The nerve damage left him with little feeling from mid-shin up to above the knee and no feeling from the mid-shin down to the toes, except for strange pains.

“I can suffer the same pains as an amputee (phantom pains) as if they were feeling a foot like it’s still there. Because of the nerve damage, I have the same issue,” Welch said.

He said some days the pain hits three to five times. Others days, not at all. There’s always a nagging tingling and sometimes it feels like a nail being driven into his big toe, he said.

“I just have to grit through it every time it happens until it goes away,” he said.

He was prescribed Gabapentin, an anti-epileptic drug for neuropathy. But then he noticed mood changes and was feeling symptoms of depression. He was then prescribed an antidepressant, Lexapro, but that wasn’t effective without another antidepressant that was supposed to improve its effectiveness.

“After all that, I ended up with severe diarrhea,” he said.