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i am not sure if i am typing in the correct place here... but hello again if i am... sure i would like more info on the B-12... yes please... and yes i am a little overweight... uhhhhhhhh... i had lost like 50 lbs. last year... i have gained back a good 30... ( i quit smoking again ) ughhh ... and yes... type 1 ... that i am... poor control... i hate doctors... sorry... and i was diagnosed w/ PN ... lets see 12 years ago... but it was mild and i had no symptoms... then 4 years ago they said it was moderate... with on of those little shock tests... now i just know it is way worse... and i am so crabby sometimes... i hate pills ... and i love food... toooooooooooooo much... and let's see what else... i dunno... how crazy am i??? i just try to ignore the pain... but it is getting to the point where i can't... especially at night... and sometimes if i am sitting with my leg bent... or even at the computer... my foot/feet turn slightly bluish... i can move around and make the color come back... but that scares me... does that have to do with vasculitis??? i spelled that wrong... but the foot doc said i had that... anyways yes... i need to get my blood work done... i keep putting it off... and the pain??? how long??? a couple years... but not like this... only my feet... not my legs... but i have decreased feeling in my legs too...

I have always wondered about the pre diabetic thing...even though my GP assures me that my on again off again burning is not attributed to my glucose level. I am at 108. I did the...drinki the sugar bomb thing, and my level returned to normal with the norm period of time. I still am not convinced that sugar isn't the culprit. i.e. alcohol. I think it is important for me to not cloud my symptoms with antagonists. I worked out two days in a row on my elliptical trainer....and...had a pint of haagen daz ice cream last night. I always wonder about my feet being traumatized by the peddles...the neuroma surgery thing being aggravated. Plus....sorry to go on....the Lyrica dosage...up and down...not knowing if it even is the magic pill. Sorry for the blah blah blah......

i forgot to answer... insulin... lantis 40 units once daily... and humalog (rainbow coverage) topamax... 100 mg daily... and gabapentin... 300 mg. 3 x daily...
here is a question... i was a heavy pot smoker (uhhh... just listen) ... and i quit for the most part about 2 or 3 years ago... someone recently told me that pot helps pain with PN... is this true???

there is no magic pill!!! wish there was!!!

Hi.

I just did a search on the internet and there is a lot of info on Pot and whether or not it helps with neuropathy pain. I am NOT going to tell you to go and smoke pot. I can't do that.

Oh, here's a link to the Methyl B-12 that I take every morning. But don't buy it if you are not going to do everything to control your blood sugar, it's like throwing your money away. You need to try and do all you can do.

Here's the link:

http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=117&at=0

I CAN tell you that my husband (who had such neuropathy pain, well just believe me, he had bad pain), well he went to see a pain management physician.

This was 7 years ago and he was prescribed the Fentanyl pain patch. it's a transdermal patch that is changed every 3 days. In his case, it was changed every 2 days. It stopped his pain cold.

But, (there are side effects). He never and I mean never went to the bathroom like a regular person, because opiates slow down the digestion system. It just does. No way around it. You need to take laxatives if you want to go like a regular person. So even with the laxatives, well, he maybe went once a week. Not a happy camper, but he was able to work and drive his car.

Until his feet became so numb that he could not feel the pedals. He is NOT a diabetic by the way. He has CIDP. it's an auto-immune thing going on in his body that affects his peripheral nerves and causes pain and numbness. So the Fentanyl pain patch took care of the pain.

When the physician prescribed it for him, my husband had to sign a contract with the physician stating that he was not a recreational drug user. Now I have no idea if such stuff is necessary today. This was 7 years ago.

He was able to go off the patch after 2 years because he found a specialist who treated his whole body and he was weaned off the patch. He takes nothing for the pain now. I give him massages, and we eat healthy, but again, HE'S NOT DIABETIC and you are, so the rules are completely different in your case.

Neuropathy is no walk in the park.

You must control your blood sugar levels. And find a pain management doctor (if you can), and ask him about the fentanyl patch. It does work (but again, there are side effects).

