I certainly can relate to those of you who speak about the cold and your neuropathy. My neuropathy seems to be on the move this week, I never know where it will land next.

It has really been quite a mild winter here on Long Island. This last week though, it has turned cold, 7 degrees when I woke up last Friday, now in the 20's.

My right foot has been exceptionally obnoxious this week. That "walking on broken bones" feelings begins when I get up and continues throughout the day, of course, much worse at night. The pinched nerve is back in my shoulders, then yesterday morning, I begin the day with this muscle cramp feeling in my left hip, sending shooting pains down my leg. At lunch, I met Kev for coffee and while we sat in the car chatting, the pain was very obvious. I drove from where we had coffee, to my job, maybe 1 1/2 miles, got out of the car, the hip pain was gone, it had moved to my knee. I live in a basement apartment and believe me, I thought about riding the handrail down, my knee hurt so much. It is still hurting this morning. SOOOOO, I figure by the end of the day, it will be in my foot, I can only hope it travels right on out of my body. WHAT A DREAMER I AM!!!!!

Just wanted to let you all know, I do definitely understand when any of you speak of travelling pain. Group hug!!!!!!

My PN is rather stable. The biggest trigger for me is being ill. Last spring I had
a terrible cold, and I had full body burning for about 3 days.
Otherwise, some food triggers, rarely. My PN likes the cold..I don't have burning often in the colder months.

BUT...my arthritis is horrible with weather changes, and so is my thyroid.
If the weather gets cold, I have about 2 weeks to adjust to that. If the temp
like this year fluctuates a lot, then I have endless adjustments.
Low barometric readings increase my joint pain. Those long LOW pressures, that bring storms, are very painful for me.

Hello There,
The last two nights have been almost pain free (Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy)better than a long time. After reading mrsD's article about Alka-Selzer I have replaced my morning coffee with 2 original Alka-Selzers and have started feeling better than usual in the days and evenings. Got the test strips on Monday and yesterday on the second test (11 am) the Ph was over 6.5 . Will give this another 10 day run and post the out come, but so far so good. Wednesday the wife got nosy as to what I was experimenting around with this time so I had her pee in a cup and tested her, she was 5.5 ph and since she is the head cook around here there are probably going to be some diet modifications. Take care

Cold helps my PN, heat makes it worse. By cold, I mean San Diego cold, not walking in the snow with wet shoes cold, which hurts like hell until total numbness takes over.

Same here too, cold always helped my PN [mostly small nerve damage] but as soon as i got over 25 degress Cel's, then burning would startup and the hotter the temp got outside the more burning i had, some days if i was on the net i would leave my feet in a bucket of cold water under my desk, use to help a little.
In my part of this world cold means just cold, no snow.

Lanny....that AlkaSeltzer never ceases to amaze me!

Let me know how you do on it over time. I only have to use it about
3 times a week if that!

I think maybe I will make a thread here on acid/pain...like I did on OBT.

Later, this week!

I forgot about Alka Seltzer. Thanks y'all for the reminder. I'll start taking it again as part of my pre-bed ritual.

MrsD, if I take two Alka Seltzers a day, shouldn't I stop the 80 mg. aspirin? I just read an article in LEF magazine that low dose aspirin daily helps shrink an enlarged prostate and helps prevent pre-cancerous cells from becoming cancerous.

You won't need the 81mg aspirin.

Each tablet contains 325mg of aspirin...so it is like taking two aspirin tablets.

There is an non aspirin version called AlkaSeltzer Gold...but usually
you have to special order that..it is available online at www.drugstore.com

I have never used the Gold. I use generic AlkaSeltzer from Wal-Mart for
$1.57 a box. And I find I don't need it every day either.

I think it works so well because it is effervescent..and is absorbed with
that buffering very rapidly. We studied it back in the 60's in college..in the
first drug kinetics class taught at U of Mich. It was taught by John Wagner PhD, who was then working at Upjohn. He gave us data, showing that the aspirin in AlkaSeltzer (there were no other products in the line then) delivered the aspirin as fast as an IV shot. I think this burst into the blood stream,
sends buffers and the aspirin to the body very quickly and neutralizes the
acidic pain causing molecules at the nerve endings.

I have always used aspirin itself, but when used alone, in tablet form, it does
not give the same relief/response for me that the AlkaSeltzer does. When I was stranded with my leg/tendon injury on the island 2 summers ago...AlkaSeltzer worked better than
tylenol or Aleve (I tried 3 OTC Aleve's max--equivalent to Anaprox DS RX).

People on blood thinners, cannot take this much aspirin however...so AlkaSeltzer Gold would be a compromise.

There have been times I have tried using one tablet and not the two in
the packet. It works too, but not as dramatically. They keep if you fold
the foil over and put in a small Ziplock.

There is this comment on the website and on the package...that you don't need to drink the "residue" left behind.
I put my tablets (I break them in half) into my water bottle, with about 6-8oz of water in the bottom. I then shake it
up after it dissolves (I can't take the "gas" in the bubbles), and find that when it goes flat, the rest does dissolve, so
I drink it all. The "residue" is soluble. I think it might be the citrate, which is helpful for other acid/base issues.