One night last week I had the worst flare up of my SFN that I've had since it started five years ago. I slept not one wink, felt as if dipped in a deep acid bath. So the next day I staggered in to see my GP and ask for a treatment to knock my persistent yeast infection on the head. I think my rationale was that, if I could at least sort one thing out properly, I'd feel more in control again. I have tried cutting out sugar, eating more garlic and taking a good bacteria daily plus used over the counter treatments many times in the space of two months. . The GP obviously thought I was deranged because I was so exhausted that I was fairly incoherent. And what part of saying "I've been up all night with burning pain in my peripheries and face - please can you give me something for my yeast infection" makes sense?! But she obliged me with a prescription and the yeast infection has at last subsided, as has the storm of SFN - apart from in my mouth (lips and gums) where it has continued to rage on and off.

I'm very lucky on lots of levels that my SFN, although always present as a numb tingle throughout my peripheries, mouth and left side of face, remits and relapses like waves on the shore. The painful burning has, by and large, turned relatively polite most of the time these days. But instead of pain flares I'm often caught off my guard by looking round while crossing a road, or looking up at a bird or fruits in a tree, or a shift in floor surface - and then this wave of vertigo will hit me out of the blue. Sometimes I will use a cane to give me more confidence. Most of the time I just go forth and only remember that I'm going numb when it's too late and I'm swaying and lurching. I don't get the bolt of lightening pain in my knuckles or wrists anymore either. Things are changing. For the better? I don't think so.

Once every few days flu-like aches and feverish sweats hit me like monsoons with no prior warning - or I'll wake up and know it's back and I'm due for a 24 hour storm. Do others have SFN that comes in this way? I try and try to find the triggers each time - sometimes I think it's a few hours in the sun, other times I think it's because I've got chilled, then I'll think it's something diet related but no amount of eliminating food groups makes any odds. Is this a sign of autoimmune neuropathy I wonder - the relapsing/ remitting pattern?

I can't say I'm looking forward to having this lip biopsy tomorrow morning - but, like my awful 7 attempts at spinal tap - if it shows up a reason for all this nonsense it will be worth the bother. If not - well at least there's not a great deal of me left to be invaded now!