How peripheral neuropathy can affect you

Peripheral neuropathy can affect a person’s quality of life in many ways. The impact varies from one person to another, but it can include:

• discomfort and pain from physical symptoms
• trouble completing everyday tasks (such as doing up buttons) because of finger numbness and loss of fine motor control
• high risk of scalds and cuts because of numbness – in addition, chemotherapy often lowers your resistance to infection, so minor burns and cuts can quickly become serious
• risk of not noticing injuries, which may become more serious because they aren’t treated promptly
• difficulty walking because you have numbness or pain in your feet, you find it hard to keep your balance and/or you can’t sense where your feet are in relation to the ground
• high risk of falls because of numb feet, dizziness, balance problems and difficulty sensing where your body is in space
• poor sleep because of shooting pains
• not being able to drive because of numb feet and difficulty sensing where your body is in space
• not being able to return to work or other activities
• feeling isolated if it is hard to move around
• money issues because of health care costs
• feeling that you have lost your independence.