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!!
 

http://www.medicalmarihuana.ca/for-growers
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/marih.../index-eng.php

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)

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

We too often treat the symptoms and not the cause.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

only if we get to see you

SHIVER WITH ANTICI P P P P P ATION . . . .

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

errm beer + opioids + diazepam = very dangerous

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

One of my friends has had no movement in his right arm for a long time now - think it is more to do with his brain though??!!!??? - anyway, he started going for acupuncture and he says that it is really helping him and he is starting to get feeling back in his fingers........Having never had acupuncture myself, not sure if this is even possible but he's happy so maybe worth a try??

Good luck and i hope you are on the road to recovery soon......How's your Daughter? All better i hope!

xx

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

She's doing great, just a couple of scrapes left and they're healing well. She's really enjoying her "celebrity" status, lots of hugs and attention everywhere she goes :)

For a week or so after the accident she had some major trust issues (probably caused by the IVs being forced on and off her :() but I think she's recovered from that now as well. Other than that she says she doesn't remember anything, her first memory after the crash was "the eye doctor poking my eye" - which was probably about 6 hours after they cut her out of the car.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I really don't like having to take all the drugs and the "benefit" they have is definitely questionable, I'll see how desperate I get over the weekend and take it from there.

There was some talk of getting me a TENS machine for home - I find it works as a good distraction. I didn't know you can wear it "all day" so that's something I'd like to try out.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Oh bless her! That must have been hard for you to watch too!
Pleased she is on the mend though. Fingers crossed you follow soon!
If you try Acupuncture, let me know how you get on...
xx

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

I have a TENS machine purchased locally from a medical supplies distributor. It didn't cost a fortune IIRC (<$150). I bought it during a visit here in 02 after I had slipped a disc and was suffering from severe sciatic pain. I use it from time to time these days as an when needed. It is a wearable unit, comes with a belt clip etc.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

I had a bit of a bang up five years ago and fractured C6 in two places. Had one of awful halo things for five months. There was damage to the seventh nerve on the left side and I had physio and so on. I got a TENS machine and, provided that you put the electrodes in the right spot, even an inch out can spoil things, I found it to be beneficial. Certainly more than "a distraction". Just crank up the power until you feel the tingling and let it do its thing. I wore it all day for quite a while. I still do occasionally if I get discomfort. As I said, placing the electrodes correctly is crucial. I even thought of getting four Xs tattooed on my shoulder so that I could always get them right !
Give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised. I also went to water therapy with the local arthritis sufferers. That helped too. Good luck with whatever you do.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Another idea - I had a car accident several years ago and was in agony with nerve pain in my back. I had never felt pain like it so can sympathise - nothing seemed to work until I went to a chiropracter. I'd never thought of trying chiropractic but was totally desperate. I noticed an improvement within a few days and major improvement after only a couple of weeks - I'm was sceptical but it was amazing!! may be worth a try. Good luck - saw the pictures of your car and can't believe the injuries weren't much, much worse.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

I was hit by a Lancia 20 years ago. I needed 5 knee ops, but the chronic pain came later in the damage it had done to the soft tissue in my back.

I spent years going to a chiropracter which gave only temporary relief. I also took lots of pain relief meds which ended up hurting my stomach.

After years of sleepless nights I finally found a great physio who spent the time to teach me exercises that would strengthen my core. This has decreased the pain.

I also found that swimming really helps me (your body weight is supported and you can work on your range of motion without gravity getting in the way).

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

I would NEVER go to a chiropractor, but apart from my personal disdain for them. IMHO sudden manipulation of an inflamed nerve is not a good idea. Rather like kicking a swollen ankle to see if it helps.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Going to any practitioner that before they do anything makes you sign a disclaimer not to sue them if they injure you would make me nervous.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Well said Fled. I wouldn't go near one either.
They claim to be able to cure all manner of things. There is presently a libel suit going on in the UK where the Chiropractors' Union, or whatever they call themselves, is suing a journalist because he wrote that there was no scientific proof to support their claims of being able to cure all sorts of ailments, including childhood ones.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Thanks, it was Simon Singh. He won

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...opractors.html

He won.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Bah, ninja'd. Same link too.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Yes, that was him. I didn't know that he'd won though. Hopefully a kick in the proverbials for the libel chill merchants Carter-Ruck !!

