Hi canagirl
Hope you get some answers to your question and find a way to relieve some of your pain or at least manage it - sometimes with chronic conditions cures are elusive and 'management' is all we have. I'm still on the road to a definitive diagnosis but the pain and numbness are slowly but surely increasing - I consider myself fortunate that at this still relatively early stage I have found this website and am learning lots from people like yourself and the many others who are willing to share. Stay strong & keep asking questions.

To enbloc (& others)
Thanks for your concise answers - however one thing you mentioned has raised further questions for me:
"The only thing I would suggest NOT to try during the testing stage is steroids as they can skew results of testing." (sorry I don't know how to to do the quote in a box thing)
Do you have any further information on how steroids can skew testing? (particularly B12, glucose and any other tests you might know of as being relevant to PN). If someone is already on a maintenance (ie:low) dose of steroids and unable to stop them does this mean that the testing is not viable for PN diagnosis? Thanks for your help with this.