Hi Melody!

In German it's Idiopatische Polyneuropathie. At the time it started, they were more worried about me checking out from the lung embolisms. Later, I was just sent to a neurologist who did some tests (tuning fork, reflex hammer, electro-sensors) to determine the extent of the "damage" and to chart it. He must have seen something in the report, either from my family doctor or the hospital, that clued him in to the IPN, so I guess he didn't figure there was anything to test for, since the diagnosis had been made, especially the "idiopathic" part.

After 2 weeks of hell I changed shoes once again, to a pair I'd stopped wearing months ago. Actually these had been my favorites for a couple of years and then the kind of "stopped working" and went the other direction. Yesterday was a semi-acceptable day. The shoes I had been wearing successfully for the last 8 months suddenly really went off the deep end on Saturday - agony and that for 6 hours with no relief.

Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on it and will pressure my family doctor, who is new because my last one retired, to refer me to a neurologist who knows something about IPN. My daughter is a new MD resident ow did part of her internship in a neurology hospital in Bern and she told me, that IPN is almost as frustrating for the doctors, as they know it's a miserable condition, but there are simply so many factors and so many different things to try/disappoint.

I actually feel more sorry for my wife than I do for myself. She just retired 6 months ago and we were planning interesting stuff for our joint retirement when I retire in a year because it appeared to have leveled off, but with this last year, all these plans are on hold and she, being the good sport she is, tries to tailor her activities to what I can do. We've never been stuck to each other like glue, each having his/her own interests and understanding that we don't have to share EVERYTHING, but when we actually do take 2 weeks together and I abrely manage a 90 minute walk in the forest, where she'd be happy with 5-6 hours, I feel sorry for her.