Originally Posted by mrsD

Sounds like a real ordeal:

Carbamazepine and its cousin can cause rashes:
http://epilepsy.emedtv.com/carbamaze...e-effects.html

Should be reported to the doctor! My general feeling is that Trileptal is pretty toxic in many ways over the long haul, and maybe you'd do better without it.

Nortriptyline and Elavil are basically the same. Elavil (amitriptyline) is metabolized in the body to nortriptyline.
It can also cause rashes when you are exposed to the sun.

I think any pain, makes PN pain worse. I think we get sensitized to pain in some ways. For example, and this is a small example:

I scraped a thin layer of skin of the back of my left hand when I hit a sharp edge of a piece of furniture the other day. It didn't even bleed. So I cleaned it off, and put triple antibiotic on it just in case. The the next day my whole hand was throbbing. No oozing no redness just pain. So I started covering it with a bandaid, and antibiotic ointment and it healed up very fast...but it still HURTs and now it itches too. It is a very small injury...I mean a very very little thing. So why is it hurting so MUCH?
I took the bandaid off today and it is totally healed up...but still hurts! I am leaving the bandaids on it for a couple more days.

I've noticed that small things like a mosquito bite can hurt like the dickens too! I had one on my calf the in June and it felt like a knife stab! This is relatively new for me...so I guess it is PN related in some way?

So I imagine a knee replacement would be awful too. A person I worked with had one and had to take oxycodone for over 6wks afterwords! Expect pain I guess!

What did they give you for that cellulitis? Cipro or Levaquin? That would totally aggravate PN IMO.