Sorry, I just saw this. First, so glad you got some sleep. I'm pretty screwed with the pain meds. Even tramadol makes me sick on my stomach. If I get desperate, I take dramamine or use a scopolamine patch and have to have a full stomach and then sometimes I can take tramadol. Narcotics make me violently sick on my stomach no matter what I do. I have severe bleeding and bruising problems with NSAIDs now after long term steroid use for autoimmune diseases. Otherwise there's nothing I can take but tylenol which is not much.

The fellow at the pain med docs told me there were some newer generation meds similar to gabapentin for neuropathic pain that didn't have some of the side effects like the peripheral edema I get but they didn't want to give me anything until I'd had several sympathetic nerve blocks so they could see how they did. I had complications with pulse and BP on the very first nerve block and can't have more so that plan is dead in the water now and still no pain meds.

FWIW, I've found Delsym, a cough medicine which is dextromethorphan, at OTC dose does a pretty good job helping with some of my symptoms, both the local (pain and swelling) and systemic (unsteadiness, pulse and BP fluctuations, etc.) ones. It's an NMDA receptor antagonist like ketamine but much, much weaker. But it does help with sympathetic nerve pain and the other problems associated with it. It keeps me awake though. I still use it every day and take a OTC dose Benadryl at night to help me sleep.

I've also been using pharmaceutical grade DMSO diluted to 50% as a topical on my entire right leg for pain, inflammation and swelling. It's irritating to my skin so I usually only manage to use it once a day instead of three times but it helps. Some gets in your system so it may help with systemic problems as well. You just need to be careful that your skin is clean because it carries other things in with it.

Epsom salts in the bath do seem to help. I feel tingling (a good kind) in the affected areas when I soak in it that I don't feel when it's not in the bath water.

Hope this helps. Hang in there and good luck.

Denise