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Book Review - Numb Toes and Other Woes: More on Peripheral Neuropathy

review by Robert B. Strimple, Ph.D.

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Amazon.com reviews of Numb Toes and Aching Soles: Coping with Peripheral Neuropathy

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At my appointment with Dr. Jonathan Licht this morning, I showed him a copy of a book I had found at the Escondido, California Public Library and had found very helpful. Dr. Licht asked me to share some information for others who might want to read it. (Since being diagnosed with CSPN in 1994, I have been surprised to find not one helpful book on the subject for the medical layman, until now. The term CSPN was new to me when I read it in this book. The initials stand for cryptogenic [cause unknown] sensory polyneuropathy.) The title is just too, too cutesy (!), but don't let it put you off: Numb Toes and Other Woes: More on Peripheral Neuropathy, and the author is John A. Senneff. It is vol. 2 in the "Numb Toes Series"; vol. 1 being Numb Toes and Aching Soles: Coping with Peripheral Neuropathy. The Escondido Public Library does not have vol. 1; but I am going to suggest that they obtain a copy, and in the meantime will seek it through Interlibrary Loan. These books can be purchased for $22.95 each or $41.25 for both (shipping & handling $5 for one book, $8 for both) from MedPress, P.O. Box 691546, San Antonio, TX 78269--telephone orders call (toll-free) 1-888-633-9898. They are also available from Amazon.com.

This book is quite up-to-date (published in 2001), highly informative, and easy (even enjoyable) to read. The author is a lawyer (don't hold that against him!) who has had CSPN for eighteen years, and now devotes all his effort and energy to compiling all the information he can find on the control of the pain of neuropathy. Because he is not a physician he writes in a way that is understandable by intelligent patients who are not medically trained. As Dr. Richard Marks writes in the Foreword: "He covers the problem of pain with candor, authority, and humor." Dr. Marks is now retired after a forty-five career as a leader in oncology in South Carolina, and yet this able physician and CSPN patient says of these volumes by a non-physician: "His first book has been my Bible. This new book will become my textbook and should be for every patient, caregiver or teacher of peripheral neuropathy."

Just listing the 7 chapter titles will give a good idea of what the book covers: Chapter 1: Neuropathic Pain--Further Insights. Chapter 2: Pain Medications: New Studies, New Thinking. This is the most important and most helpful chapter in the book in my opinion. Because such a wide variety of drugs have been and are being used to treat neuropathic pain, with widely differing results in different patients, the patient can feel hopelessly confused--especially as well-meaning friends offer conflicting advice about what has worked for some relative or colleague of theirs. Mr. Senneff discusses at length, citing relevant clinical study results along the way, the pros and cons of such drugs as amitriptyline, trazadone, neurontin, vicodin, and ultram, as well as various topicals. Chapter 3: Other Medical Therapies: Current Views. The discussion ranges from hemotological to nerve-based treatments. Chapter 4. More on Nutrient Supplementation. The "more" indicates that vol. 1 had dealt extensively with supplements. While the author does not seem "fanatical" on the subject, he does consume a pretty complex "cocktail" of supplements daily, and explains why he chooses each ingredient. Chapter 5: Updating Alternative/Complementary Therapies. Here the common-sense suggestion that "Next to making certain we are receiving the proper nutrients in an adequate amount, the most important thing a PNer can do is exercise, in my opinion," is followed up with specific suggestions (and, yes, a plug for another book available at www.medpress.com, The Complete Waterpower Workout Book (Random House 1993). Chapter 6: Experimental Therapies: Creeping Progress deals especially with experimental drugs and cellular therapies. And Chapter 7: Some Other Matters deals with everything from various causes of neuropathies (as well as the prevalence of "cause unknown" conditions) to "Finding a Doctor" (easy, contact CNS!) and "Working with Your Doctor." There is a helpful Index, and the total number of pages is 250.

Postscript: I should mention my initial experience with the compound drug known as DMQ. I have been taking this drug twice a day since January 18 and was planning to tell Dr. Licht today (February 25, 2002) that I did not think it was relieving my pain and therefore thought I should switch to something else. Last Saturday (the 23rd), however, at the monthly meeting of the Neuropathy Support Group at the Ximed Building at Scripps Memorial Hospital, an assistant to Dr. Licht happened to comment that DMQ seemed to be having a good effect on the "emotionality" of ALS patients, and suddenly a light went on! When I saw Dr. Licht in January I had been feeling just plain miserable for two months; but for the month since I saw him, and started on DMQ, I had been feeling much better--not that my pain was gone, but simply that it didn't seem to be getting me "down" as much and my overall outlook was more "upbeat." I had not connected that to the DMQ at all, because I was looking for it to relieve my pain more; but I now realized that perhaps there was a connection. So I will be continuing on DMQ for the present.