What do they mean you are 'med resistant'???

When this first happened to me, btw it hit both of my feet at the same time in 2003. I was taking neurontin & felt it didn't do a damn thing to help the pain. I was also allowed only 3 to 4 Norco (same as Vicodin only stornger with less tylenol) & I had NO NONE ZERO pain relief on those drugs either. WHY??? Because they were under medicating me. It took me awhile to get into the pain doc I see now & have seen since Sept 04. The Dr over a few months worked me up to a specific dose of MS Contin (generic is Morphine Sulfate & is what I take). Then I got relief. It doesn't take all the pain alway, but keeps it at a level I can cope with. That I can atleast walk around my home with the help of a cane. When I go shopping, I use a store scooter or my own electric wheel chair. I am on basically the same dose of meds now that I was on then. I am on less Neurontin than I was in 03 also. BUT I can tell now that Neurontin does help with nerve pain.

Walking on your feet even if they hurt is way better than not walking on them. I had alot of PT at first, but do not do it now. I learned everything PT wise that I could so I could do it at home too. Did it hurt at first? Hell yes it hurt. But when it reached a specific level of pain I quit pushing. I feel if I had not made myself get up & walk around my home when I did I would probably be completely chair bound, house bound, bed or recliner chair bound. Once pain relief is obtained to a certain level, that is when you are able to stand PT, to push yourself a bit more. Not everyone is lucky enough to reach that level of pain control. I wish all were that lucky. I believe I am that lucky. But am I pain free? NOT BY ALONG SHOT. I have pain 24/7, I have flares. But alteast now I know what I can & can't stand to do, I know when & when I can't push myself anymore. I am disabled & not able to work. The level of meds I am keep me too sleepy & tired to work. Plus my brain doesn't work like it use too. I loose the ability to think of what word I need to use. If I could get off these meds orally then maybe I will get my brain function back *LOL*

After the first of the year I am going to look into getting a pain pump. My PM Doc feels I would be a good candidate for one. For now I want to get thru the holidays.

Anyway from what I am seeing here isn't so much you are med resistant as that you are being under medicated like I was for the first 10 months of pain. It is not easy to find a PM Doc who will treat you with pain meds strong enough to ease this AWFUL pain. Especially someone as young as you are. They are so darn afraid of us becoming addicted, that they forget to think about what type of quality of life they want us to have. I went thru 2 other PM Docs. One said he never wrote pain meds for anyone with RSD. This is the doctor who Dx'ed me with RSD. Another was a big PM Clinic who would only take me up really slowly & I don't think they would have given me the pain relief I do have now. Then finally I got into the Doctor I am with now. And he is great & alot of their patients are RSD patients. And they will treat RSD as aggressively as we want them to. Well like I said if I could get Ketamine treatments paid for by Medicare I would go for it. I had Ketamine infusion during major back surgery 2 yrs ago because my surgeon worked with my PM Doc in trying to keep RSD from spreading into my back. It worked. It didn't spread.

Anyway good luck.

Good luck,