I asked my pain PA for patch Rx last week. I have been on the patch for about out 6 days now. I still have pain and am on 2400 mg of gabapentin.

The one thing I have noticed about the patch is that the areas I had the patch feel better even after I removed the patch. It says to only keep patch on for 12 hours on and 12 off.

It doesn't seem to be a miracle item. I have been cutting my one patch in two and put it over most painful area. My most pain is on my left side and on abdomen.

Any comments or tips?

I love these patches! I cut them up and put them where ever is hurting, I do use tape to keep them on, especially my knees. I have noticed that my knees don't bother me as much the 12 hours off, if that made sense. I've had them on feet, shoulders, wrist, knees, if I can reach it, and it hurts......

I have been receiving Lidocaine Infusions for 18mths now and have really good results with this. This has to be administered every 6weeks in hospital but the results are really good for around 3weeks and then it slowly wears off.

Placement of the patch is very important. I found putting them where I feel pain doesn't work. You have to put the patch
over the major nerve distribution instead.

If you feel the pain in the abdomen, where exactly? The most likely place to put it is on your back where the nerve root is, for that area.

Looking at a dermatome map may help:
(there used to be a great nerve only graph on the net, that I linked to but the site changed it and it is no longer there)

Try this:
http://www.theodora.com/anatomy/the_...ic_nerves.html

The black dots in this drawing show the nerve roots--the home base of the nerves that go to various places in the body. The lower lumbar area, goes to the lower abdomen, and the lower thoracic goes to the upper abdomen. You have two targets to try.
Place a whole patch vertically just to the side of the spine over these nerve roots, for better relief. The patch is long enough to hit at least 5 nerve roots at a time. Put the first attempt just with the edge of the patch touching the center of your spine and the main part of the patch to the left of that area. If you are too low, with that one, next time raise it up along the back so you are hitting the next 5 vertebrae up. Since your pain is on the left, do the left side of the spine. This is where the pain is coming from most likely and catching the signals there along the spine is more successful. These nerve roots are the pain generators for most neuropathic pain. The nerve roots are where the Zoster virus lives that creates shingles, for example.

Placing the patch over the abdomen in front, typically will do nothing. Placing patches where you "feel" the pain does nothing many times...because the pain is being generated elsewhere along the major nerve in the body. I had to try several places for my MP pain before I found the right spot. Doctors are typically clueless about this, and even the drug reps who sell the patches cannot answer placement questions I have discovered.

Hi everyone,
Mrs. D I went through that chart but can't find what I am looking for. I have severe pain in the side of my left thigh. It goes around to my inner thigh alot. I can't even touch it or have a sheet touch it. I do use patches everyday there and on my bicep areas ( alot of pain and burning there also. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am thinking about getting noe of the contraptions that holds the sheets off of you.
Hopeful

For your pain in the thigh I'd do 1/2 patch the long way over both points in this diagram showing the two major nerves entering the thigh: (disregard the green area).
The two nerves are marked... lateral femoral nerve and femoral nerve.
Put 1/2 patch over the upper thigh where these enter the thigh muscle. There may be some variation in people where these nerves exit. But these spots worked for me when my MP pain was terrible. I used the patches every day for 2 weeks, and then went into a remission after years of suffering.

There was an article in my paper recently, Lidoderm patches are going off patent Nov 2012, and will be generic. Yea!!!

And as I said earlier, I put them where I hurt. Works for me.

Today my wrist hurt. I tried cutting off a small patch for wrist. It works better there for pain than it does on my abdomen. I wear it on inside of wrist.

Lidoderms cannot penetrate thick body parts well.

They will work well on the tops of the feet, and wrists, fingers, etc...and the back. But going thru the muscle fat and fascia of the front of the abdomen or on the buttocks....they are far less effective if at all.

The ganglia along your spine are the best spots to intercept the pain signals for the trunk of the body, and lower back.

Lidoderm patches can be effective for superficial pain syndromes in areas where there is not too much tissue. Sometimes pain is caused by activation of nerve sensors in superficial areas, like wrists, feet, hands, etc. The lidocaine can penetrate to those areas and help with pain. In other areas, the Lidocaine does not reach specific nerves. Placing it on your back will not likely have an effect on your nerve roots,which are much too deep. Usually the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream in those cases and the effect is more a systemic one, similar to an IV Lidocaine infusion.