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 I had
severe, burning pain, diabetic neuropathy, plantar fasciitis,
but . . .
I JUST WANTED TO WEAR
SHOES AGAIN!
 I was originally diagnosed with
diabetic neuropathy and then I began experiencing severe pain
in my feet and ankles. The diagnosis was modified to include
plantar fasciitis. The pain, which took the form of a burning
sensation, originated in my feet and ankles and radiated up my
legs to the hips, primarily the right leg. The pain began in
January and by the end of June, I suffered excruciating pain
trying to wear shoes. The pain eased up at night, but when my
feet hit the floor in the morning, it started all over again.
On a scale of one to ten, I was experiencing pain at the ten
level, on a more or less constant basis.
 My physician tried to deal with these conditions
through the use of prescription drugs. On a daily basis, I was
taking six Tramadols, twelve hundred milligrams of Neurontin
and three to four Hydrocodone. Believe it or not, I was trying
to work during this time and even driving while on these drugs,
which I had no business doing!
Despite all these drugs, however, the pain
was getting worse and I was getting depressed. A friend of mine
works for a stained glass studio and she met a man there who
told her about MicroVas. He had been treated for a brown recluse
spider bite which had not healed in seven years. MicroVas healed
it. His father was having diabetic problems like mine. He had
the "blue legs" caused by poor circulation which MicroVas
was also able to improve.
I made the decision that I was not going
to die on drugs, nor was I going to lose a leg or an eye to diabetes.
In September, I came for MicroVas treatments. After my first
treatment, I felt better, but after subsequent treatments, I
began to feel worse. The pain after treatments was quite severe,
definitely a ten. I was later told that as the effects of neuropathy
are reversed, the nerves start to receive oxygen again, and feeling
returns. Unfortunately, you can feel the pain of neuropathy.
After about two or three weeks of this pain, however, I started
to improve dramatically. The pain has diminished and I can wear
shoes again.
Today I am virtually pain free, about a one
on the scale. I no longer take Tramadol or Neurontin, and take
only half a Hydrocodone three times daily. I am having no problems
with neuropathy or plantar fasciitis. I was shocked recently
when I returned from church, where I had worn high heels for
the first time in five months, that there was very little discomfort.
I'm a CNA, and I am now planning on returning
to work, which would have been impossible before. MicroVas has
given me my life back.
She wore sandals in the winter
and couldn't cover her feet in bed . . .
But now, "my life
is normal and I'm lovin' it!"
 I've
had neuropathy for about three years. I tried to deal with it
myself for about a year. Finally I went to see Dr. Miller and
said, "OK, I've done all I can do. I can't stand shoes,
can't stand socks, can't stand a sheet on me at night."
She said she was sure that it was neuropathy
and that it would only get worse, it wouldn't get any better.
So I suffered along for about another year, usually around a
five or six on the pain scale. Of course, if I tried to do anything
at all, it got much worse . Then the last six months or so I
couldn't tell the difference between a wood floor or a cold tile
floor on my feet. I could have had a rock in my shoe, and I wouldn't
have known it.
So I finally went back to the doctor. I've
gone to this doctor for a long time. She's good and she really
knows me, so when I go in there and say "Have you got anything
for pain?" she knows it's really bad. I started taking Tegretol,
but it seemed to wear off in about eight to twelve weeks. Next
I was on Neurontin, taking 600 milligrams twice a day, but it
didn't work any time, so we went back to Tegretol at a higher
dose. I was also taking 16 Ibuprofen and three Norgesic Forte
every day.
I was staying home almost all the time so
I could go barefoot and keep my feet up. For two years I slept
with my feet uncovered and a fan blowing on them all night and
I still would get up in the middle of the night and stand in
the shower for twenty minutes with cold water on pulsate, just
to get a little relief so I could sleep and get some rest. If
I hadn't found MicroVas, this would have been my third winter
to wear sandals while the rest of the world wears shoes and socks.
After about five treatment I woke up in the
middle of the night and my feet were cold and I thought, "What
is going on?" then it dawned on me. "Hey I'm getting
better!" I was so excited I woke my husband up to tell him
I had covered my feet.
I have taken thirteen treatments so far and
plan to take a few more just to be sure, but I am enjoying wearing
dress shoes and hose to church as well as wearing tennis shoes
with my jeans. Thanks to MicroVas, my life is normal again, and
I'm loving it!
MicroVas has been a blessing-an answer to
prayer. As an act of faith on my part, I started cutting back
on the Tegretol after the first visit and today, I no longer
need any pain medication.
While I was here getting my treatments, I
talked with a lot of the other patients, and I haven't talked
with one who hasn't been helped by MicroVas. I honestly believe
that God led me here. He gave me the wisdom to do what I needed
to do.
Drugs and Specialists didn't
help.
 _
_My neuropathy came on gradually over a couple of years.
But first let me say that my feet have lots of problems. I'm
a rancher and my feet have been stomped on by horses many times
with lots of broken bones. Plus I was in a wreck that broke the
big bone in my leg and, with me bein' bull-headed, I wouldn't
let 'em put a cast on it and that probably didn't help.
_ _But when I started getting the
neuropathy, I was in a lot of pain and I couldn't feel my feet.
When I was driving, I couldn't tell whether I was pushing the
accelerator or the brake except by what the truck did.
