All great advice. I have not heard of those patches. I'll have to ask my dr. about them. Thanks for the lead. I will try the links again.
That was nice of you to look up the mag/cal supplement. I get it from my chiropractor. She says it's made from 'real bone'. Sounds kind of gross, but is supposed to metabolize better.
I do have swelling, but it seems to be on my surgical foot. Physical therapist said it can take 6 months post-foot surgery sometimes for foot swelling to be gone.
I have not noticed discoloration.
I saw you started a new thread, Mrs. D and I want to respond there as well.
Great to be here.

thanks! You too!

Mrs. D.

I found the Mark thread. That is such great news. Sounds like he really noticed after a month.
It's been 5 EXCRUTIATING ones for me. I think I can hold out another month, I pray! And have some hope that things could improve.

When they do, you'll have to add me to the Mark testimonies of the miracle of 'D'.

Maybe I will come back here and record things.

For the record, I started 10,000 i.u. a day of D last Thursday when my levels were at 10.
I went to a tanning bed for 4 min. on Thursday, and 4 min. on Friday. Sunday I sat by an open window in the sun for 20 minutes (it's too cold here to go outdoors!).
I went 6 minutes, today, Monday.

I still have the Tarsal Tunnel-like symptoms and Plantar Fasciitis. I have severe burning in the backs of my ankles that go up to my calves by day end. I feel some burning pain all the way up to my buttocks at times. I don't seem to have it elsewhere in my body. Sometimes my wrists feel a bit funny, but I do push-ups nearly daily and that may be the culprit.

I do not shop or do anything that requires lots of walking. I use a walker when I go to the drs, etc. That way I have a seat to sit on if I need to rest, because the pain becomes intense if I have to stand or walk for even short periods.

Most of my day is spent sitting, though I have 4 small children to care for and do what I have to do.

I am still taking hydrocodone for the pain. I took 6--750 mg pills today. It takes the edge off, but does not make it disappear completely.

I'll try and keep a log here as I can for anyone in the future that it may help.

Thanks.

I also have a suggestion: This is just for pain.

I have used high gauss magnets for many years (these allowed me to work in spite of my pain) and they can really help in some patients.

Brian here, also had success with them.

Here are some threads:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...hlight=magnets

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ight=neodymium

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ight=neodymium

Neodymium magnets are very strong. Placed over the affected nerve (and you have evidence of specific entrapment), with the South pole down, can block alot or all of the pain. They don't really CHANGE things but over time may train the nerve to stop firing (like the lidoderms do). Since you go to a chiropractor, he/she may also offer these..so ask. They will be expensive that way, however.
I find that the inexpensive ones I get for a buck or two each work very well. One just has to know where to find them on the net. (even Ebay has some). My podiatrist also uses them, and he was interested to see me with my broken toe wearing one! We had a little laugh over that. (he said "looks like you don't even NEED me"...)

If you are interested you can contact me here. When your PM option activates, soon, we can discuss them that way.

Some people do not believe they work. So I don't offer them until other things fail, like you are experiencing.

Mrs. D...
are you saying I can get lipoderm patches online?
I do a lot of online shopping...
you get yours at ebay?
I may PM you about the magnets sometime.
I did have entrapments show up, but I also wonder if it works for plantar fasciitis pain? I don't want to invest in too much in case this D works. But I am storing up all of this information in case I do decide to try.
I finally talked with my family dr. today about my D levels. He said to take 50,000 iu a week and to take 1.5-2 grams of calcium with it. Now I don't know if he meant per day or per week. He said the calcium helps the D absorb. I thought it was the other way around.
My cal. levels were 'normal' on the lab. My worry is that now that the D is being upped--that I'll absorb too much calcium.
Any thoughts on that?
Today was my 7th day of taking 10.000 iu a day. Not sure if it was my imagination or not. But I seemed to have less 'creepy crawlies" upon waking. However, the rest of the pain had the normal progression it has the past several months as the day went on.
Of course, I know any relief may take 1-3 months. But I am still going to hold out hope and pray it happens sooner for me.

The lidoderms are RX only and you need an RX for them.

The magnets you can get easily online, it you know what you are looking for. Magnets do not need an RX.

Try the PM function and send me your email, and I will send you some basic info I have saved.

Hey mrsD--you have me intrigued with your tableau. So far I see a polar bear and a geode, but I'm still working on the rest. My laptop got bombarded with viruses so I'm having to view this on one of those tiny netbooks.

Given the number of spheres, you know what I think would be perfect in it? A lawn ball..but who knows, maybe there's one in there I haven't spotted yet.

The little animal in left front, is supposed to be a cat, and it is carved out of Petoskey Stone. (I bought it on Ebay--it was sort of a "steal" since that day few were bidding, so I got it for a good price.)

Five of the spheres were made by me.

My son took some nicer pics of them and has them on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thekevi...7604118053496/



And this is another set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thekevi...7614654881111/
The five are shown more closeup in detail in his pictures.
You can see them better from his pictures.

Some of the other things on the shelf are things I have collected over the years. The large quartz and purple fluorite in the center are from my youth..both are over 40yrs old, in my posession.

The sculpture footprint in the upper left is a wolf print I made from our vacation home/island.

The black thing in the background is a carved obsidian crows skull, that is in one of my son's pics on Flickr. I bought that on Ebay from a sculptor in Utah who does all sorts of odd things ..I think it is laser cut by a computer, from a computer model made from a real skull. It is very interesting, and was pretty expensive. In fact it is the most expensive thing on that shelf.

