its a well known side effect, I have it.  I have slight numbness in my fingers, very slight, really only notice it when picking my nose!  My feet are a different story, the soles, toes and tops of my feet are numb.  The most improvement i’m told comes in the first 6 months after chemo, but nerves can continue to grow back at 1mm per year.  I can’t walk on our wooden floors barefoot, my feet feel constantly like I have walked 20 miles on a really hard surface.  Shoes and trainers feel strange,  the only thing that  relieves it is wearing flip flops, don’t know why but they do and I wear them all the time.  In winter with socks on.  Trendy!

Little known fact - have enough chemo and it makes your finger prints disappear. 

Take care 

dan

Brilliant thanks Dan. So the upside to too much chemo ( apart from curing the big C)  is that you can commit a few crimes undetected! 

I guess it is just one of those things he will either get used to or will hopefully disappear in time. 

Thanks and hope you are enjoying the summer with your family.  

It’s a known side effect of the platinum based chemo drugs (BEP/EP/Carboplatin).

I have a nerve condition (my body doesn’t produce enough of the protein that protects nerves) so I did a lot of research and saw two neurologists before I made the decision not to have chemo and stick with surveillance.

From what I read and was told nerve cells damaged by the chemo can recover, but it’s a slow recovery as a large area of  the nerve could be damaged. It can also weaken nerves so ideally you want to protect the nerves as much as possible (side of the knees/elbows).

The nerve damage I get is similar to the damage you’d get from the chemo (I’ve currently lost movement in two fingers and have foot drop, with numbness in my feet/toes/shin/fingers etc). To help the nerves recover I overload them with lots of different sensations, works for me, may work for your husband.

Hope he gets better soon.

Thanks for this! 

Ps hoping your appointment brings good news! 

Yeah, my fingerprints disappeared but have come back.