{"id":8054,"date":"2016-01-04T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/?p=8054"},"modified":"2016-01-04T21:41:10","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T21:41:10","slug":"8054","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/8054","title":{"rendered":"Why do I have pain in my hands and feet?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It sounds as if you might\u00a0be describing peripheral neuropathy (PN).<\/p>\n<p>The symptoms of PN\u00a0range from mild tingling (pins and needles) in the fingers\/hands or toes\/feet \u2013 to numbness and hypersensitivity that can be extremely painful.<\/p>\n<p>This is no longer a side effect of modern HIV drugs but \u00a0it can be a side effect of some drugs that are used\u00a0to treat TB or cancer.<\/p>\n<p>For information about peripheral neuropathy, please see <a href=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/side\/peripheral-neuropathy\">this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>PN can also be related to several older HIV drugs that you may have used many years ago.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/6967\">d4T<\/a>\u00a0(stavudine, Zerit)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/3529\">ddI<\/a>\u00a0(didanosine, )<\/li>\n<li>ddC (zalcitabine, Hivid)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you are still taking any\u00a0of these drugs, speak to your doctor about changing them for alternatives. Do not stop the drugs before you speak to your doctor.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes a lower dose of d4T can be used, but it is better to change to a completely different drug.<\/p>\n<p>HIV can also cause neuropathy, especially if your CD4 count has ever been very low (under 200, and especially if under 50 cells\/mm3).<\/p>\n<p>The earlier you switch the better the chance that this will get better. However, you may have to wait up to two months to know how much this has helped.<\/p>\n<p>Often symptoms can continue to get worse before you notice an improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Symptoms can sometimes stop although this does not happen to everyone. If your symptoms don\u2019t get better and you have already switched from d4T or ddI then speak to your doctor about being referred to see a specialist.<\/p>\n<p><em>This answer was updated in January 2016 from a question that was first posted on 12 October 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am having numbness\/tingling in my hands and feet and it\u2019s getting painful, what is the cause?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,29,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-topics","category-opportunistic-infections","category-side-effects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}