B-12 Injections

[firedoc5]

I have a "friend" that for years now have had achilles tendon/ ankle/ problems, and sometimes feet. It's like having chronic sprained ankles and the tendons constantly painful, just different degrees in pain. Also, more pain of calves. Over the last three years they've kind of snowballed. More pain, more swelling, less degrees of motion.

There is a long history of severe widespread fibromyalgia and all this was contributed to the FM. But lately started to have B-12 shots at home and had a bone scan yesterday. Couldn't get a straigt answer from anyone on what they might be looking for.

Would anyone from here hazard a guess?

[Doczilla]

The bone scan is looking for increased cortical activity that would indicate bone remodeling from stress fractures that otherwise might not show up on xray, CT, or MRI. Certain types of arthritis will show up as well.

As far as the B12 shots go, it's hard to say. B12 deficiency has been implicated in causing fatigue, and B12 shots are not uncommonly given for chronic fatigue when another cause cannot be determined. B12 deficiency will lead to (macrocytic) anemia and a neuropathy, which presents as pain in the extremities (called pernicious anemia). B12 requires a functioning stomach and functioning ilium to be absorbed (stomach makes intrinsic factor necessary for absorption, ilium absorbs the vitamin), so any defect in this system will necessitate parenteral B12 administration. B12 injections are quite safe, so many PCPs do it for fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, pain syndromes, and other reasons.

'zilla

Edited April 17, 2009 by Doczilla