Osteoarthritis pain as well as neuropathy in my feet.

I empathize with you all as I also fall into all these categories. Out of the blue I woke up one morning and my feet were numb and tingling. I’ll never forget that day. June 12, 1012.
I probably chased a cure for 5 years at least. Traveling out of state, sought what I thought were the “best” doctors.
Only to be told there was nothing they could do for me and it would just get worse over time.
I have tried everything and there was’t anything that took it away. My opinion is pain meds just make everything else worse. So I quit that.
Best thing I can say is find something besides sitting that takes your mind off it, best you can. Move around. Force yourself to be social with people without complaining to them (because people hate that). Join a pain coping group. Go to your house of worship and get support.
Lots of good suggestion that are posted on this page. Best of luck to all of us that suffer…..

First thing get off Gapabentin It will do away with a lot of your problems. You will need wean off them, hopefully with a different drug. I take Lycra. It is the other often used drug for neuropathy

The only thing I can add to this discussion is my own personal journey, and maybe there will be some clues that help others.

I'm in my 30s, and was active (plant nursery worker, retail, nanny) for all of my 20s. 2 years ago, I got a 100% remote desk job. My numbness in my feet and hands (onset by my first COVID infection, Fed. 2020) got progressively worse, and then the pain started. In 2022, I was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy. I've already been on celecoxib for my Lyme's joint inflammation since 2018, but I had shingles last Nov. (2024) and was prescribed gabapentin for the first time. My foot pain went away! Oh wow, I was so grateful.

The only issue is: for me, the side effects of gabapentin were intolerable. I'm a writer and I lost my mental sharpness. The night sweats, lack of REM sleep, and mood instability drove me nuts as well. So I went off of it and the nerve pain in my feet came back. Then, while researching at-home treatments for my chronic bloating issues, I came across the idea of "hourglass syndrome" where if for years, like me, you've sucked in your upper stomach (because of the stupid societal pressure to have a flat stomach) leading to torso weakness, muscle atrophy and more of the lower abdominals, etc. Apparently there's a cascade effect that happens when you do this long enough! Muscle, ligaments, GI system, etc.

So I googled the appropriate physical therapy PDF exercises and did them every day for a couple of weeks. Guess what happened? My peripheral neuropathy/nerve pain in my feet went from a 6-8 out of 10, to a daily maybe 1-4!

All I can figure is that some nerves of mine (especially at the hip and sacrum) have been chronically pinched from my desk job, and the nerves became damaged/weak from all the infections too, so that doing these PT exercises "flossed" the nerves, bringing back blood flow, and, for lack of better word life to my nervous system!

I still use CBD/G/N gummies occasionally now, and I'm still on my Celebrex 1x daily for my joint inflammation from Lyme's (different system), but when I step on the ground anymore, I don't wince from the broken glass stabbing--because it's just not there anymore! For those who made it to the bottom of this: consider, with your doc, if maybe some of the nerves issues can be soothed through mechanical (exercises) vs. chemical (meds) means! Who knows.

You are the first person I have come across who has peripheral neuropathy as well. Actually my diagnosis is poly peripheral neuropathy. Initially I thought as I imagine you did too that just the feet and hands were the problem. I use Lyrica which works fine. I refuse to use gabapentin as my 2nd husband died from a complication of it. Then both of my arms and both my legs failed leaving me on the floor for 18 hours. When the feeling came back I called for help. This was a whole new animal. I don’t know when it can happen again. Sometimes it’s only one arm or one leg. On January 22nd all four limbs failed. Again. This time the feeling came right back. I have a very green but wonderful DO for a primary care doc who just doesn’t get the seriousness of my situation and is dragging her feet on a neurology consult. Does this happen to anyone else. I feel quite alone in his situation.

I'm so sorry to hear about your second husband and everything you've been going through. That sounds incredibly difficult and scary. I haven’t experienced losing feeling in my limbs like that, but I can understand why you're feeling alone in this. I really hope you're able to get that neurology consult soon—waiting when something feels urgent is so frustrating. You're not alone, and I'm wishing you the best.

My wife and I are very lucky, our daughter and her family only live 1/4 mile from our place, and our son and his family are about 50 miles north of us. Growing up, my grandparents lived 1200 and 2000 miles from us, so we rarely got to see them.
I tried taking magnesium to see if it did anything for the pain, but it didn't make a difference, so I stopped taking it a couple of years ago. I've been taking a couple of probiotics for several years, but unfortunately, I'm lactose intolerant, again. This means that I can't eat anything containing milk, butter, or whey anymore, which really restricts what I can still eat.
I have looked into the stem cell therapy, and even if we could afford it, there's no guarantee that it'll help. I just want the pain to stop.
I have developed a very high tolerance to pain over the course of my life as well, and I do whatever I can to just ignore it and/or deal with it every day. Other people, even your own family members, can't fathom how much dealing with chronic, never ending pain every day, of every week, of every year feels. It affects EVERYTHING in your daily life, and it wears you down, both physically and mentally. It's no wonder I'm on 2 anti-depressants.
I deal with the pain by listening to music for several hours a day, every day. I'm also heavily tattooed, and have been getting work done for 25+years. I've got close to 200 hours of getting tattooed on my arms, my back, and my chest, which has definitely helped me control my reaction to pain.

I'm so sorry to hear about your second husband and everything you've been going through. That sounds incredibly difficult and scary. I haven’t experienced losing feeling in my limbs like that, but I can understand why you're feeling alone in this. I really hope you're able to get that neurology consult soon—waiting when something feels urgent is so frustrating. You're not alone, and I'm wishing you the best.

You are the first person I have come across who has peripheral neuropathy as well. Actually my diagnosis is poly peripheral neuropathy. Initially I thought as I imagine you did too that just the feet and hands were the problem. I use Lyrica which works fine. I refuse to use gabapentin as my 2nd husband died from a complication of it. Then both of my arms and both my legs failed leaving me on the floor for 18 hours. When the feeling came back I called for help. This was a whole new animal. I don’t know when it can happen again. Sometimes it’s only one arm or one leg. On January 22nd all four limbs failed. Again. This time the feeling came right back. I have a very green but wonderful DO for a primary care doc who just doesn’t get the seriousness of my situation and is dragging her feet on a neurology consult. Does this happen to anyone else. I feel quite alone in his situation.