Patrick,

Are you strictly ketogenic or do you practice a more lax style, like a cyclic ketogenic diet.

I'm going to be taking my diet to a more restricted level. I even bought a keytone breath meter from ketonix.

Yes, even my cardiologist thinks its the best diet out there. Although, he says probably the hardest to stay on long term. I found a relief in pain on it is all I know. Every now and then you will have to cheat to keep form going insane. in my case, when i do I get a wake up call to remind me what sugar/starches/etc do to increase neuropathy pain.

i always wonder how some people gain weight while suffering from neuropathy. My neurologist says I am actually in the minority. In my case i can't gain a pound because my body will not allow me to put garbage (processed, sugars, starches, wheat) into it without responding with neuro pain.

I still find Dairy can be a trigger and hope to eliminate that at some point. If I do give up milk though I will have very few options left though.

I basically don't eat anything that will put my Blood Sugar above 130-140 at its highest. Not sure what "cyclic" is but I do not eat sugar, wheat or potatoes. I eat lean meats, cream, green vegetables, etc. Anything that is extremely low on the Glycemic Index.

I do go through cheating periods of course to keep my sanity. Of course, my body eventually will rebel and send the message to stop.

Its what works for me, everyone is different of course.

LM pinkerton, to piggy back on your doubling comment the reason I didn't go up in dosage whe the effectiveness waned was because I knew that the dosage I was at was my functional limit. Anything more I would have to turn in my keys.

It may come to that at some point. I wasn't ready then and then when I discovered that smart had and "a" not a "u", well I had to try a different path.

I've navigated as a vegan for almost two years, which if I think about long enough seems preposterous. But I'm really willing to try anything that is not too absurd too deal with the symptoms.

I've never had the urge to bungie jump or sky dive, but if a scientific study or enough compelling anecdotal evidence was presented that showed they gave temporary relief, strap me in I'm going for a ride!

Lyrica praise- I think it is the reason I limped around like a gun shot victim from Wayne Westerns when I had shingles instead of you know, like a real gun shot victim. It's the only thing I can imagine.

It was hard adjusting to what my pn really was right after coming off Lyrica, though I also came to feel that dampening of my nerves worked against me as I just pushed that extra bit further than I should have.

End of addendum to my Lyrica experience for now,

Jon

onebeed - If Lyrica is not giving you negative side effects then I would suggest sticking with it a little bit longer - even Lyrica's website said "some patients saw relief within as little as a week" so in other words this was a FAST amount of time for the medication to really begin working. I am kind of in the same situation where I haven't seen really any positives or negatives YET but I will stick with it for at least two weeks before really deciding. I have felt a little dizzy/mentally sluggish but not too bad. Also what dosage are you on?

I've heard that some of these meds can take 6 or 8 weeks to get up to full effectiveness. So I would think at least a couple and maybe more would be needed to really evaluate the effectiveness. That's difficult when in great pain.

When I started it several years ago my doc told me NOT to drive for a minimum of two weeks and three was better, and I complied. I was very dizzy and felt kind of trippy but it wore off. My doc said since I could no longer take neurontin, I did not have many options left and even though the side effects were bothersome, they went away.

My relief was within a few days. I have gone off it a couple times due to side effects but, I always end up going back on for the relief it gives me from neuropathy and seizures. I would strongly suggest staying on the lowest dose you can tolerate, especially because it is not an easy drug to get off of.

I have been on it for something like 7-9 yrs.

I wish you the best.

I have been on Lyrica for nearly 1 year now. I have found very good relief with it, I have not had any bad side effects so far. The drug seemed to kick in more or less straight away.:)

Sweet, I'm so glad for you. What's your dosage if I may ask?

Hi Icelander,

I take 50mg am and 50mg pm. I started off at 25mg, I got relief even at that dosage. I got no relief with Gabapentin (neurotin). I am also taking 20mg of amitriptyline which has also worked very well.

:)