I’m a 52yo male in really good shape and not a diabetic. I thought initially I had athletes foot, but ruled that out. My issue is ONLY at night in bed. It’s not a burning but more a tingling / numbness. It doesn’t “hurt” but holy shit I’m up all night with this. I’ve tried elevation. Heat. Compression socks. Nothing really helps. Lately I’ve started to sleep with my shoes on which is the only thing that really helps somewhat. I haven’t been to a doctor yet but that’s next on my list. Guess I’m just here to vent . What are the medical options for this? Are there medications? Some type of therapy?

Just numbness for me. No pain, but it impairs my sense of balance. I have a good neurologist, but it’s still worsening. It’s hell getting old, but better than the alternative.

Gabapentin

Some people have mistaken neuropathy for a bit of foot swelling. Some blood pressure medications have the "reverse edema" effect on them - their feet swell when sleeping rather than when standing. It can also happen without the medications.

Gabapentin works for some people, not for others. It modifies perception of pain and/or swelling. It is on the no-fly list for pilots due to the perception modification.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Gabapentin

Did not help me at all, so after consulting with the Doc, we discontinued it.

Yep, mornings are the worst. After I get up I have to take short walks to kind of limber up my feet. Then the rest of the day is not bad, just mild tingling.
I take Gabapentin, not sure how my feet would feel if I stopped taking it.
The farthest I can walk is about 20-30 minutes before my feet are on fire.
Make sure you ask your Doc or Podiatrist.
Getting old is fun!!

This is very prevalent with diabetes.
My wife hase Stage 4 Kidney disease and suffers greatly with Neuropathy
Bob

My wife has it. From RA induced adult onset scoliosis.

My wife has very painful neuropathy in her feet and lower legs.

After going through many systemic medicines, we tried topical capsicum… to her delight, it works!

Capsadyn
Non-Burning Capsaicin Cream 0.25%

It is applied every six hours to her feet and lower legs and relieves her pain.

I find mine is affected by temperature and circulation.

Wearing wool socks to bed, or wearing compression socks to bed helps.

I also use pneumatic compression sleeves that goes from my toes to my groin when I am sitting watching TV for half hour to an hour.

I find Voltaren gel 2.3 works best before turning in

Get a thorough exam by a neurologist who can look to see if there is an underlying disease. Had neuropathy I could ignore, then suddenly I had shooting up my arm. Went to the medical school and finally sent to a hematologist - oncologist who diagnosed me in 2 minutes. Have a rare blood cancer that is caused by Agent Orange exposure. 10 years later have neuropathy in may parts of body.

Multiple spinal fractures. All kinds of fun nerve stuff.

The best thing for me was real rehab.

Mine turned out to be diabetes

Yup, diabetes here, been dealing with neurapathy for over 15 years. started with just the tingling before advancing to the burning and numbness, then advanced to the red hot shooting pain. Doctor originally started me on Gabapentin until we maxed out the daily amount, Changed to Pregabalin/lyrica i'm currently on. Have an appt at the VA that I've been waiting on for close to a year. They are going to give me something called walkasins which you wear on your feet and it sends some kind of electrical stimulations. I've found that sleeping with short ankle length socks helps quite a bit.

Dad has it, bad, on gabapentin, they are adding Cymbalta, it's now been shown to help alleviate the pain, he was in for surgery and the Doctors there looked at it and just started him on it today.

Ask your doc about adding it if you have that much pain.

Anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen work. Another good trick is to soak feet in lukewarm to cool water along with elevating head of bed.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Dad has it, bad, on gabapentin, they are adding Cymbalta,

Neurologist wanted me to take Cymbalta, primary care doc said NO, because blood pressure.

My foot pain is due to Guillain Barré. I have tried rubbing with CBD cream (from downtownv).

I have no idea whether it actually helps, since the pain comes and goes on its own anyway, but we know for sure that the CBD doesn't do any harm.

I asked primary care Doc about it, he said try it; it might or might not help, but it won't do any harm.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Dad has it, bad, on gabapentin, they are adding Cymbalta,

Neurologist wanted me to take Cymbalta, primary care doc said NO, because blood pressure.

My dad is 88 and has HBP, takes medication for it, they are giving him the lowest dose 20mg I believe and that is from his Cardiologist giving the approval and he is to continue the Gabapentin as well....