I've seen a number of you mention using custom pharmacy compounded creams including a slew of ingredients like lidocaine-ketamine-gabapeptin-diclofan-etc. I wanted to hear about others' experiences and had a few questions about it as I'll be getting my first batch this week.

1) Have you experienced any of the systematic side effects you typically get with the oral versions of these drugs or are they pretty side effect free?

2) Does the effect of them wear off over time or are they pretty resistant to that?

3) What does it feel like when you apply it? Is the area completely numbed or does it just go back to feeling normal?

4) If you have had a nerve injury but the actual pain is experienced further down the nerve path does the cream work better more around the injury site or around the pain area?

The cream should be arriving this week and I'll let you guys know exactly what's in it and how it's working and probably more questions.

I can shed some light on this a little and answer some of these questions. I have atypical trigeminal neuralgia that happened after some odd dental work. The nerve in my face was damaged. The pain was horrendous.

I use a compounded cream with Gabapentin, lidocaine and capsaicin and rub it on the affected area four to five times a day.

I felt dizzy the first two days I used it.

I got little relief the first week or two. Then, suddenly, the third week, I felt an improvement.

My face does not feel particularly numb. When I use it 5x (as opposed to 4) sometimes I feel a little numbing in my face.

It mostly just weakens that gawd awful pain from hexx.

In my case the cream simply influences the pain site directly.

It has been a huge blessing.

If I forget to use it, I absolutely feel the pain coming back clearly. A cold wind does cause more pain.

I don't seem to have side effects...perhaps a tiny amount of weight gain and some additional memory issues. But minor (in comparison to my other meds). My neuro prescribed this largely because I was having great stomach difficulties with the meds he had prescribed for me previous to this tx. Other than perhaps the first two days, this compounded cream does not bother my stomach. It is a life saver!!!!

Hope your situation works out very well and brings much relief.

Interesting, thanks for sharing your experience. I was losing faith as it didn't seem to be doing much after 5 days of using it, but perhaps it will take a few weeks like yours did to set in.