Living with Neuropathy - Welcome to the group

Supplements are fine in general, but the advantage with the yogurt is that you get trillions of the relevant bacteria vs. perhaps a few hundred million. It's a more economical (and super tasty) way to get your gut microbiome in shape.

Lee, so the basic difference is you use the supplements to add to your home made yogurt; I’ve never been overly fond of yogurt so I’ll skip all the extra work! I am now doing all the cooking at home that I care to do! 😒 😁 Helen

@johnbishop @LeeAase Thanks for the link, Lee. John, you are even more photogenic than I thought! Very impressive weight loss too. But you were still a pretty good looking man before the weight drop I must say. 😌 Best to you, Hank

@helennicola I'm with on that, girl!

Hey Jim, I think the same thoughts about my family, especially my husband and grandkids, when I can't take it anymore and want the suffering to be over. I'm such a cheerful, positive, warm person that I know it would devistate them. My grands are clueless about my illnesses and pain bc I 'm always so happy to see them and they put a huge smile on my face.

I find people are a great distraction from my pain.

Be well and thank you, Sunnyflower

I wonder how common that is for our afflictions? Seems pretty common. The unrelenting pain makes me fight for my sanity, too frequently. My heart sinks to hear that you feel this way too. 😥. Sunnyflower

Hello Laura, so great to have you here! They are using Gabapentin for pain now, in hospitals! No idea about doses, I 'm sure it's individualized.

I find it gaba dulls my pain or is it me perception of it? I can still always feel it's there. I have terrible side-effects that I hate ever since 100mg twice daily. Now only taking 800mg total; 200mg three times daily. Impaired coordination and balance, sometimes poor judgment,
problems with tracking, memory, getting words out, eye disturbances, etc. And I 'm taking a sub-therapeutic dose!

Laura, I worked in patient care for 20 years. I agree that you need a work-up by a GI doc. I believe in specialty medicine!!!

I wish you the very, very best in every way! I will be praying that you will be accurately diagnosed and that there is a non-toxic, non-invasive treatment for you. Many blessings, Sunnyflower. 😊🙏

@david33. Hi Laura, I can't recall if I welcomed you to the group so forgive if this is a repeat. Welcome to the group!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know you will find a lot of support and caring here as have I. Also a lot of great info!!!! My hope for you are that you find the encouragement and help that you need here. May God richly bless you and give you His comfort and peace through Christ that surpasses all human understanding, Philippians 4:7, which is what gets me though. Warmest regards, Sunnyflower

@johnbishop HI John, so I may have just learned that unless I had included your Mayo name @johnbiship, somewhere in my message, that you would not have gotten my zillions of messages I've sent you over time. I may be misunderstanding but will find out sometime soon when I asked about that in response to what someone told me. I may have misunderstood them. Yikes. Well, congrats on your weight loss and you gave me a chuckle saying your weight chart looks lilke a bad EKG! I can relate! Keep up the good work! Fondly, Sunnyflower

@johnbishop John, thanks for the information and your incredible journey in getting healthier through diet and exercise. Congratulations on your weight loss! I can appreciate how much more difficult It is to achieve with neuropathy. I have believed for over 10 years that our immune system is mostly in a healthy gut containing good flora. A good probiotic supplement will have many different strains of bacteria and contain a huge total count of all the strains. The more different strains and the more total population of bacteria, the better the supplement will be. I did check my probiotic supplement and it does contain the strain of bacteria you mentioned.
Yogurt is another good source of good bacteria. And making your own is even better. The store bought variety contains too much sugar for me. I don’t agree with the current artificial sweeteners like sucralose. I prefer plain. I made my own greek yogurt even before it became popular in the stores. It was a lot of work but delicious fresh. I made it regularly using organic milk. Even my daughter liked it. For those who follow a vegetarian diet without milk and eggs, tempeh is another probiotic food.
Thank you so much for sharing! The information and links will make interesting reading. I always believed in having good health through diet and exercise. I followed it before my AVM and would like to continue with as much as I can. Weight loss is a new challenge for me because of my heat tolerance and muscle weakness. Doctors were puzzled as to why I survived my AVM......diet and exercise says it all! John, good to see you are following your goals for a healthier you. Small steps make big strides. You will get there for a more enjoyable life. Stay safe my friend. Wish you well, Toni