Thanks guys. I have no guarantee that this darn ulcer is going to come back but if it does, he has the boot thing. I think he should wear it for half the day. But he won't listen to me. He likes the PROPETS. No arguing with him.

But something interesting did just happen.

We just met up at Dunkin, and ate and came home. He said "I think something is wrong with my ulcer". I said "oh my god, why, is it bleeding??, and he still had his socks on and he said "I don' know" (I think he is just apprehensive because of 18 months of this going back and forth to podiatrists every week).

So I unwrap his foot, and it looks perfectly fine. Looks just like it did on Wednesday. Now when he came home from the podiatrist on Wednesday (after the podiatrist pronounced it HEALED), well there was a little bit of red in the middle. But the podiatrist told him it was healed and to use bacitracin, wear a bandaid, wear the boot for half a day and your orthotics in the shoes for the other half a day). Since he likes the Propets, that is the only thing he is doing differently than the doctor told him to do. He does not walk anywhere like regular people do. After 18 months of not going anywhere you tend to be a little apprehensive, I completely understand this. So the only real place he walked was to the Feast and back, and maybe to the store and back. No hikes, no marathons, you know what I mean!!!.

So I'm looking at his foot and it looks just fine, and I tell him "No, everything looks fine". Now, remember, Alan's feet have been completely numb for 5 or more years. I mean completely numb that he doesn't know if he even has a sock on.

So I get the foot lotion and I go on the other foot (not the ulcer one), and I'm putting on the lotion and he says "what are you doing?" and I said "I'm putting on lotion, why"? and he goes: 'because I can tell you are doing something" I said "are you serious? you can feel that I'm applying lotion?" And he goes "yeah, I can". We look at each other and he goes "oh, does this mean I might get my feeling back in my feet". I said 'hey, who knows, but let's keep doing the spongy things between the toes when you walk, and the toe flexor thingees when you are not walking, sitting in your chair, and going to sleep. I just put the toe flexor thingees on his feet. He is now fast asleep.

I think the toe flexors are spreading out his toes. Nerves, that were compressed, are now not being compressed. His ankles (while they were not cold before and he was always told that he had blood flow, and no circulation problems), well now his ankles feel nice and warm, just like the rest of his body. I have absolutely no idea what this means, because he has taken the dopplers for the Peripheral Vascular Disease test, the circulation test, every test in the book and everything was normal. They raised his legs, they looked at the color of his feet, (he's had this done by every doctor), every thing was normal. They would cluck cluck and go "good blow flow". They would put stethoscopes to his ankles and lower extremities and go "good blow flow, blah blah".

But always the PN. But since the toe thingees and while he wears them while he's sitting down, he does the toe exercises, well maybe he's stretching nerve stuff and ligaments. I really have no idea.

I do question why, after 15 years, not one doctor, not one podiatrist, ever told Alan, "wow, look at your deformed toes, they are all squeezed, especially your pinky toe, (his pinky toe is so small and it is so into the toe beside it, it takes me forever to get the toe flexor pushed all the way down so it separates each toe from each other.

Now how come, after 15 years of going to doctor, after doctor, specialist after specialist, and asking question after question, and yes, while I never mentioned toes being squeezed into each other, I did mention, "maybe he has a nerve problem that is compressed in his back, and maybe it is going down his spine and compressing something, and maybe THAT'S WHY HE HAS PN?? Every single doctor told me "no, it's idiopathic, we have no idea why he has this, this happens sometimes.".

When he did go to his newest neuro and she ordered the spinal tap, and they found protein in his spinal fluid, she did say "oh, he should have IVIG, there's auto immune stuff going on.

But in my honest opinion, (and I'm no medical doctor, but I have been taking care of this guy for 27 years), I think his toes are all squeezed together, the nerves have been compressed, and that's why he has PN.

So we shall see if someday, he tells me, "wow, I can feel my feet".

My god, now wouldn't that be a miracle???

Thanks for all the nice words.