Weird few days: good and bad.

First the foot pain. Boy what a pain, no pun intended. I have neuropathy in both feet. No known cause according to the neurologist. Could this be tied in to the carpal tunnel I had? Could it be a B vitamin deficiency? All kinds of possibilities have popped up on a very good message board I found. The link goes straight to the PN (peripheral neuropathy) board. But please explore the entire message complex as there are forums there for everything and anything connected to the brain and nervous system and their disorders.

At any rate, last night was the worst I've ever experienced as far as symptoms go. Here's a very concise description I found at podiatry.org (I think it was) and a new symptom I've never had before was pain or aching in the muscles in different spots:

There may be a tingling sensation or numbness that starts in the toes and/or the balls of the feet and spreads upward. Occasionally the skin may become so sensitive that the slightest touch is agonizing.

At times the symptoms may be barely noticeable and at other times, especially at night, they may be almost unbearable.

...a burning or freezing pain; sharp, jabbing or electric pain; and an extreme sensitivity to touch.

Welcome to my bedtime hell. None of this starts until I've been in bed for about 20 minutes or so. And it just gets worse and worse until it literally drives me from my bed.

I did discover, quite by accident, that it seems that 600 mg of Ibuprofen seem to back off all the symptoms to the point that I can finally get to sleep. So I'm going to begin taking 600 mg an hour or two before bedtime and see if it prevents the symptoms rather than trying to get them back under control once they're already begun.

The previous treatment I was given by the neurologist was Neurontin AKA Gabapentin in the generic form I was taking. Though it worked for the symptoms the side effects were unendurable. It turned me into a bloated, foggy, zombie with suicidal thoughts. Not a good place to be and not where *I* want to be. I stopped taking it and within two days felt myself again. All of the sides from the Gabapentin have gone away now.

I have an appointment on May 1st with my NP. I'll see what other options are open to me for treatment, etc. And by then I'll know for sure about the efficacy of Ibuprofen. If I have to up the dosage I'm not any further ahead. I can only take so much of any NSAID because it tears up my stomach so badly.

The good has been finding more information on my paternal grandmother. I also found information, finally, on her brother. I'm still trying to determine if this was her blood brother or brother by adoption. Oddly enough I the first hint I found of him, besides his name being mentioned in the obits of his and my grandmother's adoptive parents, was finding a picture of his headstone. I found a site that lists all the cemeteries in the area where my search centers. Kind volunteers' have added pictures of some of the headstones. Not by any means all or even near all of the headstones in any given cemetery. It just so happens there was one of Uncle William's headstone that I was able to confirm was a 99.9% probability that it was really him. Using that information I found him by searching at familysearch.org and discovered that he *had* married and his wife's name was Lina Wight. She died in 1960 and William in 1958.

I'm still trying to track down adoption records for them and may need to get a court order to do so.

As for my paternal grandmother, I've not been able to find any concrete information on her birth-parents. Her last name may not be accurate. Unfortunately, back then, they weren't concerned about accurate spelling or apparently accurate record keeping either.

The search for my B-father is proceeding very slowly. I did receive some information about who to contact in Germany to see if he is actually listed in the information in my birth file. I'm waiting to hear back about that now. If he is I'll finally know his name for sure and possibly more than that. At least I can hope. Other than that I've hit nothing but dead ends in my search for him so far.

So another week on it's way to half over. Thank goodness.