Not a day goes by when I don't think about my PN. My feet do not burn. I rarely feel anything but the sensation that my foot bones are broken...or I don't feel much below the knee at all at times. Somehow I still walk, but at times it feels like floating on air, not in a good way...but I can rack up 4 miles at a time....it can be arduous.

I have learned that it is dangerous to use my hands to gesture when I speak, as I have given myself a slight black eye, and taken a good hunk out of my lip with my fingernail. It is hard to explain.

I use two hands to hold a coffee cup. I no longer walk around with a shoe lace untied. I carry my cell phone when out alone. I seldom go out alone.

I get nauseated in grocery stores, and utterly can not stand Walmart....superWalmart is worse, but I still go in there now and then...I call it my Walmart challenge. (This must be how autistic people feel....or how Jimmy Hendrix USED to feel.)

I don't need to shave my legs anymore, well, not much...yes, folks, PN makes your hair fall out or not grow....

For relief, I watch movies with Will Farrell and I contemplate what my 90 pound lab does on those rare occassions that I am out of the house...HE COUNTER-SURFS. I know, I have caught him...it is like walking in on a middle schooler....

(I love the sleep number bed commercial with the big dog and the divorced guy) My dogs weigh 90#, 70# and 60#. I have finally gotten all but the counter surfing dude to stay off my bed at nite....Mr. Counter Surfer still sneaks up in those rare time frames in which I sleep.

I got these dogs before they diagnosed my PN...you know, back when it was in my head and if I would stop obsessing, I would be fine. Now I have 190# of cannines to deal with. Labradors no less.

Heaven help me if the EMS has to come in!!!

I go out to eat only to have my food set in front of me, just as I get nauseated and feel like passing out. I can't drink Margaritas or slushies anymore, lest I feel like I swallowed a sword...a hot sword.

My relatives have learned not to ask me how I feel, and I have learned not to tell them how I really feel. I have learned not to discuss my bowel regimen.

I don't bring up anything about things being hereditary.

I think I have a Betafish swimming around in my brain. I can see him as he goes by now and then.

I have learned it is hard to lift weights when you can not hold them...yes things can be adapted, but man, your hands are really important. I have learned this website times out on me when I get long winded or type with a pencil in one hand.