I've been reading the postings here and have found the information invaluable. Much thanks from me.

Though I haven't come across a scenerio quite like mine. I had my gall bladder taken out Novemebr last 30th. Everything went well, and two weeks post-surgery my surgeon told me it looked great, no limitations on anything. I asked him if that included going to the gym and he said of course, whatever you want. So I, very stupidly, went, where upon working out I thought I had ripped something, and was back at the hospital within a few days with severe burning pain across my abdomen.

Nothing showed up in the tests, and I went away for the holidays, where the intense burning pain worsened. My surgeon at this point washed his hands of me, saying he had no clue and sent me to a pain specialist, who said my problem was probably permanent. Outraged, I forced my way to a neurolgist and demanded every test there is.

From reading he stickies, I think I had every necessary blood test performed. There is no indication of any underlying cause other than the injury suffered from lifting weights. Also, the EMG/NCV study came back normal; the thoracolumar spine MRI was fine too. So I was diagnosed with small nerve damage, and was told by one neurologist that it should heal within six months, by another that it should be back to normal within a year.

The key test I've discovered is the skin punch biopsy for small nerves. My insurance, however, wants me to see the head of neurology here at UCLA (where all the above has occured) before appoving this out of network test. Medication wise, during this process I started on neurontin, which made me pleasantly high but had little effect on the burning pain. We switched to Lyrica at 150 a day, again nothing, so I raised if to 300, still not much effect. So now we are on to Cymbalta (30 a day), still no effect but it is having some negaive side effects. The only thing that helps the pain is the lidocaine patches, bringing the pain from a 7-8 to a 4 on a daily basis.

So my questions are, has anyone out there gone through this type of neuropathy? Does the diagnosis sound right? Is there anything I can do to speed along this process? Does anyone know of a place in Los Angeles that performs the skin biopsy test? Any suggestions on meds? And how do you get these lidocaine patches to stay stuck for 12 hours and, also, is it actually no good to use four patches at once? The warnings say three max, but so far nothing untoward has happened.

I think that's everything. Please excuse the length and the rambling nature of my post. Any replies will be much appreciated, as has reading the posts already here, as the past four months have been filled with somewhat debilitating pain and aggravation. It's been been both hope-inducing and calming just reading what others hav to say.

Thanks.