[Grantious]

Hey Guys

I'm a 24 y.o Guy and I was Diagnosed with Ulna Neruopathy (suspected compression) after I had numbness and tingeing in my hand i was scheduled for surgery when it magically went away! YAY so i cancelled that. Unfortuantly a nerve in my leg decided it wanted to do a little magic of its own, I was spared the tingeing but instead it was replaced with numbness and a lovely burning sensation, more tests have been run to rule out a systemic cause in any case i have a appointment with my neuro in a little over a week and its been painful for a few months now, its driving me a little crazy, its distracting more than anything i'm considering asking them for medication of some description but its not amazingly painful.. just insessent and constant and annoying like a sun burn that wont heal minus the red irritation.

So back to my topic, at what point did u decide to ask for treatment?, cause i feel a little silly because some people have it so much worse :/

Thanks for any input

Grant.

[skutters]

It may not help but I didn't ask. My Doc prescribed me the Lyrica. It was day 3 of my sudden onset of undiagnosed suspected PN. That was 3rd Jan 2014.

[Stacy2012]

If it is only "distracting" then it is not time for medication. IMO

Mine is way more than distracting, but I have not given in yet, but I am not dissing anyone on medication, and one day I may/will give in to medication. My thought is, as long as I can get by without it I will. I am young and I believe once I get on it, I wont get off it and there are too many side effects to deal with and the dose has to keep getting upped.

I wont live in misery or pain but as long as I can manage it through life style changes, diet, and supplements, then I will.

[Susanne C.]

I am usually an advocate for aggressive pain management as it can be so important to having any quality of life, but as we are discussing about Gabapentin in another thread, all of these medications carry some drawback. Long term use, and if your neuropathy is permanent so will your medication be, can cause memory loss. More aggressive pain killers may need to be titrated up and can be a problem for some people, as well as not being very effective for some neuropathic pain. It can be a long trial and error period to find an anti-depressant that helps the pain and those have many side effects as well.

I am not trying to discourage you from seeking relief, only saying that is it is truly just uncomfortable and distracting rather than painful you are wise to wait. There are a number of over the counter remedies and supplements that you will find here which may help the symptoms, or even aid recovery if yours is treatable.

If and when you find that you would benefit from pain management, almost any doctor would agree to trying Gabapentin. It is considered to be very safe and they are comfortable writing a prescription for it as it is non-abusable, and is the first line treatment for neuropathy. The next step is usually an anti-depressant, and later a pain medication if necessary. If they follow this protocol with physical therapy and other treatments as indicated they have covered themselves.

Many of us here do experience considerable lessening of the burning and electrical zapping with Gabapentin. Some of us get similar results from supplements such as R- Lipoic acid.

No one can decide for you whether it is time to treat the pain, but the longer you put it off the longer up you put off the side effects. Pain that disrupts your life and your mood, however, should be treated.

Actually there is some evidence of abuse potential.

[Grantious]

its very hard to describe honestly, it feels like when you have a sun burn and you have a hot shower and the pain is very dependent on what position i'm in, like laying down it hurts the most while I'm walking it tends to go away a bit. when I'm bored its SOOO annoying because all you can do is focus on it. luckily the numbness isn't nearly as noticeable as it was in my hand, obviously because you have less to feel. OTC pain medications are absolutely useless which is a shame but like i said i occasionally suffer form a actual wound and i'm reminded of how bad it really isn't. the most annoying part is when the pain spikes and it feels like being pricked with a few needles which happens in a few private situations

So at times i'm fully up for medication, however as the first responded pointed out side effects can be an issue, also i'm already on a couple medications for some depression and anxiety issues, so it'd b adding to a list of medications
argh complected situation because at times especially when im bored and depressed all i can do is focus on it, but i've also read that treatment is occasionally partially effective :/

[glenntaj]

--barring any obvious causes of nerve compression, such as certain heavily-engaged in exercises/athletics or blunt trauma, as if you could use a more comprehensive work-up to see, yes, if there is something more systemic going on here.

There are certainly systemic causes of neuropathy, many of them autoimmune or nutritional, that may present as multiple mononeuropathies that may wax and wane over time and show up in different body parts.

You might want to look at the following sites to get a sense of the many different possible causes of neuropathy and the testing that might be involved; I suspect you've likely only had a fraction of these tests as it takes real specialists to be familiar with many of them:

www.lizajane.org

http://www.questdiagnostics.com/test...ripheralNeurop

[dogwalker]

[QUOTE=Susanne C.;1050308]
almost any doctor would agree to trying Gabapentin. It is considered to be very safe and they are comfortable writing a prescription for it.

The primary doctor, podiatrist, and neurologist that I saw regarding burning pain on the soles of my feet all seemed not only comfortable, but even eager to give a prescription for gabapentin. With my pain being limited to one specific area, I found it disturbing that their solution was to offer a systemic drug that is effective for only a minority of patients, and has a lot of potential side effects. From info gained on this forum, I asked the last doctor for the lidocaine patch, which turned out to work adequately. There are various topical creams, lotions, and patches, which you can read about by searching the forum.

[Electron]

Grant,
One bad thing about starting on drugs is that, if they give you relief then you become complacent about trying to pursue actually healing your condition. There is the temptation to go back to life as usual.

If your symptoms are 'tolerable', whatever that is for you, then I urge you to continue pursuing a cause for your PN and attempt to reverse it, or at least manage it, with exercise, a healthy diet, stress management, supplements, and maybe certain foods that you find to help. And for me, a healthy diet does not mean switching from beef to chicken, or eating a smaller portion of pizza, it means eliminating animal products and loading up on fresh vegetables (especially leafy greens), fruits, legumes, and whole grains.

If you get to a point where you cannot function normally (school, work, etc.), you are just miserable, or your relationships are suffering, then I think it is time to get on some medications.

You have found a good group here, so just keep posting your thoughts and you're sure to get some good feedback. Good luck down there.
Ron

[Grantious]

Oh don't worry my neurologist is still running tests and stuff, we'll see what happens in that regard, i'm praying that it's something simple! not sure how i'd be able to handle something progressive