Sandra, treatment varies for CIDP because we don’t all respond to treatment for our disorder in the same way. It is not unusual for treatment regimens to be revised in an attempt to improve results.

Parry and Steinberg do not discuss using prednisone with IvIg but do not rule it out. This report indicates that using them together may give better results:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3487533/#!po=3.40909

My primary treatment was plasma exchange, after IvIg seemed to be ineffective. I also took prednisone and continued it for about a year after PE in periodically reduced dosages as I transitioned to mycophenolate mofetil. I never had side effects from the prednisone that I noticed. It isn’t necessarily bad for everyone and it may lead to good results. My results were good, in any case.

Yours is a relatively mild case. During recovery, you do need to get regular exercise but must pace yourself. Don’t get to the point of exhaustion. That won’t make your recovery any faster and might set it back.

Do you mean Human Stem Cell Treatment (HSCT)? The stem cell clinical trials have been discussed on this web site and some participants reported good results. Your link, however, appears to be to some sort of self-promoter so I would view it skeptically, if at all.

Your conspiracy hypotheses get no traction with me. The entire medical profession, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, want to find the best treatments for human disease. Your reference to oil companies gives you away. My current vehicles get the best mileage of any I have ever owned. There is no 100 mpg carburetor, and by the way, carburetors have been obsolete for a long time due to their inefficiency.

Recovery typically takes one to three years to reach maximun. Myelin damage heals relatively quickly and axonal damage takes longer. The rate of recovery slows over time. Axonal damage may never be completely healed, leaving you with some disability.

In my case, I definitely continued healing over a two-year or more span. I think I gave up my cane after about a year and a half out of hospital.

A physical therapist does not treat neuropathy, she treats the muscle weakness and contraction which is caused by the neuropathy. My therapists were, for the most part, very good at dealing with my condition even though I was an unusual case. I referred one group of therapists to the booklet for therapists available on this site when I thought they needed the information in it.

My suggestion is to take your doctors’ advice rather than to advise your doctors. I took a couple of supplements when I was in recovery and I just asked my neurologist if it were ok. In your case she gave you guidelines, so follow them.

Since she can’t talk, you need a system to communicate. If she is alert and can signal a yes or no response, then you can use a set of cards to select letters to spell words. I don’t have any direct experience with this method, though, as I could always talk.