[Alkymst]

Vicki and I took a trip to the neuro last Friday - first time I've ridden the train w/out being in tears most of the way from the cold pain so that was a plus. Dropped ~8# in 3months so that was a plus but when you are shedding from a 'pottamus physique it takes a while to make a dent. Neuro was pleased but still perplexed a bit and asked me if I did anything special to lose the weight -stopped eating M&M's peanuts - but now he's still not sure but then he's never seen me and M&M's peanuts either. B12 was up from ~400 in January to 700+ now - well below many people's values I know but positive for me nonetheless - the reading is accurate since I stopped the MeB12 (2mg)/day 5 days before the blood work.

Reviewed meds and was happy that I'm finally off Lyrica - did nothing for me (same is true for neurontin, tegretol, fentanyl patches, vicodin, and phentoin) but trying to back off Lyrica was a bit testy - took me almost 4 weeks as I made up my own schedule but it worked out fine. New "old meds" now are tramadol and nortrypt (started 3 mos ago) but a statin may be added too. The neuro and my cardio both know the side affects relative to PN, as do I but w/ my cardiac history this is a clear risk vs benefit call for me even though we eat a lot of cold water fish and include fish oil in our diet. Niacin is out - tried years ago w/ really bad results.

Now if I can just get the bioequivalence for fingers of gentleman Jack Daniels = to mg of tramadol worked out I'll be set - that was the only thing that occassionally touched the cold pain but my previously faithful "court of last resort" may soon succumb to the fickleness of PN; where I used to have constant unrelenting cold toes and feet this has been replaced by burning and cold simultaneously - this is new for me - seems that the small fibers are somewhat screwed up. Didn't think that the tendon and muscle shortening could be more unpleasant but this "temperature" combo is quite impressive to me - long days w/ non-existent nights - back to the bioequivalence study.

Still, all in all, small, but positive news.
alkymst