"New guy" to board
 

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this board but I have posted on the Neuropathy Association and Braintalk boards in the past. I'm 59 and have had PN for almost 20 years. It progressed very slowly but I have had almost unbearable foot pain for several years now. I take Lyrica, Oxycontin and Wellbutrin (to mitigate the side effects of the Lyrica). I also deal with many ther related issues. I do have a question tonight. The last month or so my skin has started to hurt. Is this another side of the PN package?
Good luck and pain relief to all,
Tom

Make that plainer
 

Bart,
I'm not sure I understand what you mean about your skin hurting. Does it hurt all over, just your skin on your feet, or what? See if you can explain it more.

Billye

Billye,
Sorry to be so slow communicating. The best I can describe it as is a feeling similar to when you have the flu and your skin just seems to "hurt" or be painful to any light touch. This doesn't happen all of the time - it comes and goes.
Tom

Hate to be so dense
 

But is the pain on the skin in your feet only, or is it just legs or is it an all over feeling? Is it just one side or is it both sides? We really must have a little more in the way of description. I'm sorry I'm pushing for more, but it's hard to make a guess or even to know what to say to you with no more info than we have.

Billye

Tom,

Welcome to this board. I hope we can help, and you us.

There is a process where nerve activity inhibits nerve activity in adjacent nerves. That phenomenon is called "lateral inhibition" ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...bition&spell=1 ). In PN, as skin receptors go numb, they fail to inhibit adjacent skin receptors. That has the effect of making the functioning receptors hypersensitive. It can get excruciating, where even the touch of a sheet on the skin is hard to tolerate.

Three things helped end that horrible period of my PN. First was exercise. I just ignored the pain and started walking and doing yoga. That has the effect of increasing blood flow and thus improving nerve function. It also forces the nerves to fire in a more or less normal fashion, which helps them function and heal. I want to be clear on one thing. Normally, one should listen to their body and not exercise "through" pain. That's not the case with PN. PN pain is a misleading degenerative symptom, not an injury symptom. I don't know how to differentiate between arthritis pain for example and PN pain. You'd have to make a judgment call for yourself with the help of a caring and knowledgeable physician. Even with an injury, there is some exercise that you can do. You cannot get or be healthy without daily exercise.

Another thing that helped was electric stimulation. I used and still use "The Rebuilder'" ( www.rebuildermedical.com), but the research is pretty good supporting the healing and pain reducing effects of other electric stimulators such as TENS or pulsed interference waves. One great thing about The Rebuilder is that the stimulation is applied in a water bath with Epsom salts as the electrolyte. Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate. Magnesium calms hyperactive nerves, and facilitates firing in sluggish nerves. Some is absorbed through the skin during the 1/2 hr. treatment session, to good effect. This provides the quickest relief for nerve pain I've found. I started sleeping through the nights about 2 weeks after starting 2/day treatments. I now use the Rebuilder about once a week as needed.

The third thing that helped was an attitude adjustment. I was chronically angry back then, ****** off at politics, drivers, rape of the environment, my son, my boss, etc., etc. It turns out that strong emotions make PN pain much worse for about three days. As I learned to let go of whatever was bothering me, get off judging everything negatively, and smell the roses, my PN improved.

I urge you to read the Stickies section above the thread listing. There is a lot of wisdom and hard-won knowledge there earned through years of suffering and experimentation and brainstorming.