Sarah, just take your time with all this.

I will say....not all doctors are gods, or right most of the time.
Many say things, that patients then think are cast in stone, and hence the future gets messed up because new thoughts are cast aside.

You had your bariatric surgery a year ago? Well, B12 which is the major thing that affects the nerves seriously, is stored in your liver for up to 5 yrs worth. Unless you had pernicious anemia undiagnosed at the time of your surgery, you would have enough stored up to last you a while. Serious deficiency then would not occur for some time yet. I doubt you had pernicious anemia at that time, as your testing before the surgery would have showed it present.

Doctors don't know all the answers. And some arrogant ones will say things just to placate the patient. And you are young, and not expected to have the experience or training to know this.

Since you have no other nerve problems pointing to severe long term lack of B12, like optic neuritis or inability of using your arms and legs...you don't seem to have the terrible symptoms of permanent damage. So either you get another opinion, or further evaluation, or you coast and keep positive and take your supplements and eat wisely, making sure you get the EFAs you need and you wait for improvements. It is important to keep your stress levels under control as well. Inflammation follows stress and this affects the nerves too.

I hope to see you posting with improvements, when I return in Sept.

Take care.

P.S. doctors will fixate on a situation and use it to diagnose people, and sometimes this is flawed logic. We have had patients here who haven't had a drink in 10 or 15 years, yet were still diagnosed with alcoholic neuropathy! Just because they said they USED to drink. The same goes for your bariatric surgery. You have that history, so yes, point to IT as your cause. This is how doctors ARE, and many of us know this, and recognize it. It is a rush to diagnosis, sadly to say.

I had my surgery August 13th...

I just got off the phone with my mom who talked to my doctor... who thinks I should be on the Fentanyl Patch, which surprises me very much... since he was so against that medicine before. However, he won't prescribe it because he wants me to have it okayed with my neurologist first. Oye. My neurologist doesn't seem to comprehend the pain I am in... so we'll see what he says.

While you are waiting.... it is time to read up on this patch.

It is a serious step and you need to read all you can about it so you can use it safely.

Starting up in a person who is not on high dose opiates already, is problematic.
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/...ries/UCM051739

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XztLvn5TRko

Yeah, I had asked the nurse about that as well because I read that this afternoon... she just called back. Guess we aren't going that route. She's going to talk to the doctor and call back. This is a never-ending cycle. We're running out of options. She doesn't want to give me morphine, we can't do the patch, and she can't think of anything we haven't already tried.. crossing my fingers that the doctor can think of something...

Hi Sarah,

Since I started this thread trying to find another ReBuilder, and you expressed interest in it, I feel obligated to express my somewhat limited experience with it. To begin with, the reviews are very divided about ReBuilder. Many say it didn’t help them at all and many say it helped a great deal. Do your own research on this site and the PN Foundation BB site (not a great site, in my opinion) and at the ReBuilder site, as well as with any “real contacts” like me and those that I have talked to. Keep in mind that there are many Neuropathy problems and causes and significant differing timelines when these folks started using the device.

First off, my PN is attributed to my Scleroderma and associated vascular and circulation issues. I used the ReBuilder from January through June, before losing it on a recent trip. For me, for one thing, the device enabled me to stop taking Lyrica. That is very clear now that I haven’t used the device for the last month, and once again I am back to using Lyrica to be functional during the day and occasionally to settle the PN so I can get a decent night sleep.

For me, the ReBuilder pretty much eliminated the PN in my L foot and improved my R foot PN by about 50%. This helped a lot. Additionally, when my feet were really burning, the device did sooth them significantly for quite a while. This would work very well at bedtime.

So, in general, I am very excited about the replacement unit that is now in the mail for me.

Sarah, the ReBuilder may not do anything for you, however, wouldn’t it be wonderful if it could help you not need the drugs, like in my case.

Randy

Yes, it would be wonderful if it worked well for me like it has for you, though I'd like to be able to try it before investing $500-1000 on it, which is what my mom said is how much complete kits were selling for! She is the one who was researching it. I, myself, haven't done any research on it yet, but I obviously would before making any decisions. The TENS unit didn't do anything for my feet--but I didn't get it for my feet--I got it for my back. Even if insurance paid 80%, I'm not sure I'd want to pay the 20% without knowing if it was even going to work. I wish there were places to try these things out first. The nurse was supposed to call back by 5 and she didn't, so I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow... so it'll be yet another night of this intense pain... I wish this nurse and doctor would take this pain seriously like my family doctor does... Maybe I'll have some luck and will find some medicine that will work.. that would be great too... I just want to feel better--I don't care at this point how I get there.

Ref costs, my Model 300 I believe is $400-$500. I do believe their site indicates they are having a sale now which includes the conductive socks (I don't use them, because my insurance wouldn't cover them) for $500. I think that's a pretty good deal; the socks alone used to be a lot. My insurance paid 65%, so the investment was worth it. I believe they also provide a money back guarantee if you are not pleased. So, you may want to investigate their site a bit more.

Randy

Hi Sarah
Try to get a second hand rebuilder , which is what I did, or if you go down the route of buying a new one they offer a money back guarantee. I use mine every day and do get relief for some time after it's use.
Best of luck
t

Really? That's not as bad as what my mom found, then... she found a lot of expensive ones... we couldn't ever figure out how the socks fit in... that never made sense...

The nurse called back and it never rang but it beeped saying we had a message. He's not comfortable prescribing pain medication to me, and not only that, but doesn't feel that can can do any more for me as far as the neuropathy goes (he's had me on Neurontin, Topamax, Lyrica, Amitripyline...) and so basically the message from the nurse was that we should just deal with my family doctor and "get lost"...

So... that's that.

My Mayo Neurologist would not Rx the ReBuilder for me because I wouldn't be able to see him frequently enough for him to study the results (read that as frequent EMG's, etc.... ah, no thanks anyway....). But my local PCP doc went ahead and Rx'd it. I don't know how anyone could hurt themselves with it in any way.