Sally is a very nice person, and she is very helpful and nice to everyone at PN here.

Have you been to hummingbird's blog? Her father posts here and often links to that.
http://www.hfme.org/apps/blog/

The sublingual thing is a historical dosage form, because it was thought that B12 could not work orally. (in reality it has to be in very high doses to work orally). But the B12 molecule is huge, and the area in the mouth, small, and only smaller molecules with lipid affinities get thru easily. It is now thought that the B12 dissolves in the saliva and you swallow that. So yes, it is probably a red herring for sublingual use. Places still make it that way mostly out of habit, because people expect it. But studies show oral will work equally compared to injections and sublingual.

I used 5mg of Puritan's Pride methylB12 for about 3 -4 months, once a day and then got tested. (I wanted to see if this new item at Puritan's was of good quality). My result was 1999...which was the highest that hospital could test at --due to calibration limits on the machines. My normal level is around 800 without supplements. So you can see oral does work!

If any food or fiber is present in the intestine where B12 is absorbed, it will act like a sponge and keep the B12 from getting to villi where absorption takes place.

Chronic itching can come from gall bladder/liver disease, lymphoma, gluten intolerance and drug reactions. Are you using any ACE inhibitors for blood pressure? They can cause skin symptoms too.