I am new to this site. Besides the burning in my feet I have horrible weakness in my legs. The weakness strips me of my confidence. I use to be quite motivated and now I feel like my days are revolved around my pain. I also feel like I need to shake my legs all the time which drives me insane!! I am a first generation Italian woman. 43 years old. I love following my traditions and it has become hard because the pain takes your dignity too. Right now my Doctor has me on 2 Ultram a day and 1 Norco (weakest dose) at night. My Doctor is very conservative. I am in pain all day. Do I need to see a different Doctor, Who understands this disease? And when your health ins. is limited, where else can you go? Also how do I tell my Doctor exactly how much pain I am in to get my point across?? I am just coming to terms that I have to deal with this for the rest of my life. I just want to feel some comfort, not be in pain everyday, sleep at night and go on about my day and do the stuff I enjoy doing. This is the first time I am talking about this. Let me be totally honest and say that when I see a women my age who have it put together and have a healthy body I get very gelous and ****** off.......WHY ME???????

I'm near your age, I'm 39. I have to really push myself to get anything done. I just blew up this morning because the dishes can't seem to get done by other people in my house! I just can't get anything done like I could before, and then I get mad that other people in my house can't do what my brain is thinking. I put all my energy into my work day and come home exhausted.

What have you been dx'd with? You're not taking any anti-seizure drug? Most of us on here are. It REALLY helps the pain. I'm on my second type (oxcarbazepine) because Gabapentin made me too stupid, but most people are on the Gaba. I just made an appt to go see the pain doc to deal with breakthrough pain. I normally smoke pot when I have to deal with that, but I need something for work or when I don't have my MMJ (I'm in CA where I have a prescrip for it). My current dx is idiopathic small fiber neuropathy.

When I go to the doc I bring a letter detailing all my issues and symptoms. It's so much easier than explaining it all. I'd get emotional or forgetful in the appt if I didn't do that. The docs really appreciate it. If you don't have insurance, ask about getting a cash discount. I had a GP offer me $40 cash appts in the past when I didn't have insurance. We also have a clinic in town that one can get discounted appts, but it's funded super well, not everybody has this option.

MrsD will tell you to take B12 after you find out your levels. This has helped me a ton and has taken away a lot of pain. It took about a month for me to feel it.

Also, I'm on antidepressants. Pain causes depression. You have to work on the pain before you can work on your head.

I try to keep stuff in the freezer for quick and easy meals, so go to Trader Joes and get stuff there, they have decent quick meals that the kids will like too. When you can do something like cook, make a lot of it and have leftovers.

How old are the kids? Do you have a partner to help? Do you have family around? Can you hire somebody to help around the house? (and don't feel bad if you say no, I can't afford that either, have no family around, and a lazy partner).

Thank you for responding. THey say its PN. I am on State Ins. Here in Il. its called Public Aid and not one specialist will take it. Everyone tells me my pain is not being controlled and I need a pain management Doctor. I have not worked in 10 months. THe pain got bad and I left my job. The pain takes my breath away sometimes. I have a fiance, 13 year old boy and 7 year old stepdaughter. I Have always been a great homemaker, I cook all my meals from scratch ( Its an Italian thing) my kids dont do chores, I do everything. Ive always prided myself that I could do all these things well. I feel LAZY if I have to ask for help. Do you think I need a different Doctor that has more compassion?

Your 13 yo should be doing a lot of stuff by now, and should be able to even cook simple meals (and it's the best way to teach him to take care of himself later on). The 7 yo can do things like take out the trash and unload the dishes. Getting them to do it is a different matter! I fight with my 10 yo all the time trying to get her to do stuff.

It's hard to ask for help, but you have to do it. I get that you make all your meals by scratch, I usually do to (I even garden and can food), but it's so hard to do things like hold a knife sometimes that I just can't sometimes. Just getting somebody to cut things up for me really helps. Getting somebody to take things out of the fridge and put them back even helps. I have to ask people to open jars and bottles now. I have to ask somebody to carry the heavy laundry basket back to the machine. I have to take much longer to get anything done, and I have to plan for it.

You just need a GOOD doctor. If I wasn't on my anti-seizure med, I wouldn't be able to work either. I work full time and my husband is a (lazy) SAHD. We'd be really messed up without my paycheck. I really worry about the future and how bad I'll get, and thankfully I've gotten better a little due to the right meds and supplements. Currently I'm just trying to deal with the breakthrough pain as the actual PN is getting worse. It started in my feet and is now in my hands and random other spots.

