Hi all:

I just had to start a new thread because I have written about what happened on my previous thread 'The Foot Center" but no one responded and I wanted to update you on what we have found that works. (In Alan's case), so it wouldn't hurt for anyone else to try, right.

Alan has had PN between his toes for over 15 years. He tried all the rubs, creams, fentanyl, vicodin, and sure they worked for a while. Dr. Theirl did his miracle thing, which helped Alan's whole body, but he still had the pain between the toes. Sometimes not so bad, but sometimes...Horrible.

Then he got the foot ulcer. That alone is horrible but combined with PN between his toes, well somedays his level of pain was a 10. Sometimes less, but there has really never been a day (except when he exercised at the gym, or went walking), that he could actually say "I have no pain". Now his feet are completely numb, and I know that doctors say "oh, he has pain, that is good, he still has feeling". Well, they aren't the people with the pain, right?"

So yesterday, we did an experiment. On the foot with the shoe boot, (the boot helps tremendously with the ulcer, so he can walk perfectly okay, because there is no friction with the ulcer), but the pain was still there between certain toes and on the inside and outside of his pinky toe.

This is his right foot. The one with the boot.

The left foot has no ulcer, he wears crocs or a regular shoe, and he has pain between his toes. HIs IVIG helped his balance and maybe a smidge of pain relief but when he would sit in his chair and watch tv, he would be shaking his foot so I know there was pain or buzzing.

So yesterday, we took cotton balls, 3 for each toe, to be exact. I took the 3 cotton balls, wedged them between each toe. Which spread out his toes. Exactly like the person who gives a gal a pedicure and puts that gadget on them. But the cotton balls add a level of padding, besides straightening out each toe. This was 10 a.m yesterday morning, right before he slept for the day (he had just finished his security guard shift). The true test of all these cotton balls would be what happened when he woke up, right?? Would the pain return when he shifted position??

Well, this is absolutely astounding. And this might only apply to Alan, but it worked. From 10 a.m. yesterday morning, (right now it's 10 a.m.). That's a 24 hour span.

I just asked him to specifically described his pain level before and now, after using the cotton balls between the toes.

This is what he just told me.

Left foot (it had been getting a wee better since the IVIG but some days he would have some pain, very rarely he would have no pain.

Well, since we have done the cotton ball thing, His left foot now has no pain. He is sitting watching tv, not shaking his foot, he has the cotton balls between each toe.

The right foot (the one with the shoe boot thing on it, and the one with the pinky toe problem, as well as the other pn between his toes), well there is no pain at all.

So we are not talking one hour, two hours, three hours. We are talking a level of pain relief that he has never experienced before.

So in his opinion, these cotton balls de-compress the nerves (that he thinks have been compressed for 15 years), we are not sure why his feet are completely numb but according to him "who the heck cares, I am not in pain, do you know what it is like to not be in pain for a whole day??"

Now he can't return to the gym and exercise until the foot ulcer heals and he is cleared to go back by his doctors. But until then, he'll wear the boot, and when he goes back to the podiatrist, hopefully they will do the one hour of regular shoe wearing, (the regranex is doing nicely), I don't think the ulcer is fully healed but it never looked so good, it looks clean, there is only a small little hole and usually it would bleed, get black, etc. I see none of that. It's a slow process, this healing of the ulcer, but at least Alan's pain level is diminishing.

I mean, to go from an 8 to a zero. Well, I think that is something to share information about, don't you.

Oh, Alan also wanted to share with you what he has used from Harriet Carter.
Here's what he purchased:
http://www.harrietcarter.com/index.c...-3badd82e350c/

He has used it exactly once. After that one time (for 10 minutes), maybe he stretched some nerves, some ligaments, whatever he did, but his pain got less.

He can't wait to be free from the boot, no ulcer, to be able to sit there in the chair, put these things on his feet and do the toe exercises. He said these little toe flexers felt great.

Now I am not saying that this stuff will work for diabetic neuropathy or anyone else's neuropathy, but heck, if we found something after 15 years (and I could hit myself in the head for not thinking of the cotton ball thing between the toes), well I asked Alan, "how come none of your doctors ever suggested cotton balls between the toes, that your nerves might be squished together and maybe that's why you have the pain between certain toes"? He said "they don't know what causes neuropathy, they think either you are diabetic, it's your back, MS, an autoimmune, etc. Now we know that Alan has lots of autoimmune stuff going on because of what they found in his spinal fluid. So maybe the IVIG is taking care of that aspect.

But a simple stupid dollar item like stuffing cotton balls to spread out your toes, well, one can only wonder what might have happened if we did this years ago.

We are at the junction, of finding exactly how many cotton balls between which toes, but hey, right now, he's sitting, reading the paper and he's just fine.

This is a far cry from a guy who wanted to commit suicide a few years ago, let me tell you.

So if anyone cares to start stuffing cotton balls between your toes, hey, you might just have some relief. It's worth a shot.

Melody

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!!!