At What Point Did You ask For Pain Treatment?
 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :/

It also sounds--
 

--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

Oh i'm already under the care of a Neurologist :), unfortunately the appointments are few and far between :/ last time i said my ulna nerve was healed and there was a slight pain in my leg that tended to go away had some follow up tests blood tests and a never conduction study (again) :/ the pain got a lot worse than it was during that appointment, always when you go 2 get something fixed it always fixes itself haha

blood tests as far as i know, showed sub-clinical hypothyroidism, ruled out the autoimmune disorders they tested for and liver function is fine, however they didn't test kidneys and it was far from comprehensive, pain management aside i would like to know why my nerves arn't playing nice with me :P

I completely get the sunburned feeling, it is a good description, several of us suffer with that and I am on pain medication and have not found that it helps that symptom. I get severe shooting pains in my legs from muscle atrophy and the medication helps with that so I can walk and function, but it doesn't touch the burning feeling.
You are so very young, I would try not to take any medication for now and concentrate on finding a cause, as Glenn suggested. Also, video games have been found to help with pain by offering a compelling distraction. I know my son who is your age finds them a great help in coping with pain and psychological issues. Is this something that you enjoy? Are you able to play? I cannot for long because of hand issues, but find that while I can I forget everything going on.

Nerve conduction studies are notorious for stirring up the pain for a few weeks. Does anyone in your family have neuropathy?

oh yeh when I find a video game I like it defiantly helps the pain! being that engrossed in something virtually eliminates it for the duration of the activity :)