Hi,
I have had this for close to 30 years. When I was first diagnosed the doctor first thought I was just making up the illness to get out of my situation at the time, when I convinced him that I really did have PN pain, he prescribed a multivitamin which was a total joke. So I went on silently suffering for another 16 years, then I went to a Nuerologist who diagnosed me as hereditary Neurapathy, this was 2003 before Lyrica was invented. I was told there was no cure, so I just went on with my life and pain. A foot doctor told me about Lyrica in 2007, I had just researched it on Google before going in to see him, I read about suicidal tendencies as some of the complaints, the foot doctor who happened to be helping with the Lyrica study at the time, knew nothing of this...
Fast forward to present day, the Ruemotolgist thinks it is caused by Pre-diabetic insulin resistance. Gabapentin had horrible side effects, brain fog and tachycardia, so I was taken off it after a month. This is the first line of drugs they will offer, Gabapentin, if it works for you is a better choice of the drugs, it is just hit and miss, some do better then others. It is in the same class as Lyrica, so if you have problems with Gabapentin, I was told the Lyrica would also cause problems. This is a fairly safe drug, as it is not processed through the liver, like some of the other stronger drugs.
As far as I am concerned Physical therapy would have no effect on Neurapathy, unless it is caused by a physiological problem. Poly Neurapathy is neurological in nature. Now I did see one study in Oregon where they found that a abnormality with the vertibrea of the neck was causing a pinched spinal cord, reducing the diameter when the head was tilted back. They found that when a additional MRI was done with the neck tilted bak it revealed the problem. They have claimed to have been able to help 80% of the patients with PT excersises.
I will try to find the info on this.
Hope this is helpful!
Jon