Quote:
Originally Posted by franceunderpants
I've felt better this week. I wonder why.
I've had much reduced pain in my legs and almost none in my arms. The muscle spasms (fasciculations?) are way down. I've been sleeping better too. And the off balance/dizziness episodes are better (although today not as good as previous days)...
Maybe I'm just getting better. I've tried to get more sleep each night and this seems to help...
Anyway, still not back to normal/perfect but I can not argue the trend recently.
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Great. Enjoy it
. However don't get depressed and feel despair if things get worse in the future. Not to rain on your parade, but PN is a chronic disease and most of us have had a roller-coaster of good periods and bad periods. After the acute phase with rapid deterioration and increasing pain and numbness, improvement or progression of the PN is best measured in six month or yearly intervals.
The vitamins and supplement look like a pretty good mixture. The magnesium supplements could be the main cause that your fasiculations are reduced. Magnesium stopped my fasiculations and leg cramps.
If you're starting to exercise, the rhythmic firing of the nerves and improved blood circulation could account for sudden improvement.
The same with getting enough sleep.
Many of us are either diabetic, pre-diabetic, have
metabolic syndrome, syndrome X, or insulin-resistance syndrome. In other words, eating too much sugar that isn't slowed down with fiber, fat, and protein upsets our metabolisms and insults the nerves. If you're improving your diet, that could account for your improved symptoms.
Much of the sugar in our diet is somewhat hidden. A can of cola has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it. But so does 12 oz. of apple or orange juice. A vente Starbucks frappacino, at about 300 sugar calories, has about 24 teaspoons of sugar in it! That would set off a sugar reaction for anybody past teenage years.
Finally, all drugs, including nortriptiline, have side effects. The old board was a horror show of people who got neuropathy from various drugs, including statins and antibiotics. It's interesting that in the list of side effects of nortriptiline are numbness, tingling, and parasthesia (see
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/nortrip_ad.htm ). Everybody with chronic disease should look up dosage and side effects for all the drugs they're taking, including over-the-counter. That way, you'll know if a symptom is actually a drug side effect.
To reduce drug side effects, take the minimal effective dose for as short a time period as possible. Your dose of nortiptiline is minimal, and probably helps you sleep. Beware of taking several drugs with similar effects (that almost killed my mom).