I'm almost 7 weeks post op from a lumbar fusion & that familiar nerve pain is coming back. My surgery took 7 hours & I had lots of scar tissue from 2 prior surgeries, so this isn't surprising. I've started PT, slowly though, and walking. I wanted to know what new nerve meds are available besides Neurontin. I haven't had great experiences with it & it wipes me out. I was on Dylantin for a while but a pain management doc warned me about using it. Any ideas?

Carol W.

Hi. I was on Topamax for seven months and am now on Gabitril. I think the Topamax worked better for the nerve pain, although I haven't taken anything that really gets rid of it completely. The Gabitril is working for me with fewer side effects than the Topamax, but it doesn't work for me as well as the Topamax did. Good luck to you in whatever you try - nerve pain is so difficult to live with.

There is a new one out called lyrica that I understand is a good one. Let's hope that you are just undergoing some nerve aggravation temporarily and that they will settle down soon.

Carol

Carol, You might want to ask your dr about the lyrica, my Om rx'ed it for me a couple of months ago but I haven't started it yet as I have some other problems to take care of first.
I have heard from many that say it works great and then of course the other side.
It is made be the same co. that makes nuerontin and is a cousin to it, only it is said that it works better with fewer side efffects.
Good luck, it's sure hard to treat nerve pain.
Linda

Thanks for the replies, I saw the surgeon yesterday & he feels I'm doing great. We talked about pain & he thinks I've made a lot of progress as I'm only taking percocet twice a day. So, I'm going to wait this out for a few more weeks & see what results I get with PT. Sometimes the percocets work well, other times not much. It's good to know there's something else out there though. I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving.

Carol W.