_ _I was sent to a specialist, a
neurologist, who ran some tests and told me I had some inflammation
and a build-up of scar tissue on a tendon. He thought I should
have an operation and he sent me to a second specialist.
_ _The second specialist took an
MRI and ran some blood tests, then told me that he didn't think
I should have an operation. Said I would wind up a cripple if
I had the operation. Then he sent me to a third specialist.
This doctor, just like the first two, was sure I had diabetes.
I told him I didn't, just like I told the other two, but he did
a blood test anyway. It came back just fine. I don't have diabetes.
It doesn't run in my family.
_ _I wound up being sent back to
the first doctor, the neurologist, and I told him I didn't think
it was doing me much good to keep coming back to him. By this
time I'm taking 800 milligrams of Neurontin four times a day,
then they put me on Methadone twice a day. It helped the pain
but didn't help with the feeling. Well, I wasn't interested in
bein' a dope head so I cut myself back.
_ _I was living now with pain all
the time that was pretty near unberable, around a ten on the
pain scale all day. I was up a lot at night, unable to sleep.
My wife used to put some Avon stuff on 'em, but that didn't help
either. But her Avon rep heard about MicroVas from a website
and told us about it, and we decided to give it a try
_ _After the third or fourth treatment,
I could tell it was really helping. I told my sister, Ruth, about
MicroVas and now she's taking the treatments, too.
After about two months of treatment, three times a week, I was
pretty much back to normal. The treatment hurt at first, but
it's a different kind of pain. But later, the treatments feel
good and soothing.
_ _My feet don't hurt any more.
There's a place over in Claremore where I get big chunks of oak
for firewood. Yesterday I hauled three pallet loads of them myself.
I couldn't have done that before. Now I can haul hay and do most
of the things I used to do.
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MicroVascular Therapysm
for Diabetic Neuropathy:
Hope for the Future?
Peripheral
neuropathy is a general term for diseases that cause damage to
the nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord. Diabetes is
a frequent cause of neuropathy.
Theories abound as to why neuropathy occurs in people with diabetes.
In general, diabetic neuropathy is thought to be a result of
chronic nerve damage caused by high blood sugars. One theory
suggests that excess sugar circulating throughout the body interacts
with an enzyme in the Schwann cells, called aldose reductase.
Aldose reductase transforms the sugar into sorbitol, which in
turn draws water into the Schwann cells, causing them to swell.
This in turn pinches the nerves themselves, causing damage and
in many cases pain.
Another
theory is that certain intracellular metabolites, such as myoinositol,
become depleted, leading to nerve damage. Still other theories
hold that pathways such as the protein kinase C pathway, being
studied by George King, M.D., and his colleagues at the Joslin
Diabetic Center in Boston, are triggered by chronic high blood
sugars, resulting in several diabetes complications, perhaps
including neuropathy.
"Recent
studies have suggested that decreased blood flow to the nerves
can also contribute to the development of diabetic nerve disease,"
says Dr. King. 1
One contributing factor of endoneural hypoxia may relate to the
inability of red blood cells, in diabetics, to pass through the
capillaries. It has been documented that one of the first steps
in the conversion of the essential fatty acid (EFA) linoleic
acid to gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) is broken in diabetics. This
is caused by a production deficit of the enzyme delta-6-desaturase.
In more severe cases the EFA metabolism is broken in two places,
which is caused by a production defict of the delta 5-desaturase
enzyme, further down the conversion chain.
Because
of the very low levels of prostacyclin/ prostaglandins among
diabetics, the red blood corpuscles of diabetics tend to be brittle
and unable to be deformed. The consequence is that the oxygen-carrying
corpuscles cannot enter the small capillary vessels. They simply
cannot be "squeezed" into them. So, if the micro-blood
vessels in the nerves cannot receive oxygen, then nerve cells
will die. Physically , this is exactly what happens with neuropathy.
The result is endoneural hypoxia, which is the overt cause of
diabetic neuropathy.2
MicroVascular
Therapy has been shown to generate sharply elevated blood flow
in diabetics with an average 48% increase in tissue oxygenation
after one forty-five minute treatment, measured at the dorsum
of the foot with TCPO2 oximetry.3 This blood
flow is accomplished through neuromuscular contractions which
activate the venous muscle pump and, it is postulated, through
the contraction of smooth muscles surrounding the arterioles.
The action of the venous muscle pump creates a negative pressure
on the efferent side of the capillary beds, while the contractions
at the arteriolar level may precipitate an elevated pressure
at the afferent, helping to "push" red blood cells
through the microcirculation and resulting in a raised gradient
across the capillaries thus bringing about an upregulation of
tissue oxygenation as well increased delivery of nutrients.
While
the exact mechanism of action is still in the investigative stage,
early clinical results show that MicroVascular Therapy eliminates
or reduces the symptoms of diabetic neuropathy for the majority
of patients, while allowing them to reduce or eliminate the use
of palliative drugs.
1. Diabetic Neuropathy: Information
and update, Joslin Diabetic
Center website
2. A Multi Disciplinary Approach to Diabetic Neuropathy,
S. Bersvendsen, Norway, website article.
3. Clinical Study, The University of Oklahoma
Health Science Center, unpublished, 1999
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