Finally relief from peripheral foot neuropathy! (my story)

I have had peripheral foot neuropathy for a few years. At first it was just numbness and minor tingling. Then the tingling was so bad, it was like it hit me down to my very core. In December, I had a psychiatric hospitalization for bipolar mania. At that point, I was taken off a lot of the psychiatric meds I had been taking. I developed severe cramping in my feet following the hospitalization. I saw a neurologist who sent me for bloodwork and did an EMG. He found my iron was a bit low along with folic acid. I started taking iron supplements and folic acid. After the EMG, he diagnosed me with peripheral foot neuropathy and a pinched nerve in my neck and minor carpal tunnel syndrome. He came to the conclusion the neuropathy was idiopathic since I don't drink at all and I wasn't diabetic since my A1C was normal.

At that point he put me on gabapentin. I didn't really notice any difference. He add oxycarbazepine and I STILL didn't notice any difference. The foot cramping was especially bad when I lay in bed trying to fall asleep and made it difficult to sleep. I got discouraged I would ever find anything to help.

I tried a lot of different supplements people mention on this site. Still no improvement.

In late spring, I got severely depressed and the neuropathy was a huge part of it. I mean, I could see how people with neuropathy get so depressed they don't want to live anymore. I was at that point. My psychiatrist put me on Cymbalta 30 mg once daily for the depression. The Cymbalta started to help the depression quickly. After the first week, I started to notice maybe a minor improvement in the foot tingling. After a month to 5 weeks, the tingling was entirely gone. But I still had the cramping and that was just as bad as the tingling.

I recently had a round of mania. At which point my psychiatrist added Lamictal (lamotrigine) 200 mg twice a day to my psychiatric meds. Wow! Within 2 weeks the cramping was entirely gone.

I know the most of the literature out there says Lamictal only possibly helps with neuropathy and my neurologist wouldn't prescribe it for me; I got it from my psychiatrist as Lamictal is commonly used to treat bipolar disorder. Lamictal was incidently one of the medications the hospital had taken me off of in December, and that was exactly when the foot cramping began. My neurologist wouldn't prescribe it because of my mental health issues, but I got the picture he would have if I didn't have bipolar and panic disorder.

If you are at the end of your rope with foot neuropathy and your neurologist will prescripe Lamitical for you, it is worth trying. Better yet, if you go to a psychiatrist, see if he will prescribe it. Don't try it without being monitored by a professional doctor, of course.

I still do have the numbness with the neuropathy, but honestly, that is something I can cope with. The tingling and cramping not so much.

I realize this may not work for everyone, but I just wanted to share my story.