My Introduction

[Guest guest]

I was just diagnosed a week or so ago with Peripheral olyneuropathy, thus I'm in

the learning/accepting stage. I am already 67 years of age so am very fortunate

for late on-set (I think this is the correct statement??)

My dr. mentioned that various websites are available so I've been

reading/searching daily. I am experiencing some guilt because in hindsight, I

can recognize some symptons in my children when they were young; Celiac Spru

when my son was 2, he is now 45; my daughter born with underdeveloped (?)

hipbones thus was in a shoe bar for 2 years and learned to crawl and walk with

it. She developed a high arch about 7 and that foot is 3 sizes smaller than the

other.

Our dr. referred us to the Stanford Medical School and she was diagnosed with a

muscle abnormality. She has Rheumatoid Arthritis (the only one) and my youngest

son has Scoliosis (sp), discovered when he had a physical to play football in

high school; he is now 39. My middle girl, 42, so far shows no symptoms.

Unfortunately, their father has passed away and none of his relatives are living

and my parents are also deceased so can't talk with them about their physical

health.

I have one sis who was diagnosed 2 years ago with neuropathy but she/we weren't

told it was hereditary so didn't do a study of the disease. As she had been told

to stop drinking alcohol, we all thought it was related to that since none of us

(five siblings) drank other than her.

I have just completed reading " The Essential Guide To Hereditary Neuropathies "

and I must say, I'm a lot more distressed and scared now that I was when the dr.

gave me the news. Needless to say, I'm doing everything possible to fight this

thing; diet, exercise and positive thinking (at least trying to think positive

at this point).

I'm looking forward to learning more and want to thank everyone on the site for

their sharing and caring.