The magnesium and B12 came a day earlier than expected. They have the score lines down the middle to show where to cut them, but I'm worried we shouldn't cut them. Some sources I've seen online say not all pills with score lines on them are safe to cut, and other sources also say that a lot of forms of magnesium aren't safe to cut. It's not a softgel, it's an oval tablet, and it does have the score line, but I'm just a little worried. They're also a little too big for my mom to take, still. So if we can't cut them, we might have to send them back and get a different kind...

The kind of magnesium we got was 'Doctor's Best, High Absorption Magnesium 100% Chelated'. It's 100mg per tablet, so I'm not worried about giving her too much. Especially when we planned on starting small, taking 1 every 12 hours. It's just...I'm unsure if we can cut them.

If anyone has any information on whether or not it'd be safe to cut these kinds of tablets specifically, I'd appreciate it.

Soulful: I just posted this in another thread and may have missed it. Gluten can cause a lot of negative issues.

The Connection Between Gluten and Neuropathy?

And an overload of sugar and refined carbs are not friends of neuropathy.

Hey SoulfulYin,

I've checked this product on the US and UK Amazon Website and it is safe to cut in half. Customers have complained about their size and several have posted that very question. They are not extended-release capsules or delayed-release/enteric coated tablets that can release all the contents at once if cut.

There is nothing to worry about cutting these tablets at all. You may safely do so.

Best Wishes,

Atty.

Thank you very much for your help, Atty.

My goodness, I really have no clue where I'd be without you guys to help. Mom will start taking the magnesium first thing tomorrow!

I take 250mg each day, without much an appreciable bowel effect--but it does help a lot with cramping and tingling, as I notice very quickly if I run out of them.

Another update for today, I finally gave mom her first pill of magnesium. I was really worried to give her any, because we didn't know if she was okay to take magnesium or not. But we started today.

Then an hour or so later her leg seemed to swell up, and I was worried I messed up or something. And then she wanted to eat a frozen pizza, and thought by eating a banana she could offset any problems that arose from it. I thought "maybe it's okay" before when she mentioned it, but when her leg started swelling I said absolutely not. So we had an argument about that, but she had a salad instead eventually. We didn't throw out the pizza, but I really don't think she should have it at all anyway, even though it's turned out she's not diabetic or even prediabetic, her doctor said I think.

And then I also remembered she probably shouldn't even eat too much of foods like bananas, because her lisinopril already causes high potassium. And we don't need more issues on top of everything else.

Today has been incredibly stressful, and both me and mom almost broke down completely, for reasons more than just above. But we're persevering. Or trying to, at least. We're running into financial problems, and trying to fix it by getting mom to go back to work, at least part-time, to make more money. 60% of her pay just isn't gonna cut it for even rent alone. I'm sure she can do it. Even if her memory problems are still here, they're probably not bad enough to make work anything more than a little more difficult than usual. Plus, it'd be good for her. To be able to take her mind off of things, talk to her old coworkers and just...get some semblance of her old life back, y'know? For the entire 2 months we've been going through this, it's just been me, and my mom. Sometimes a relative will stop by, and for almost 2 weeks my aunt came to help us. But other than that, it's just been us. Work will be good for her, I think. I've also heard an active mind can help recovery, too. Just like an active body can help speed up the recovery process.

On that topic, it really has come to my attention how much we've slacked on that front. Mom walked today, but that was it. And right after I promised myself I would get up in the mornings to help. But all morning has been stressful for mom. Shoot, all day really. Way into the night, she's been stressed or in tears. I wanted to wait a little before we exercised for her to be okay, but that time never came. We can't slack on exercise though, especially not now. We haven't even gone up the stairs since PT last came, which I think was Friday. We need to make going up and down stairs a normal thing for mom. That's really good exercise for her.

Doesn't help that she thinks she should just not exercise after PT is done. She made it seem like she didn't even need to exercise, that it wasn't necessary, after PT. But then tonight she used the walker for 6 mins of her 8-minute walk. I wish she would just see that it helps and go through with it sometimes. So much resistance when we both want the same thing for her.

If life wants us to fight for our lives back, then I guess that's what we gotta do. So fight we shall. We're striving for only good things from here on out!

I went browsing some more on this sight, and again comes Icehouse to the rescue with his personal experiences.

I saw he apparently had liver cirrhosis, and I'm starting to think maybe that's what my mom has. It'd explain the swelling, at least. But to hear that even cirrhosis can be managed, it fills me with that same hope for the future that I've been dreading for days now.

