Although I'm not superstitious in the least, it almost feels wrong to say so. Yet, I am feeling a marked improvement that is lasting for over 10 days now.

Not only is the pain going away - and that includes days when the breakthrough pain is a lot less bad - but I am also noticing a return of some "feel" in my feet.

It is impossible to know if this will last, but I now actually have moments where I don't feel any pain at all. And where those moments were previously only to be found when I woke up, they now also happen over the day and evenings.

It's also impossible to know exactly why, but the biggest change I made to my lifestyle in the last couple of weeks is to cut down on sugar drastically. After quitting alcohol 330 days ago (yes, I'm still counting...), I drank a lot of soda - the full sugar version - and was eating a lot of sweets. I suppose that was a sort of compensation, and I don't regret doing that.

But after hearing about my high cholesterol, and learning that even people who never touch alcohol can get a fatty liver simply because of eating badly, I had decided to switch to water only, with some non-processed fruit juice mixed with water in the evenings.

Combined with the supplements - I am still sure they must be playing a role - I may be giving my nerves the optimal conditions to heal. I'm also starting to simply enjoy eating an apple instead of 2 mars bars. It doesn't feel like I'm missing out, if you know what I mean.

I may regret this post later on, but I definitely think I'm onto something here. Needless to say this is making me happy, even cautiously giddy. And yes, I'm fully aware that sugar has been mentioned quite often on this forum.

One symptom that has definitely gone away is the swollen ankles, which makes me think that circulation has improved as well.

I'm not there yet, and I may need to keep up my eating (and drinking) habits forever, but that seems a very small price to pay.

Fingers crossed that I don't regret posting this ...