My husband (before the patch), tried the neurontin and lyrica and elavil and NOTHING HELPED HIM , and there were awful side effects in his case. Some people take neurontin with absolutely no problems.

But we are human beings and no two humans are the same. So what affects one will not affect another.

From what i'm reading, you haven't really been able to get your sugar under that good of a control, right?

It's tough I know, but try and do it.

And do see a pain management specialist.

Do you drive? Can you feel your feet?

Melody

Hi. I can really relate to the foot pain. That was my first sx five years ago.

I agree that you are on a very low dose of Neurontin. My neuro who is an MS specialist and neuroimmunologist told me that the dose I was on at the time (900 mg also) was extremely low. I am now on 1600 mg. She wants me to increase it, but I am a bit reluctant.

I don't remember if you said your neuro was willing to work with you with pain meds or not. If not, find another neuro or a pain management doctor. No one needs to suffer. It may take a while to get your pain under control.

Good luck.

Shalynn

I just registered because I wanted to reply to your post. I've not been tested for diabetes yet, but have an appointment soon to get that done. I've suffered with burning feet for more than 10 years, but no doctor has suggested that I get a glucose test. After researching the internet, I decided for myself that is what I need.

I also have never heard about taking B12 for this.

I've had 3 back surgeries this year. All my doctors wanted to be sure that the burning feet were not coming from my back before figuring out my problem with the burning feet. The 3rd back surgery seemed to finally fix my back, since my original surgeon impinged my L5 nerve during the first fusion surgery! He attempted to release it 3 weeks later, but after 6 months after that; we found he didn't release that nerve. Therefore the 3rd surgery by a DIFFERENT surgeon!

After that surgery my back felt better so I reduced my pain meds substantially. That's when I realized my feet were burning so bad that I could not sleep at night.....Not just one or two night, but every night I'm up with my burning feet, even with the pain meds I'm still on for my back surgery.

It's pretty back when you have a high sugar level of 108 or 110, and my M.D. didn't even know that I should be checked using the oral 2 hour glucose test to be sure I do not have diabetes. Like I said, I see him on Friday, so I supposed I'll have to go to a lab for this test. I will get that done as soon as possible, because I'm about ready to buy a gun! I'm kidding, but every night I tell God to take me now...I've suffered with back pain and burning feet for so many years, I just can't take it any longer.

I'm 62, but physically, I'm acting like I'm in my 80's already. This burning feet situation affects my social life too, and therefore also affects my husband's social life. He likes to go fairly often to a club we belong to. Me, I am so tired all of the time, and most of my problems start bothering me more just about the time to leave to go to the club. I'm going to tell him today to go ahead without me, fine someone else to marry, and I'll go this alone.

When you tell people you have burning feet, they don't think that can be so bad... It's hard to explain just how much it affects my being able to sleep and being able to enjoy anything....but it does!

I was sent to a foot & ankle doctor yesterday. My pain management doctor wanted them to do a small fiber neuropathy ankle puncture test on me. The trip was wasted. The foot and ankle guy says, I don't do those tests. If you want that, you need to go to a neurologist who loves doing those tests. I don't do them because if you have a small fiber neuropathy, there is nothing that can be done for that. I found on the internet that he is not necessarily correct about that. That's when I decided to call my M.D. so that he can send me for a glucose test. I feel he should have sent me for a glucost test himself years ago! I've had borderline sugar levels forever and I've had burning feet forever.... You would think he would have wanted the oral glucose test to figure out my burning feet. Instead, with no tests to prove anything, he told me I had a Peripheral Neuropathy! Now that I've had the nerve study done twice, they found no Peripheral Neuropathy!

That's why I've been up since 3:00 a.m. this morning, surfing the internet trying to find answers to my problems.

If any of you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thank you.

Carol

Carol.

You wrote:

"t's pretty back when you have a high sugar level of 108 or 110,"

Those are NOT high sugar levels. Much higher numbers are HIGH sugar levels.

Not that we are supposed to be 108 when we wake up in the morning. But you ask any doctor and if a person IS a diabetic, and his sugar is 108 when he wakes up, well, IT'S NOT A HIGH READING.

