Yes, that is really possible. Nightshades and I do not get along well at all. I do miss the spice of life at times... but the aftermath is so horrible, I have incentive to refrain! ;)

I do take nightshade fruits and veggies well. I can usually put as much hot sauce on my food as I want. I eat a lot of tomatoes. I actually eat a ton of mexican food, at least a few times a week. So I think I'm good there. Thank you though for warning me.

Stop and think.... you eat tons of nightshades and have tons of pain? Could this be connected? You'll never know unless you stop the nightshades for at least 2 wks or more to see if your levels change. There has to be SOMETHING causing your pain...which you have so far not found. So whatever it is you need to be a detective to see if it is something simple, which can be avoided.

I did think about that over the winter. I grew my own tomatoes, and over the winter I didn't eat many at all. I ate mostly comfort food (soups I guess). I don't eat much potatoes, but yes I do have hot sauce often. My grocery trip yesterday included potatoes (because we're going to mash them with the turnips in the garden), peppers (because they were on sale for 33 cents each) and a tomato because the lettuce was on sale too and I'm going to make tostadas, oh and pizza because it's frozen and easy. Sigh.

I'll see what the MRI says. If negative I'll try the two week nightshade trial. But they're SO good. As long as I can keep cheese :)

There is a general rule in allergy/intolerance medicine...

People are often intolerant, and crave the very things they cannot
tolerate biologically. Doctors will use this rule when interviewing you to determine testing directions to take.

I do have some GI intolerance issues with nightshades...chili peppers especially. And green/red peppers. But the potatoes cause terrible burning in my feet, and no GI intolerance.
I don't eat eggplant very often. But I seem to have problems with
paprika at times too. If I avoid them all, my life is so much simpler, and comfortable.:rolleyes: I can tolerate a little tomato but not every day or large amounts. (one of those large Rachel Ray tomato salads would do me in).

I got the capsaicin and lidocaine. The capsaicin was helpful, but I didn't feel the burn AT ALL. The first night I put lidocaine on my wrist, then both lidocaine and capsaicin on the other wrist. Both helped enough that I wasn't sitting there miserable and was able to move on with the night. They still hurt, just not horribly. Last night I went ahead and put the capsaicin on the bottom of my feet. No burn. I know that there was peppery stuff in there because I got the smallest amount on my lip (don't know how) and I felt that. I felt my feet pulse, I know that blood was going down to them. I put socks on after a while to allow me to walk around. This morning when I woke up my feet were not totally freezing. I can still feel a little something around my toes, but it's not burning, just a little warmer than normal.

So yeah. This is good.

I think I'm going to keep the lidocaine and a couple gloves in my purse to use at work or when I'm out, so I don't have to worry about getting peppery stuff on anything. I can pop it on my wrists if they get sore at work. And then use the capsaicin when I'm at home. Does that sound logical?