Either way, tomorrow morning (or technically today, since it's 3:30 AM almost ) marks a brand new day. Mom is going to try going back to work. Not on that day, but she's going to discuss her hours with her boss either that day or the next. Both her and I are a little worried her memory problems will make work difficult, but I'm at least a little confident that won't be permanent, at least as it is right now. I feel like it'll be some time before she's back to herself, but I also feel like the activities will help her a lot in that regard. I'm pretty certain I mentioned it in my previous post mere hours ago, but I have heard that an active mind can help with the recovery process. And as an...accountant? I don't know what kinda job mom has specifically, but she works with numbers a lot. Whatever job she has, I'm sure it'll help her get her mind back to being active again. And she'll be with her people. She'll have something to do other than just sitting at home and either being asleep or feeling miserable, y'know?

On the topic of her memory problems, I wonder if her doctor should have just gotten her a B complex supplement instead of just B1. She's been getting B1 and B12 (though I think only 100mg of B1, which I thiiiink isn't a lot?), but not B6 or any other B vitamin. But maybe she needs the other ones too, y'know? Either way, she has shown improvement. She's still forgetful, but now it's just down to reminding her of things and then she immediately remembers everything that comes with that little reminder, or her forgetting what day it is, which I'm mostly chalking up to her not really having anything to do most of the day. I know I forget what day it is, though not as frequently as mom does sometimes, and I kind of don't do anything outside of taking care of her right now. But even before that, I didn't really do much. I was a NEET before this-- technically still am, just my 'job' now is being an unpaid caretaker for my mom.

We're going to start walking more and exercising more, and I mean it this time. I know she doesn't want to, but it can only do good for her. Keeping both her mind and body active will do wonders. We're going to have some greens with some...turkey, I think it is? IDK what the meat is, but it's reddish on the inside and is like a big ol' drumstick. Anyways, we're having that for dinner later today, since it's technically morning right now. It's good for her supposedly, outside of the sodium from the meat. But I think if we just keep active, eat healthy and stay away from alcohol (almost 3 months sober so far for mum, she hasn't even thought about alcohol once since this whole thing started), in time all things will resolve themselves as I've seen Icehouse say in a few of his posts...wish us luck. I'll keep you guys updated as things happen, maybe if things go swell I'll be able to tell you when I get my first job after mom's recovered enough!

(5 AM edit) I am also considering getting mum a Doctor's Best Benfotiamine instead of using the doctor-prescribed thaimine my mom's been on for the past near 2 months now. I also don't even think my mom takes a lot of thiamine right now-- just 1 tablet a day, I think it's 50 or 100mg, even though she was an alcoholic of around 15 years. From what I've seen, that doesn't appear to be enough, but I also am worried about giving her too much. Any suggestions?

How bizarre is it that the BEST DAY so far was preceded by one of the worst?

Today was great. Mom was up ALL day, she didn't take any naps like she usually did, she was up and moving, she made dinner, but most importantly she was HAPPY.

She graduated PT. She was a little sad to see them go for the last time. Honestly thought about keeping in touch-- she's really enjoyed the company of both of her physical therapists when they came by. But when they came today, she walked up the stairs and went outside to the dumpster to handle some trash (which I usually do, so I'm definitely happy/grateful about it), then came back. And now we're planning to go outside to walk on a normal basis, at least 2 times a day after the stairs, starting tomorrow even. Or well, it would start tomorrow, but the weather says it's supposed to rain for the next few days. We'll settle for the stairs and walk in the living room with the patio shades open until then, at least.

Her doctor got her antidepressants, which is probably why she was in such a great mood today, and honestly? I'm so glad her doctor saw mom needed them. We got so much of our stuff done today. She's really looking forward to just going straight back to work full-time, even. And so am I, it'll be good for her. I don't think it'll be longer before I can trust her to take care of herself again so I can find my own job.

Her leg was much less swollen for most of the morning, but then it started going back up some again tonight. I forgot we had compression socks for her to wear-- probably for this exact reason. So we're going to start having her wear that, probably for maybe an hour at 2-3 times a day or less, and increase it if we need to while she exercises to see if it starts going down. I'm going to believe stalwartly that even the leg swelling will resolve itself as long as mom takes good care of her body through diet and exercise. This doesn't mean I'm going to ignore any new issues as they come up-- far be it from me to do something like that. If something happens, I'll do everything in my power to fix it, if I can't it's up to the doctors. I'm just going to try and stress less about the currently existing issues. Doesn't do anyone any favors. Unless I wanted to start growing gray hair before my 30's. Then I'd be doing myself a big favor.

I definitely feel like I haven't done a stellar job caring for mom, but at the end of the day I'm just happy she finally feels good. Like truly good. It makes the progress we've made feel so much better, so much more tangible. I'll get back to you guys as soon as mom finishes talking with her boss to see how her work hours will pan out!