Just found winoverpn and thank everyone for sharing. It is very encouraging to learn that we can live with this trauma. I have added today's date for benefit of others searching for recent PN stories.

Oct. 2002 was the start of my PN. At work in the local library, as I stood up from a stool, there was no bottom for my foot, just spongy air. You all know how that feels after reading so many PN stories.

Soon I saw a neurologist who treated me for nine months with PT, swimming, EMG, and monthly blood tests. From October till June I had several more attacks, left and right feet.

A severe attack in August sent me to Robert Wood Johnson teaching hospital here in NJ. Pain was terrific and I could no longer walk.

A bright young neurologist ordered a blood test and found proteins Cryogobulin and Monoclonal-gamma proteins in my blood. He is certain this is the cause of my PN, diagnosed at CIDP. He sent me to hospital and I had a seven day infusion of IVIGg. During that week, IVIGg strengthened my legs and I could WALK again and CLIMB STAIRS. Treatment was repeated with a two-day hospital stay. Again great improvement in strength.

Next he began IV infusions of Solumedrol. I had 13 of these and after each I could claim one more small part of each foot free from inflammation. I could at last bend my ankles. My last treatment was Jan 25, 2004.

I became very sick on Jan. 26 with what was eventually found to be Hepatitis, Non-A, Non-B, and Non-C. For ten weeks I had what I read in a PN story: "I could not stand long enough to brush my teeth." (thanks for sharing that!) Other hospital stays and many tests found liver, kidney and lung damage.

Medications have included Neurontin and aside from writing Hebrew Style (right to left), getting lost while driving in my own area and developing a tremor, this did no good for me and never touched the pain. My brain seems a bit in need of defrosting as memory lapses. I take Advil for pain in the evenings. Fingers have turned to butter and gravity has greatly increased around me.

A couple of things that have helped: sox advertised in Foot Smart which stretch freely in every direction; also from same place, a plastic and fabric brace for pronated arch, ($40.00) which tells me where my foot is; mineral Ice rubbed on when the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" strike (sunburn over numbness and electric shocks). Whey protein powder gives me sudden good energy.

Next Tuesday I will have surgery for a tumor on my kidney. The surgeon said that there is some evidence that toxins in kidney tumors may cause PN.

Prayer has given me strength and the knowledge that we are but reflective mirrors of the Glory of our Maker. That all of this could happen in fifteen months is amazing to me, since I have had zero medical history since childbearing in the 1960s. I am beginning to believe in a virus.

Best to All,

Sally --