Originally Posted by mrsD

I would try magnesium lotion first. (I don't know what you can have orally)

Magnesium helps with the micro-circulation, which often is hard to test for.

Thick blood from polycythemia or from elevated antibody peptides tend to clog up the tiny vessels in the feet. Magnesium helps open those tiny ones and improves circulation.

A poster on PN found this new lotion, and I have been using it every night for my magnesium instead of oral and it works nicely.

http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/catalog/sh...new_crumb=true

That would be the first thing and easiest to try.

Staying away from sugar and MSG also helps. Sugar raises triglyerides and they also clog up the vessels, because they are viscous.

Originally Posted by Mariel

I have assumed that my foot neuropathy is "mostly" due to my more recent dx, Polycythemia Vera. But I've been reading more on various sites for PV, and especially reading the comments of specialists such as Jerry Spivak of Johns Hopkins and Ruben Mesa of Mayo Scottsdale. Dr. Spivak says this foot burning thing can come from other diseases which the patient also has, such as MS!
Or from diabetes.

when my primary dx was MS years ago, I had no foot burning. I had slight
numbness in the feet which I compensated for well. I know that I had lots of
neuropathy affecting various parts of the body, including intestinal spasm which I ascribe now to neuropathy. Our typical MS "ostipation" could easily be due to
neuropathy. After all, our disease is one of "nerves" or "neuro". It was not until my platelets started to rise with Polycythemia Vera that the minor numbness turned into pain, and then five years later, severe disabling pain.
Some days I can walk well enough to shop or do housework (some of it done
from the wheelchair), some days I have to give up and splat on the couch to watch the propaganda on the television and try to discern which of it might be true (kind of like trying to get a neurological dx).

My foot pain does NOT respond to aspirin, which means that I may not have
the Erythromelalgia of Polycythemia Vera; also the doctors say my circulation is too good for Erythromelalgia, but I think I might have poor circulation just in the hurting toes.

So I remembered that the MS forum people have lots of pain. (contrary to
some neuros expectations). Do you have it specifically in foot neuropathy--
burning, sometimes stabbing, needing pain medication much of the time?

Thanks for responding. And hugs to all who have pain.

Mariel