That's what my doctors around here say, but other medical places (hospitals/clinics) in other parts of the country are using therapies and other things (according to forums and personal stories I have read) to treat PN. They are farther advanced than the doctors in South Dakota, and I have heard numerous times from people with PN that they were being treated with more than medication. I don't know specifically what was being done, because, like I said, nobody around here will treat with anything except medicine.

Unfortunately, I developed PN after gastric bypass surgery. My body does not respond to pills at all. I have tried several different medicines for PN, as well as pain medicines such as tylenol with codeine 3 and 4 and oxycodone. I FINALLY last week was put on the 72 hour fentanyl pain patch, and for the first time since my PN started, got a little relief. I have been bedridden and in extreme pain (I have a severe case of PN) for over 4 months--and had the PN longer than that, of course. But finally I am responding to something--because it is not in pill form. If pills are all they can do for PN--that means that absolutely nothing will help me... because of the surgery I had. And that stinks.

I know I've talked to people with PN who have been helped by things other than medicine--I just don't believe that it is all that can be done. I've read too many personal stories of people who were helped by other things.