My advise is to take the muscle relaxers, but in order to have them work all the time you have to take them all the time. A conundrum for sure. I'm still at the stage of the game where I'm taking boatloads of meds to manage my pain. I am hoping there will be a day when I'm only on them for flareups - if anything. I recently tried some different musce relaxers: both baclofen and skelaxin didn't do much at all, Soma worked but I was a zombie on it and now I'm back to Flexeril, my trusty med of some 14 years and I'm now able to use it only twice a day compared to three times a day before. I had to go off it and try some others so I could substantiate my claim to my prescription company that I needed the brand name of Flexeril (I'm allergic to an ingredient in the generics of this med). Anyway, I discovered that Flexeril did work the best for me. It is sedating but not as much as the Soma, and it does work well. I don't know how fast it works though, sounds like you need something to work quickly as you don't take it continuously.

I do have a lotion compounded (made by my pharmacy just for me) it is a lotion having amitypaline 5 mg and lidocaine 5 mg - I rub it in to where I'm hurting and it does take the pain away really fast. I carry a teeny bit in my purse for when I am out. Let me know if you need specifics for this. I hope things will settle down for you!

Wow .. the compound sounds very interesting and I will speak to my Doctor about this and see what she thinks. (I may also give the pharmacist a call)

Hereabouts this is a Lipoderm product prescribed by doc and put out by TPS LLC. Good stuff for pain.... but not spasms in my case.

xxx
mark56

I've had Lidocaine patches .. are they the same Mark?

Keto/Baclo/Gaba at 20/2/6% so I figure Gaba is Gabapentin/Neurontin, the others O cannot flesh out.

My compound is 5% Amitryptaline and 5% Lidocaine - PLO. The pharmacist used NDC #38779-0081-05. I can't use the Lidocaine patches (allergies again) and I actually think this lotion is better. It acts quickly, then absorbs just like a regular lotion would. Hope this helps!

I have those patches too Saffy do you find them of any use??? I use two of them 12 hours on and 12 hours off. I find them 'ok' but not great, but then what is?!!!!

No Jackiey .. They did beggar all for me.

I've had compounded creams like that with the Amitriptyline and Lidocaine, but they never seemed to help me for peripheral neuropathy pain. Ditto with the Lidocaine patches. But they do seem to help some folks.