annabanana123,

Thank you too for taking the time to respond to me.

Thank you as well for offering your thoughts and explaining what works for you. My goodness, it certainly doesn't sound like a "one size fits all" disease.

As for medications, I've tried Gabapentin, Lyrica, Cymbalta, Tegretol and quite a few others. My Psychiatrist prescribed all of these which pain management doctors can view in my health chart.

My Psy has even tried several anti-depressants that are known to help with nerve pain and I get the same result from them. He deals with many chronic pain patients and said my body is overly sensitive to these medications and I'm not the first he's seen with this sensitivity. I've tried so hard to manage with each of them and gave each a good try until my brain would actually "think" that I needed to commit suicide. It got to the point where my husband would call the doctor in the middle of the night with me rambling on about suicide, in which my Psy told him to stop whichever medication I was on immediately. My husband would always be afraid in leaving me alone until the drug was out of my system for fear that I may act on my thoughts.

My doctor did suggest Flexeril which I may try next. Thank you for mentioning it. I have to wait until right before the weekend though to start it so in case I get some reaction, my husband is here. I don't know why my mind can't handle these medications, when they may help me. Maybe this one will help some if I can tolerate it. My Psychiatrist and Pain Management Doctor have said that Black Box warnings were put in place for people like me. I just wish that I could tolerate something.

I did use Lidocaine patches faithfully for the first year which did at least take the edge off. Eventually they stopped working. My doctor also gave me an RX lidocaine cream but that did nothing. I've never heard of butrans patches and will inquire about those with pain management when my appointment comes. Thank you for the suggestion.

This has really been an eye-opening experience to me as to how chronic pain patients are treated. I'm not a drug seeker by any means, nor have I ever asked for any medications. I took whatever was suggested for me.

What really ticked me off was when I was sent to a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist. It was suggested that she "might" be able to help me. During my exam, she jerked my limbs all over and then with my husband sitting there, looked at him and said to me: "You really drained the life out of this room in 20 minutes." Tears rolled down my cheeks, I was in pain and would never be there if it weren't extremely bad. As I cried, she said sounds like you're depressed. I'm more of a quiet person and thought to myself: Lady if you dealt with what I have for 3 years now, laying in a bed, you might not even be here.

She kept insisting that looking at my previous testing from various doctors that there was nothing wrong with me. I showed her my ankles, how swollen they were and my cut up shoes, while my husband spoke up and insisted that there was something seriously wrong with his wife.

Her response....."She's depressed is all and could benefit from ECT."

I walked out and never went back.

Thank you again for your thoughts.