@njed Ed– If you need more evidence of a possible genetic tie-in: my brother, Bill, who died five years ago. Bill was my only sibling and 14 years older than me. Bill had horrendous difficulty walking, especially in the last decade of his life. My sister-in-law tells me Bill's doctors would use the word "neuropathy," but my brother––who was "all man" in the most self-defeating sense of that phrase––refused to pursue a more nuanced diagnosis. "Naw, I just got bum feet," he'd say. So who knows? When I read your post, I thought immediately of my brother. Others in my family. even in my extended family? I can't be sure. My mother's side of the family––they all died of this or that or some other thing. I can't recall any with PN-like symptoms. I never knew many on my father's side of the family. They were all withdrawn from the planet before I was born, all withdrawn––according to family legend––by demon rum. –Ray