I know you've heard this before, but the best way to be a good mom is to take care of yourself first. You need to be on the right treatment plan. A pain management doc can prescribe the right meds for you, both pain relief and anti-seizure.

Thank you very much Chaos. THis was very helpful for me. THis is the first time Im talking about this and it feels so good to get it out. What does an anti-seiz med do for you? And what is the breakthrough pain? My Doc has not spoke of any of this. We just know that I can not take Norotin or Lyrica. My belly looks 9 months pregnant on it. Its very uncomfortable ontop of being in pain. I just want to get better. Im scared. But I will follow your suggestions. THank you very much.

As far as I know, and others who have more experience will chime in, it tells your nerves to shut up and stop acting haywire. It stops a lot (but not all) of the buzzing.

Neurotin is the same as Gabapentin. Lyrica is a gaba thing but I'm not educated in the differences. The one I'm on is Oxcarbazepine, which most people here are not on. I had a hard time with short term memory for a few weeks but got through it and now it's not a big side effect. I know there are other options.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pai...ations/PN00045

Mrs. D will give a better explanation.

Do you know why this is happening? There are a lot of things one can do to help if you know why. Like if you're prediabetic, cut out sugars. If you're B12 low, start taking it (take it anyway). If you're hypothyroid, get on that med. A lot of this can be found out via blood test, and your insurance should cover that.

The breakthrough pain is the pain that one feels even after the person takes their normal meds. So for me, my brother got married this past weekend and I was up until 1:30 babysitting their house after they left. Between being on my feet, probably a little of the wine, the heat, etc I was beyond sore on Sunday and almost in tears. This was new to me as I haven't had PN that long. It was like having a migraine, taking the meds, and then the migraine gets worse.

I had a back surgery in 2005. I have spinal stanosis. WHat is the buzzing from? I always called it vibrating. I see that you guys call it buzzing. When I try to explain it to friends they look at me like Im nutz! Ive also described it as bugs or bees buzzing around inside my legs. I feel so validated reading everyone that everyone here feels my symptoms. Because there were so many times I questioned if it was all in my head. I see my Doctor next week and will tell him about the B12 and anti-seiz med. I have had several blood text. The only thing that came back not normal was my sted rate. It was high. It shows inflamation in the body. Im having my second brain MRI on Monday morning, with the dye contrast this time. It should show something then?? Thank you very much for responding to all my questions, I cant tell you how grateful I am that you have taken time out of your day for me. So very nice of you. I hope you also find relief for your pain. I have not smoked weed in probably over 20 years. But I am willing to try it at night before bed. Kinda feels weird cause I would not want to find out my 13 year old is doing that. Do you keep it a secret from the kids? Or do you be honest and let them know about it?

Find out what your blood test levels are and post them on here, you'll be told what is really good or not, the American doctor's levels aren't high enough to really be good.

No, I don't hide it, but don't do it right in front of them. Hell, I'm near San Francisco, I have walked down the street after work when I worked in the city and smoked it right on the sidewalk. It's very socially acceptable, easy to get, quality stuff. I have a prescrip for it and all the docs say is to get a vaporizer. You can get/make butter so you can eat it. I smoke a little when I come home from work, go in and make dinner (if I have to), do the mom stuff, have more after the kid goes to bed or as needed. She knows it's medicine. She has to take her own medicine so she kind of understands that. But again, I'm in CA where it's more common to find somebody who smokes pot than tobacco.

I have a hard time taking opiates, I'm looking for an alternative for breakthrough pain, but so far this is the only thing I have found that works and doesn't make me sick to my stomach or my body addicted. A lot of people here take Tramodol, and that made me puke violently and dropped my body temp a couple degrees. Vicodin makes my stomach upset if I take enough to actually work. I took Percocet in the hospital and for 10 days after, only half of what the doc said to take, and my body was fully addicted and I had horrible withdrawal symptoms when I tried to not take it one day, it took 6 weeks to come off of it.

At first I kept describing the buzzing as me standing on pop rocks and soda. Now I get the pins and needles too. I think everybody is a little different. I was just telling my husband last night that I felt like I was shaking, but I wasn't really.

THis has all been so helpful, Thank you. I just want to feel better. I am getting married soon and will be on my soon to be husbands insurance. I think I will stop running into all the roadblocks then. My ins that I have now does not cover alot of medacines. They also will not cover a pain clinic. Im lucky Im able to get the MRI. I will be sure to let you know how that turns out. Once again thank you for your compassion today. Oh.....and I have someone getting me some weed. I dont think I will say anything to my son, it just feels weird.