Well, my neurologist, from the local medical university, claims that he's seen acupuncture work well for people with PN, but it usually has to be done at least weekly. I tried a half a dozen sessions, however, and didn't notice much effect.

On the other hand, I've been seeing the same massage therapist for four years and when I was in a two-week bad spell, he tried a technique called cranio-sacral therapy. It totally reversed my bad spell. I'm not sure yet if it'll continue to work -- I've had so many random results and false starts, I'm not sure which way is up -- but massage in general seems to help. At least I forget about things for a while.

My husband did find tempory relief with meditation. It seemed to quiet down is feet when he would meditate.

I took a 200 hour course on reflexology and used him to practice on. Brave soul. I was very gentle with him though and really modifed my approach. Areas that improved are the swelling, flexibility, pain and just an overall feeling of "decongestion" of the feet. It is not a cure and needs to be done at regular intervals. At first I did it weekly and now, when ever he requests. It can be two to four weeks between treatments. His feet do continue to heal at very slow pace. If he's on his feet for long period of time, reflexology really helps him.

The response is pretty quick for him. The downside, his feet are bit stimulated for about an hour after treatment...they kind of feel like there's a lot of energy buzzing around them. I do use therapeutic grade essential oils during the treatment and ususally finish the treatment with cooling peppermint.

Acupuncture has not seemed to help him though. He went x2/week for six months for other reasons and now down to 2x/month. The feet don't seem to be helped by the treatments. It could be that the doc's focus is on his other problem.

Marlene

I suffer from chemo induced (Taxol) peripheral neuropathy in my hands, feet, weakness in legs and hands as well. I have been to about 6 acupuncture treatments and have not seen much difference. I am thinking about trying reflexology. Anyone have a comment or experience with it for PN?

No comment on that, AE, but someone sent me this. Makes for interesting reading, doubtless it's been posted here before but just in case:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17355547