Thanks for the comments. My story of still being able to walk, and walk fast, is a continuation of a commitment I made 25 years ago when I began walking 5 miles every morning to develop better conditioning. At that time, I had some low-level osteoarthritis and a little belly fat. I was averaging about 12-13 minutes per mile walking in the Hill Country of Texas. The OA progressed over the years since then, causing me to reduce my distance to 4 miles, then 3 miles and walking slower at my new home in the flatlands of central FL. At the same time, my PN, which started as only my toes and forefoot, progressed further and further up my leg, only recently reaching my knees. My EMG's and nerve conduction studies have all demonstrated significant deficiencies. In the last 1-2 years, the PN has reached the top of both knees, while at the same time, the OA has gotten bad enough to cause low-level pain even while relatively idle. I have found that my conditioning probably made the difference in being ambulatory vs rather sedentary. I have my ups and downs with the OA causing drastic changes in my walking speed, but the downs seem to be of short duration with a gradual decline as I age. Now, the reason I walk as fast as I do is to allow the gyroscopic effect to assist me in staying stable while walking. Walking slow doesn't provide enough forward momentum to remain stable - just as if I were standing, which is also unstable. The only issue with walking fast is that if my OA suddenly causes a pain in the hip, knee, or ankle, I can hit the ground with a good bit of force. And, that has happened on occasion recently. So far, no broken bones, just torn up skin and bleeding. I still have reasonable conditioning to allow me to walk safely if I pay attention the surface conditions that I walk on. I'll continue to walk daily as long as the PN and OA allow - it's a part of my life now, and I rather enjoy being out in the early morning, walking as the sun rises.

Good luck with your battle with PN.

Ray