Hi Shirley:

And thanks for the good wishes.

Well, I've learned to deal with my own diabetic neuropathy by doing my darndest to keep my blood sugar level under tight control. This is a no-brainer. I was addicted to carbs all my life, that's why I ballooned to 300 lbs. That was my coping mechanism. I'll never forget the night that my son moved away to Arizona. He was all of 20. Nothing we could do to stop him. He knew what he wanted. He had money in the bank (from a lawsuit) and he told us "I'll go to Arizona, set up an apartment, get a roomate, come home for Christmas then on January 2, I'm moving out for good". Now imagine your 20 year old "only child" telling you this. He had just graduated college and never worked a day in his life.

The night he flew out to Arizona, I holed up in my bedroom with 3 cupcakes, a ding dong and a big glass of milk. And I was a flaming diabetic back then. Do you think I knew what I was doing to myself??? No, I just self-medicated my brain with sugar. So he comes home, spends Christmas and moves out January 2, 2002.

Haven't seen him since. He started gambling, lost everything. Moved 100 times since then, lost every apartment, went on SSI, got diagnosed with Aspergers and, to put it quite simply, WE HAVE LOST HIM!!!

Now let me tell you something. When you have eaten to cope with stress, gotten diabetes and self-medicated with food for 50 years, IT'S VERY HARD TO OVERCOME BAD EATING HABITS.

I have no idea how I was able to do this (while on the phone with suicide hotlines at 3 a.m. everynight because my son was dialing 911 and telling everybody he was going to commit suicide). You better believe that if I had been an alcohlic, I would have drank myself to death. But I was an eater so I ate myself to death. At least the first year after he left. It was the only way I coped. My diabetes went nuts. Went up to 265. I couldn't care less.
That's probably what aggravated my PN and screwed up my nerves. I'll never know.

All I know is something snapped in my brain, (after all the phone calls to suicide hotlines and case managers and physciatrists, etc) By the way, absolutely everyone said to me "There's nothing wrong with your son, he's a gambler". Almost destroyed us. THEN CAME THE ASPERGERS DIAGNOSIS and then we literally LOST him. He's isolated, perfectly happy to be alone and doesn't care about family whatsoever.

If any of you understand depression and the need to self-medicate with anything, believe me, this could have killed me!!!!

So I guess what I'm trying to say is "if this didn't kill us, and Alan's PN didn't do him in, THEN ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!

We've both had to overcome a lot of stress. Stress kills, I really believe this. It also aggravates PN.

And while we will always have stress in our lives, we have found ways to cope that don't necessitate my feeding myself into a sugar coma.

I really think that in many cases, people find the way to get through the PN thing and even if you don't find the cause of it, and you need certain meds to "get through it', like Alan needed to, when he had to be on the fentanyl pain patch, vicodin, elavil, neurontin, lyrica, cymbalta, ultram, requip, etc. etc., you name it, he took it.

Well, in his case, he decided to lose all the extra weight, take up exercise (slow at first because it's not easy at 59 years old to go to the gym when you've never done this before). But things take time.

And with my massages, and, as he put it, "melody, when I exercise my calves, the muscles are working on the nerves on my feet"., Well, I guess he knows what he is talking about. I believe that if he didn't have the foot ulcer problems, he'd be on a treadmill at least an hour a day. Maybe someday he will.

The guy surprises me every day.

Just wanted to let all of you know that THERE JUST MIGHT BE AN END TO THE TUNNEL OF PAIN OUT THERE!!! It did happen for Alan.

I mean, who would ever think a 59 year old man with Idiopathic Polyneuropathy (for 18 years), on every pain med known to man, and who has coronary heart disease, and a stent, would someday become a body builder (even while undergoing IVIG) and would get a part time job???

I never thought this would happen. His neuro told him "if you keep this up and strengthen your muscles, you most likely will never wind up in a wheel chair. You might even overcome whatever caused the PN.

What a great thing to hear from your doctor!!!!

OH BY THE WAY, I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT B-12
I have read all about the methylcobalimin of this vitamin, that it's the best one to take. I went to GNC yesterday and they have all the B-12 BUT NONE ARE THE METHYL, they are all the Cyan form.
I just went here: http://www.harvesthealth.com/vibasme50mcg.html

Now is this a good deal? Or is there a better place online where all you guys get your methyl?? Thanks. Mel

Melody