@tpea, Welcome to Connect. As you noted, this forum is committed to sharing experiences in order to help ourselves with the feedback or help others who are looking for possible answers to their neuropathy issues. Let me see where I can start as that post you referenced may be a little dated. As mentors, we are also patients and experience periods of condition and symptom changes that then require medication and treatment changes.

So....as of today, at my annual Medicare appointment with my PCP, here is what is working or not working for me. I have about 7 years of neuropathy "experience" as that was when the skin biopsy test returned a diagnosis of SFN (small fiber neuropathy). My symptoms have included fire in my legs at 5 a.m. for about six months, abdomen pain and burning for another six months, numbness and tingling in my hands and head, numbness and freezing cold feet, plus added realities pre and post-orthopedic surgeries, e.g. neck fusions, TKR's both knees, hand and thumb fixes on both sides, and some other evidence of aging that needed attention.

My neuropathy symptoms have been pain, numbness, tingling, freezing, burning, and one of the worst......the neuropathic itch. I am not a fan of medications and have struggled for years to find treatments that really help. As of today, I will continue to control pain with medical cannabis. I only use tinctures and topicals. I do my own prescribing and evaluating of varieties of strains, dosage amounts and frequency. I began sleep aids with Nortriptyline (which was very helpful for sleep and depression) and tried Gabapentin. I have tapered down to 600 mg at night for my tingling hands. Now that the topicals are working well, I will taper off the last two pills in the next few months.

There is a "comes with" for neuropathy and that is anxiety. Anxiety about unanswered questions, unheard-of symptoms, and fear created more pain which created more anxiety, etc. I exchanged the nighttime Nortriptyline for morning Duloxetine. The starting dose three years ago was 30 mg. I now take 120 mg every morning and my day begins well as long as I remember my anti-neuropathic itch topicals and OTC anti-itch medication.

I hope that is not confusing. And I forgot to include a two year journey with compounded lidocaine topicals that my neurologist continuted to modify as needed. When I found both an acute and chronic pain topical cannabis option, I let go of the lidocaine.

Exercise and activity commitments were next and let me just say that Mindfulness is a practice worth learning. Focused meditation can also help. I do Yoga stretches every day and try to walk a couple of miles several days a week. I started at 3-4 miles and am now at 1-2. That's o.k. because I have added balance and stability exercises to prevent falls.

That's about it at this point. It is also very important to remain active....hobbies, volunteering, game playing, pets, family visits, and outings, and most important consistently....MFR (myofascial release therapy). I have two sessions a week to keep the fascia from becoming so restricted that any movement is painful.

So there you go. And just know that it is folks like you who create value in my life. I enjoy meeting other members like you on Connect and helping if I can. So....let me know how this sounds to you. What else would help at this point?

Where do you think you would like to begin?

May you be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Chris