Hi all

Well, I'm doing ok on this side. My burning skin pain has been almost gone the past week. I thought....yeehaah...this is it...no more pain....but alas....I can feel the skin burning is back, but not so bad as before.

The only thing I did different was to up my Elavil dosage from 25mg to 35mgs. Could this just be a temporary way of my body to adapt to the higher dosage? I still get vit b12 shots, take a good vit b complex '50' with 1000mg of folic acid and my 3 salmon oil capsules in the evening. Oh yes, I also take my probiotic in the morning. Other than the Elavil, nothing has changed.

I also wanted to ask if coffee ever made your neuropathic pain worse. I have no definite diagnosis from my neuro doc that this is neuropathic pain, but my specialist physician and my GP says it definitely is. Can't take Neurontin or any other SSRI or SSNRI as I get severe nerve pain from them. I think paxil started all of my burning skin pain, but I can't prove it. Just my gut feeling.

Any ideas?

Are you taking Jarrow's Methyl B-12 sublingual (I take 5000), under your tongue when you get up in the morning?

It should be taken on an empty stomach.

In MY case (and this applies to me), it was like someone turned off the burning faucet (if my feet were a faucet).

I rarely have burning any more. Maybe when the weather is nuts, or I have a really stressful something happening in my life.

But it made the difference between banging my head against the wall, and being able to have a somewhat normal day. Might not help the majority of people with Diabetic Neuropathy, but it really saved my sanity.

Just wanted to share.

P.S. Oh, I'm a coffee drinker (I go to Dunkin Donuts every morning). and two days ago, I became a DE-CAF PERSON. I only drink this in the morning.

No difference in the taste for me. And coffee had no impact on my neuropathy whatsoever.

But then again, I am not a COFFEE DRINKER like some of my friends are, they have pots of coffee going all day long. That's a lot of coffee and a lot of caffeine.

That's my one guilty pleasure. A nice cup of coffee in the morning. A bit of half and half, and one and a half splendas.

I hope I never have to give that up. I gave up every single one of my bad habits, bad eating, etc. etc.

Perhaps others (who are real coffee drinkers), will come on board and answer your coffee question????

Hi

I do take a sublingual B12 from Solal Technologies - Methylcobalamin 1000mg one a day. Solal and Solgar are the only ones who stock them in south africa. I cannot buy from iherb as they do not export/ship to south africa.

I read on an article and people in chronic pain things like coffee,sugar,caffeine,soda,artificial sweetners can increase pain. I have actually cut down on my amount but see no difference. For me without a little at least I can't go to the bathroom for sure and I get a head ache. I don't need any more pain so I just try to be moderate about it. It may be a fluke that with the higher dose or maybe it is not the right med now for you. I have been fine on lower doses and then increase a med and I have a hard time. Can you talk to your doc?

Elavil (amitriptyline) has been passed off as a harmless drug for many years. It was originally marketed as an antidepressant. I am not a fan of this drug. It is heavily metabolized by the liver and uses most enzyme pathways. Blood levels should be done on people taking this drug, and doctors will often blow this off. This drug used to be prescribed for pain along with SSRIs, especially zoloft (sertraline)...NOW this is considered a toxic combination.

There is data on the internet regarding the tricyclics. If it works for you, that is probably a good thing, as there is so little that works for many folks, however, it is not an innocuous drug. I doubt that upping your dose by 10mg would bring on additional burning, but if it isn't helping and it gets worse if you raise the dose, I would do some research on it and discuss it with your doctor.

BTW, it is a very cheap drug. Insurance companies seldom protest to this drug being prescribed.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2833464

Yes, when I stopped drinking coffee the burning in my feet stopped. I never drank that much to begin with..just one cup a day and pretty soon I was diluting that. But time and time again my Neurologist said to watch the caffeine. It was really by accident that I stopped it. I had a bad gastro bug for about a month and didn't drink anything with caffeine in it. Big, big difference!

So having said that...for the last two days I have some iced tea...no sugar since I drink it plain. And boy, I can tell it today...there is some "burning" going on. So...back to plain ole water it is.

Hi ejcronje, i found that that amitriptyline helped a lot with burning sensation, at one time i was on 150 mg of amitriptyline at night but the burning during the day was terrible, so my neuro told me to take 25 mg in the morning, it defiantly calmed down the burning.

Coffee can affect some, although it does not bother me, i think it is an individual thing but sugar is well known to affect pre and diabetic PNer's and even effects some idiopathic PNer's for some reason

Thiamine can help the burning, taking in divided dosages during the day.

Brian