A horrible error occurred! My friend has been on TPN the last 4 months, his diarrhea has continue some, but mostly he has had non-stop nausea and vomiting. For the last month or so he had nearly no oral intake. He went through all sorts of tests with no answers, until he developed vertigo, double vision, short-term memory loss, hallucinations, and numbness, tingling, and pain in legs. A trip to a neurologist suggested Wernicke's, meningitis, or brain fungus. He hospitalized immediately, and thank God he pursued the TPN to discover they had not been adding vitamins to it! He has improved greatly in the mental area, but the nerve problems to his legs and hands have not disappeared with morphine and neurotin. He has been in the hospital 4 days. My question - what other questions do I need to ask? Does he need loading doses of other vitamins missed to correct other deficiencies. Is the regular dose started now enough to make up the difference? Has any permanent damage been done? How will we know? Has this contributed to the vomiting (I hope)? Thank you for your help.

This is an upsetting situation, to say the least. Vitamin deficiency can cause lots of problems, but it is usually easily and quickly correctable with the proper vitamins. Some of the neuropathy your friend is experiencing may be due to HIV or to medication not necessarily vitamin deficiency. However, nerve injuries do take time to resolve and it can be many months before you will know. Sounds like your friend is receiving good care now. Wish him luck! DTD