I have been pretty stable for the past year. I would say the pain is not progressing. I have pain flares but they are not as bad and they go away after a few days or hours. Then I have days or weeks of very low pain, the kind you can ignore if you put your mind on something else. That has been the pattern for all of 2012. I used to be in unrelenting high pain. I have not had a lot of numbness, mostly pain, so I can't say about the numbness, sorry.

When I started the Normast, I went as high as 600mg 4 times a day. Now I have cut down to 300 mg twice a day. But when I run out of my tablets, I will switch to the PEAPure twice a day, which comes in 400 mg capsules. I actually have the PurePEA already, but am using up the last of my Normast tablets right now.

I have tried taking Normast 600mg once a day, but that didn't seem to work well. To save money, I cut the 600mg tablets in half rather than ordering the 300mg tablets. That worked OK.

I'm glad the new form is a capsule. I think they are easier to digest than tablets. I suspect that the sweetened powder form that people start on just works better because it is quicker/easier to digest. Some older people or people with digestion problems would likely do better on the powder. I messaged Dr. Jan about it via another forum. He told me to try the tablets to save money, but that some people need the powder. My friend in California always takes the powder, not the tablets. The powder costs more, though, so I switched to the tablets and they seemed OK for me.

I also take some supplements that I read about on this forum, I think from you. I started with higher doses, then experimented with those until I got to as low a dose as seemed OK to save money on those, too. It took a lot of experimenting to find a dose that was affordable and effective.

My neuropathy is idiopathic, but likely autoimmune. It was confirmed by a skin punch biopsy. I was then tested for everything under the sun but all came back negative. That's when I got the label idiopathic and likely autoimmune. Because of the autoimmune suspicion, I also have tried dietary changes. I tried eliminating a lot of common allergens. So far, only gluten seems to be suspect, so I avoid that. I find that keeping my blood sugar stable and eating a very healthy diet also helps.

I know that not everyone responds to Normast. Dr. Jan recommends to trying it for 2 months and if you see no improvement, then you are likely not a responder and you should stop. I decided it was worth the expense of a 2-month trial, so I did it. And it did seem to help, so I continued it. Slowly I improved to the way I am now.

I wish I knew what was causing the neuropathy in the first place so that it would go away completely. But that doesn't seem likely. At my age, 50+, it is more likely that it will get worse as I get older. I hope that Normast becomes more widely used and available. Meanwhile, I will have to keep ordering it from the Netherlands. And will have to keep pinching the budget to pay for it. Not so bad now that I am on a lower dose, though.