I just read ( http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/sadhelp/emd.htm ) that some have found relief and remission by the use of Prostaglandin E1or PGE1. When the article was written this drug was not available in the U.S. Has anyone in this group used it? Is it available in the U.S. today?
Isn't this Prostaglandin E1 very similar to the little blue tablet? Maybe I am dumb (I did ask my doctor about this and she told me I was dumb to even ask the question) but has anyone tried using the little blue table for relief of EM? I want relief and don't care where it comes from. I suspect this is an old question? Jim
Just had a read of the article you mentioned and it does indeed sound like the little blue pills you mention. You certainly aren't dumb as I had to look up Prostaglandin first to see what it was. The pills I am taking for EM are little and blue but they aren't Viagra.
The question is, were the little blue pills a spin off from a side effect that arose (no pun intended) from the original medical problem that prostaglandin was prescribed for?
You learn more and more each day from this site and it really helps to keep the mind diverted from the misery that is EM
Further to my comment yesterday, there is an article on the TEA website by Jay S Cohen M.D, concerning the treatment of EM with magnesium therapy. A couple of papragraphs from the end of the item Dr Cohen says that 'seeking enhanced vasodilaltion he added papaverine to the treatment.
Papaverine is a vasodilator and has also been used to treat the same condition as the little blue tablets you mentioned.
Jim. I saw the pictures of your poor feet. You must be in so much pain with them. How are the ulcers being treated?
I learnt very quickly (from advice given on this grou[ not to soak my feet in cold water despite the relief it gave. Now if I dunk them I put my feet in a thin plastic bag to stop them getting wet.
I will be posting what my feet look like now. They are MUCH improved. I did go to the "wound center" and received excellent treatment. However, in the beginning they used some "silver" on my wounds. I must have been allergic to the silver. My feet got worse. However, now I have a large wound on the bottom of each foot and that is about all. Everything else is healed. And those have much improved too. For some reason those two wounds grew a white fat looking material over the wounds. Am using Santyl to eat it away. It is very slow but works very good. I used scissors to take out some of the fat like material and that did hurry things along.
If I lived close to the Mexico border I would be experimenting more. You don't need a prescription for medication in Mexico.
I didn't see the use of Papaverine in the Cohen article. I had read the article. Thanks. However, going to see my dr. today and want to talk about using a steroid to get rid of EM. Also want a blood test to see if I have that SCN9A gene mutation. I know there is a doctor in Seattle that knows something about EM. I would like my local doctor to call the Seattle Doctor and get several different recipes for fixing EM. Then we could try one and when it does not work, go to plan 2. My local doctor wants to do nothing, but what he would really like is to divorce me.