“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”—Sharon Begley.

Uh-oh, what’s this? Another weird (are you getting tired of it already?) symptom appears. I woke up one morning in September of 95 to this odd set of pains on the dorsal surface of my hands. It felt as if there was a little man sitting on my wrists wielding a little hammer, and he was hitting the back of my hands. I have come call this symptom little hammering. But that was not all. I also felt a burning sensation on the ventral surfaces of my feet. Given my dietary escapades, the suggestion was made this could be due to a vitamin deficiency. So it’s off to the neurologist. The neurological exam was unremarkable as were MRIs and MRAs of my brain and spine. The neurologist did an ELISA test for lyme, but I never saw a result. I can only surmise it was negative since he didn’t call.  An EMG was also negative. I was even tested for a paraneoplastic syndrome. A second neurologist referred to these sensations as dysesthesias. I don’t have any way to know if this is precisely what others with that symptom are experiencing what I was. These symptoms persisted for about four months, and then they spontaneously faded away. But have we heard the last of them? No, we have not. Stay tuned.

At the time the dysesthesias appeared, the stress of all these symptoms had become overwhelming. I was forced to begin seeing a psychiatrist.  After months seeing him, those around me felt there was a difference, but I still felt quite crapulent if that could be a word.