My best friend James became weak in 2004, and unable to walk, and
suffered from intense pain. He had meningitis a year of so earlier,
and then the nerve damage was done. A couple of car accidents later,
and more damage, to the spinal cord itself. James also had a lot
of bacteria infections deep within his skin- near the spine.

A combination of these factors, and the nerve conduction exams, MRIS,
cat scans, and every other scan immaginable led to the diagnosis of
Neuropathy. Neurontin made him so sick we couldnt imagine. He
stopped taking it. Lortabs, and lots of narcs for pain on
occasion. Days in the bed with the burning pain and numbness.

Well, this increased throughout 04 and 05. In 05 James was on
occasion walking with a cane, then progressed to a walker, and then a
wheelchair. He sought treatment from Dr. Steve Elston in Borger,
Texas, an internal medicine doc. He was prescribed Fentanyl
transdermic patches- Methadone was just too strong. James stopped
the pain patch in December. On occasion an antibiotic or two, lots
of vitamins, and WATER. Asprin/Ibuprofin for pain- take the asprin
with a bottle of Original Coke (not Diet, Cherry, etc). James spent
10 months with a cane, about 5 weeks witha a walker, and then
James spent 3 months in a wheelchair (this is occuring as I am in New
Orleans during the Katrina mess at an EMS Conference). I am back
home right before it hit, and James met me in a wheelchair. We go
through December- he stops smoking cigarettes/pain patches, and all.

He stops seeing Elston- who wants to medicate him with tons of pain
meds. Hell- he gets Methadone his first visit (no he is not a pain
pill junkie)- he never has taken any medicine. Was our first
experience in the pain dept. Lortabs didnt cut it, morphine didnt
touch it- do Dr. Elston prescribed Methadone. Face first in food,
being so "high" your bodys organs shut down, and you feel as though
you are in another world- and unable to be woke up. That is what we
got with the pain meds. James said he could no longer function, and
needed off of them- he quit had a few days of DTs/Withdrawl, and that
was it. Sure it was rough, but we managed to have a few lortabs to
help "ween" him down from complete Opiate withdrawel.

Then, a few weeks go by. A few antibiotics, coke, asprin, water (and
lots of it), vitamins, and an acne medicine called Sotret (Accutane)-
which I got him for his 24th birthday, April 22 of this year. We
are on the final days of Cipro (1 treatment of 14 days. Since
March, April, and increasing in numbers, James is out more, he walks
all the time, no real pain or abnormalities. He is 100% better than
he was a year ago. Hope this helps someone out there. Short of
the prescribing of pain pills, and lots of research, I found this
reigment worked quite well. I stayed after him to follow it, he
did, and now he is near normal again. He even did some home
maintenance a few weeks ago, knocking out a wall, and putting in 2
new doors, as well as some other stuff like electrical work.

Jay