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Hi,
I did have a trapped nerve in my neck which travelled down my arm and gave me a lot of trouble. I had a treatment called the Bowen technique which was brilliant and in a few weeks completely cured it. Even though I was very sceptical at first I would definitely recommend it.
Not sure that that was serious as yours though but I guess it would be worth a try.
Good Luck

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

I was involved in a car accident a few years back (T12 compression fracture, L1 burst fracture).

The referred nerve pain is the worst thing as far as I am concerned so I sympathise heartily with the OP.

TENS is one of the best things that I have found - painkillers really don't help all taht much - or at least, if they are strong enough to help, they lay me up and I am totally useless.

Wearing one all day is not so bad, I have now got to the point where I only wear it when I need it though, and if you put it on before it gets to the point where you are not coping with the pain taht is the best thing...

Actually, the same is true of painkillers of any sort tbh - if you let the pain get to the point where it is unmanageable you will find that they don't deaden the pain. Take them before it gets to that stage and it is far more manageable.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Completely agree. I know some people swear by their chiropractors, and I try not to put other professions down as a rule, but in this case I'd defintely say NO don't go there.

My personal doubts come from their constant postulations that joints are "out of alignment" (which may or may not be true and/or relevant) and just need realigning to cure whatever ails you.

I also had a patient recently who had diagnosed cancer with known spread to bone, who had received chiropractic treatment to her sore back, (manipulation is ALWAYS contraindicated where malignancy is suspected btw), and he/she ended up breaking her upper arm! She could equally have ended up paralysed had he/she broken some other part of her!

I daresay there are good and bad practitioners out there, but it does not fill one with confidence.

btw: I do recommend TENS, but did anybody read my suggestion of Gabapentin as an alternative to strong analgesics/narcotics?

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Ref. Chiropractic.....I saw a guy here once who wanted to use some sort of springloaded device on me to knock my spine back into alignment. He wanted something like 5 sessions a week for 4 weeks and then once a week after that for an undefined period. The patent quackery of the approach together with the fact that my health benefits would have been exhausted after the first two weeks or so, led to me politely declining.

By contrast I did receive some benefit from an Oesteopath back in the UK. She helped ease pain and give me a bit more mobility. No quick fix to the problem though which I think is the norm for nerve/back problems.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

Yes and thanks so much for that. My OH has used it on occasion and she suggested I should switch over to it next week, if things don't improve.

I'm on so many meds it seems crazy that I'm having many moments of agony, I had thought the lyrica was beginning to work over the last couple of days, but this afternoon, well, I'm running out of expletives.

Has anyone got any suggestions for new and creative outbursts featuring curse words and verbal breaches of taboos?

Fortunately my daughter is not with me today as, around five minutes ago, I, with a raised tone of voice, said "**** ******* mother ******* dogs arseholes". I followed this up shortly after with something else but it'd be all asterisks so no point in typing it. Anyway, the 8 key on the keyboard has just begun to piss me off.

**** ******* **** bag twat 8 key.

Sorry for any offence here, we are giggling at this really, which is helping somewhat :blink:

Thanks again to everyone with suggestions. I empathise truly now with anyone who has suffered nerve pain, the replies above from those who have suffered similarly have really helped, if anything, in just making me feel like I'm not alone with it.

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

OH has terrible constant neuropathic pain in his leg following a very bad RTA a long time ago. He was on gabapentin for years and it's very effective for nerve pain (usual pain killers don't touch it). When we got to Canada he was put on lyrica and that has been even better.

He was also prescribed cessamet (cannabis based tablets) for a while ..... They worked really well too ;)

J :)

Re: Nerve pain management- help!!
 

There was an article published by British researchers about a year or more ago on a study of how cursing and swearing actually improved pain tolerance in observed subjects.
I once told a patient that as I was debriding his burned hand, and immediately wished I had not chosen that particular time to mention it! :blink::p

edit: ah, here it is http://scienceblogs.com/neurophiloso..._tolerance.php