If I am not medicated enough I will sit on my couch all day and night and shake my legs over and over like a crazy person. My Doctors want to take a conservative approach to my neurapathy and have me take nothing to address the pain. I get very upset I call them barbaric. What is it? Do they not believe how painful this is?? Or do they just not have enough experience? Student Neurolgist, and My Primary Doctor. I have State ins. It wont be another 6 months before I get good ins through my soon to be husband. There are days I am fit to be tied. I have alot of days that the pain in not under control and I have heart palpatations most of the day cause my blood pressure is so high. I am already on Toperal XL a blood pressure medacine. I just dont know what to do.

It sounds as if you really need distractions and physical exercise. I had back surgery 2 years ago, and my legs were like rubber afterwards because my back was sooo weak. I discovered swimming. No pressure on back or legs and it worked my muscles and also provided cardio benefits. Your BP may be up due to to much stress. Swimming can be a good outlet for you. Is there a public pool around you??

How long have you been on Toprol XL? I was on it for over 2 years before it started giving me uncontrollable anxiety, which my benzo wouldn't touch, and it was way before I had PN. You can verify the anxiety thing by going to askapatient.com. They have patient reviews of meds, and I discovered that 1 in 3 patients on Toprol XL for more than 2 years complained of anxiety. You might want to ask your Dr for a different beta blocker. (My wife was on it too, and had issues) Good Luck.

If your experience is anything like mine, It is probably going to be a long drawn out and painful process. It can beat you down so badly at times and so very angry at the medical system. The same system that says that no one should have to live in pain anymore. Such hypocrisy. I don’t think the vast majority of doctors have experience with pain or understand the severity of pain that you have, or I had. I’ve been on Tramadol (max dose) and more recently morpine for over a year now with significant relief. (as well as Lyrica and Cymbalta, max dose). Before that I intentionally spent a year specifically NOT taking any narcotics to prove that I wasn’t displaying “drug seeking behaviors.” That’s just crazy--let’s not give him what he needs because he wants it.

Before that, I kept trying to explain to an ever-expanding list of MDs about how much pain I was in. And almost all of them said that they have “never heard of that” or that, “regardless of what’s happening with my symptoms what I really need is to exercise and eat a healthy diet.” Which I don’t disagree with, by the way, but it just sounded so #*#&^* trivial to me at the time. One of those doctors was the one who told me that we would never understand the condition that I have if we disguised it with pain medicine. Thankfully, that same guy, three years later, finally referred me to a pain management specialist. I don’t think these folks mean to be barbaric and so I cast my vote for ill-educated. I think I finally wore him down with my incessant searches for non-effective methods of pain relief. It took over five years to get pain relief. The system is biased toward conservative approaches to treatment. I think that you may have to be the one to save yourself through knowledge and persistence. Best wishes.

I have been on Toperal XL 8 years and yes I have major anxity. amike, Thank You for your story. Im am frustrated. I feel like I am not as active since this has happened. I try going for walks. They dont turn out to be as long as I would like them to be. There is a ymca where I live and I am very open to doing the swimming. THis has taken me down. I feel like I am not he same woman I use to be. I am usually a very social person and Ive noticed that I dont seem to care anymore about being around people or making new friends. I stopped working. The pain just got to be too much and everyday. Now I spend alot of time in my kitchen cooking and baking. Its the only thing that gets my mind off of the pain and it makes me feel good about myself cause I feel like I am still taking care of my family. I know I need a pain specialist, a pain clinic. I need something. I resent when the Doctors think your pill seeking. Who the heck wants to be on any pill of any sort? NOBODY wants to live this way.