Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Has anyone had nerve damage (or helped someone with nerve pain) and found a treatment that actually works?

Ok, I know this is not really anything to do with Canada but I know a lot of you guys are medically trained, worldly and sooo helpful...

Since the accident I've had pain in my right arm (and neck, shoulders and right knee) but mainly the upper right arm. It just gets worse and worse during the course of the day, to the point where I'm pretty much writhing around in agony each evening.

My doctor has put me on a cocktail of naproxen, lyrica, diazepam and hydromorphone contin. I'm getting a mixture of ice and heat treatment at physiotherapy plus 15-30 mins on the TENS device as well as doing some gentle stretching exercises. The heat treatment today made my arm feel like I'd been carrying a 50lb weight for hours, in fact each time I've come out of physio recently I've felt worse than when I first went in :(

For the last few evenings (and this is the bit I'm a getting a little worried about), I've been having a few beers then gravol (only 1-2) just to get me off to sleep.

The arm mostly works but writing is still almost impossible. The doc called it "radial neuropraxia" (crushed nerve). He reckons it'll probably be there for three months.

Has anyone been through something like this and has been able to find a way of actually managing the pain? It seems crazy that I'm taking so many different drugs and treatments but, for the arm, they all seem ineffective.. and it's been three weeks since the crash.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Hi I had a problem with my shoulder which gave me excruciating pain in the upper arm. None of the pain killers really worked, but I used to wear a TENS machine for the whole day, switched on as high as I could bear it, which sort of masked the pain a bit.
I really feel for you, hope it gets sorted soon:fingerscrossed:

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

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Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

In the UK there are clinics for pain management so ask your doctor if there is such a thing here.

A friend had radial nerve damage from a fall and saw a specialist physio which has helped her. She has also had some saline injections into the shoulder to relieve that pain. I can find out more for you.

Nerve damage takes a long while to heal.

Hopefully Alberta Rose will be along to offer some suggestions.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

There are pain management clinics here in NS I deal with them through work.

Greenhill- Are you set up for accident benefits through your vehicle insurer? They will be able to look at accessing these clinics for you through your benefits with a doctor referral, they should also be able to get you in place with a rehab agent/occupational therapist,

accident benefits or section B coverage is mandatory here in NS so it will be on your policy coverage through your motor insurance provider

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

That's the stuff. It's a bother to get the variant labelled "medicinal" but the usual kind, sold everywhere for recreational use, will be as effective.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

I slipped a disc in my back on Christmas day, I was in a great deal of pain so was prescribed Oxycocet and naproxen. The disc rubbed on my sciatic nerve for many months, but more so when I was laying on my back in bed. The strong pain killers helped, but made me constipated.

I have never experienced pain like that in all my life, the pain would wake me up in the early hours of the morning. My back is finally back to normal and the disc popped back into place, but it took 6 months.

All I can suggest is for the first few months take pain killers and rest, gradually ease of the pills and try to gently exercise the area. I searched sciatica on youtube and found some stretches that really helped me.

Get well soon

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

That should numb the pain enough until it is properly heeled. Roll up a big fat one and you will forget you even have arms. :thumbup:

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

If there is anything like a pain management clinic I would definitely recommend it. I attended a course at Walton Hospital in the UK and it was fantastic, nerve damage can take a long time to heal.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Clem

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

I feel for you Greenhill

I have had nerve problems for 15 years now, ever since i had a bad incident on a RD250LC and a marshals box at Cadwell Park.

I now drive all the time with a rolled up towel in the arch part of my back, and i spend 8-12 even some times 18 hours sat in my car, if i don't then the pain will return to my legs.

If it gets bad i lay on a wood floor and again support the arch in my back. It helps to take the pressure off the nerve and really does relieve the pain. I am pain free at the mo, but every morning without fail i wake up in slight pain. Just glad it's only slight at the mo.

Hope this helps. :fingerscrossed:

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Ugh.. if its the same or similar to a trapped nerve then it's nasty. All I can say is that strangely the problem does suddenly seem to disappear. Until it does though it's just a case of numbing the pain and once gone it probably won't come back (this is an entirely non-medical, in my experience, opinion). I have a very occasional problem with trapping a nerve in my right shoulder and the pain is intense considering nothing much causes it and how it goes. Just hammer any substance to kill the pain and wait...Hurts like hell though!

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Maybe Acupuncture, it worked for my neck injury when the prescribed painkillers and physio had no effect.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

You want to get yourself a girlfriend.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

You are a git bag - but we love you x

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Hum, well I'm here but not really my field of expertise, and difficult to give specific advice anyway without examining you ..... :huh:

If it is neurapraxia (basically a nerve that's suffered a compression or stretching injury) it should resolve completely within a couple of months (so long as it's no longer being compressed).

The main objectives, apart from pain relief, should be to preserve function, ie not develop into a "frozen shoulder" or disuse atrophy etc, so keep that range of movement going.

I agree a pain clinic is a good idea if there's one available. Medicine-wise, I wondered if Gabapentin might be beneficial; often prescribed for neuralgia-type pain.

Hope you feel better soon! :fingerscrossed:

ps: if the physio treatments are making it worse discuss it with the physio, but there's no point in continuing with something that's only exacerbating your symptoms. Maybe find a new PT? (did I use my outside voice? :p)