My crystal spheres --I've been doing them for about 2 yrs now-- I buy the little crystals and tumbled semiprecious stones on Ebay from some suppliers who are on there.

The little dark crystals on the little ball on the left front, are real smokey quartz from Australia. They were a bit pricey too!

This shelf is right above my monitor, and I look at it all day long, when thinking and typing responses here.
The shelf grew out of a few inexpensive "balls" that I had collected over the years...so I expanded it to include all sorts of things now. (some of the things on that shelf are pyrite, malachite, fluorite, copper, quartz, amethyst.)

Mrs. D--
I read a lot of your vitamin b12 thread...

[EDITED to say--My levels are 587, not 387. Whoops.] My levels were 387...but according to what I'm reading now, that could possibly be low for me.

Esp. when one considers my symptoms, which include tinnitis.

Do most people find a dr. that is really up on their vitamins, or come to places like this to for it?

It is so frustrating for me that some of my drs see vitamins as not so important and yet I have all of this unexplained suffering and pain that really can't be explained otherwise...

You appear to have been at this site for a very long time. Have you noticed an 'ideal B12 level' for helping symptoms disappear?

I learn my B6 levels tomorrow...

Thanks.

Cher

Before this site, I was at another, one that crashed and never recovered. I was at that site since 1998! Many from that site are posting here today, at our new home.

Doctors are not trained in nutrition. In fact they are very poorly trained in pharmacology too. Most patients don't know that and think doctors know alot about drugs, and it is sad to say, but most medical training is "observe, label, memorize". Most doctors get their drug information from sales people. They do not as a rule investigate anything on their own. There are exceptions, but the majority is sadly lacking.

In your case, cher, you have had 4 children in a short span of time. That puts a huge nutritional burden on you, much of it is invisible. It is only relatively recently that we have learned, for example, how damaging transfats really are. With babies, there are studies to show smaller head size of babies born to women who ate alot of transfats (which were in everything--donuts, fast food, margarine, potato chips, cookies, everything--Crisco). Transfats were linked to ADHD in children, who were also low in Omega-3 fat intake.
Did any OB tell women to not eat transfats? Nope. It took over a decade of people like me and consumer health researchers to get our FDA to stop transfat consumption. The original goal was to only have accurate labels so consumers could avoid these toxic fats, but the food industry stepped up and for the most removed them. 2006 was the target year for labeling. Now we see cities like NY banning them outright and Netherlands, a whole country, banning them. But with the introduction of Crisco in the late 30's.... 2 generations of US citizens consumed dangerous transfats, and no doctor spoke up... or even KNEW. How many people ask a bakery what kind of fat they use?
I can tell you, not many. When I asked that question, back in the early 2000's, I got blank looks. The workers didn't even know what they used! Today, you can go to some restaurants and they will have a little sign on the table, saying, we do NOT use transfats. The small town we live near in the summer with 500 residents year round, had this on one of the restaurant tables, 2 yrs ago! I was stunned.
Do you read the labels of cookies you buy? Oreo was in deep trouble with California when they refused to remove transfats from its cookies. That was in all the papers. I believe, they have come around. However, the huge snack company Lays...took transfats OUT of their products long before the labeling deadline (2006). They were extremely cooperative and health conscious for their customers!

The serum B12 test does NOT tell where you are going. So if you are borderline with it, you do not know if it has been coming DOWN for you, been there for a while (unless you have frequent testing) or going up. Some people have neuro symptoms at levels doctors call "normal"... it takes a long time at very low levels to get the anemia signs that they are taught in school herald low B12. In fact today, there is controversy that the folate we consume in USA fortified foods, is actually masking low B12 levels and causing MORE neuro symptoms.

Some people do well at 500 range of B12, and others may find they feel better at 800-1000 or even higher. People vary in genetics and their genetics determine how efficient the whole metabolism is. Some may need help. Some need more B vits than others. The classic case is in the area of infant seizures.
Some babies are born with a defect in metabolizing B6...normal levels for them don't work. They have to be given massive doses or else they have endless dangerous seizures. This is called vitamin DEPENDENCY.. and while it is not common, it does point to issues that may exist for others, in milder forms.
Dr. Bruce Ames has written and studied this his whole career, and believes people vary in how the metabolize things using vitamins. He has a website where he explains this.
http://www.bruceames.org/
I think he is a brilliant man, and he invented the Ames test, which is what the FDA uses still to see if a chemical has the potential to cause cancer (DNA damage).

My goal on the net is to educate people so that they can then take care of themselves and not fall into some painful chronic syndrome. Our modern medicine is not geared for that point of view. Modern doctors only work at end points. One exception is Dr. Anderew Weil, who went to Harvard and is still trying to get the curriculum in medical school to change and be more in tune with our bodies and their needs.

In the case with B12, there is no upper limit of toxicity... which is a good thing, because then you can deal with it safely.
The Vit D information however, is still changing, and has changed radically in the last 5 years. I would expect doctors to be very poor at treating Vit D, and they are. They will test you but then treat the low levels with outdated and poor D2. So educating the public, is important with this too, since D3 is OTC, like the B12 is.

edit to add--- You might find Dr. Blaylock MD interesting. A neurologist who decades ago used nutrition to help neuro damage in his patients!
Now he is an alternative spokesperson, and just recently was very revealing about the H1N1 flu shots. He is now retired and active as an alternative voice for healing.
http://www.blaylockreport.com/