BUT!! and here's a but. If you are NOT diabetic and you test your sugar in the morning and it's ALWAYS over 105, and then you test at night after you eat a meal (called a post prandial reading), then you get a better idea if you are a diabetic.

You need the glucose tolerance test (the big one), to determine if you are a diabetic.

You just might be pre-diabetic.

As for the burning, yeah, that's the small fibers. It's a pain like no other.

Like I indicated, the B-12 for me (the methyl B-12), was a godsend.

Stopped my burning in it's tracks.

And don't even bother asking your doctor "should I take B-12, will it help?"

Doctors practice medicine, they DON'T practice nutrition or supplements.

Get a blood test and find out your B-12 level. It should be over 1000. Mine was last read at 2000. I take the 5000 tablet each and every morning, and I wouldn't be without it.

I told MY doctor, who happens to be a body builder, he smiled and said "Melody, keep taking your Methyl b-12 and keep eating your sprouts, and don't forget to give me a bag of your sprouts, (which I do every time I go to him (I go to my husband's appointments and I give my doc his sprouts)

We have to change our lifestyle, COMPLETELY, if we want to nourish our body.

We can't smoke, we can't drink to excess, we HAVE TO STOP PUTTING PROCESSED FOODS INTO OUR BODY.

When we take control of what we put in our body, it's surprising that our bodies respond in a positive way.

It takes time. But it does happen.

Now we can't foresee accidents, and things that interrupt our lifestyle, but we certainly have control over what we buy, what we eat and how we treat our bodies.

I have learned QUITE A BIT from coming to these forums.

I took control over my life, my eating habits and I walk every day.

Best thing I did.

I'm 62 now, and I hope to live a lot longer than that.

21 years ago, I was in the emergency room, couldn't walk because of the arthritis in my knees, I weighed over 300 lbs, and I was diabetic and didn't know it. I NEVER PAID ATTENTION. I didn't WANT TO HEAR IT.

Took me years to get into a better lifestyle.

And sure, I still have arthritis, I get stiff, I can't sit for too long a period, but when it's 90 degrees outside, my body is happy. IT LOVES THE HEAT.

Maybe some day I can move to Vegas or Arizona.

But until then, I shall take my Methyl B-12, eat my sprouts (especially Broccoli sprouts), and do whatever I have to do so I don't inflame my body.

Just wanted to share.

Melody

A combo platter does work better than just one med. I too am on Lyrica, 300mgs in the morning, 150 at lunch, and 150 at bedtime. I also take 5mgs of oxycodone 3 times a day. Together, I generally have my foot pain under control.

Firstly, even blood sugar readings that would not be considered in the range of frank diabetes, but would just be considered "impaired glucose tolerance", such as those in the range of around 100-125, have been associated with peripheral neuropathy, particularly those of the small fibers, which tends to be burning, lancating, and electrical in symptoms, and not necessarily the stereotypical "numb". There's been a lot of research coming out about this in the last few years; I keep a list of papaers and studies on this that includes:


http://intl.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/60/1/108

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...TRY=1&SRETRY=0

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q..._uids=16448668

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...07929/ABSTRACT

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...d_AbstractPlus

There are a lot more, but you get the idea.

Certainly, a long glucose tolerance test is called for; I have mine done for at least four hours with glucose and insulin levels taken at baseline and then every half-hour through at least three hours. Often, it's the pattern of ups and downs of the glucose and its interaction with the insulin response that's most revealing.

Second, neuropathy of the smaller, unmyelinated fibers that subsume the sensations of pain and temperature will not be ascertained by nerve conduction studies or EMG studies; the technology is insuffiicently advanced and those can (as of yet) only measure the activity of the larger, myelinated nerves that handle vibratory and mechanical touch, positional sense, and motor functions. It's perfectly possible to have absolutely normal NCV/EMG studies and have a severe small-fiber neuropathy with nasty symptoms (as I certainly have had).

You really need a neurologist who is versed in the many ways neuropathy can manifest; admittedly, they're not easy to find, and often work at teaching hospitals or specialty centers that have a major research function in addition to clinical practice.