My Nerve Pain is Back!!

[skych]

Hello Everyone,

I thought that I was doing well and I guess I was wrong!

I am guilty of getting to excited to early!!

Anyway, over the past 4 days or so my nerve pain has returned and I am somewhat dissapointed!

The entire reason for going off everything completly was to see if I really did have any pain left and the answer is that I Do!

I hated the Methadone but it really did do its job as far as taking all my pain away.

I am not going back on any opiate Meds at this time. I just can't and the pain...well we will just have to see what it does.

It is staying around a 4-6 at this time and I am tryng to manage with tylenol untill I can go to the store and get some aleive. PM Dr. Suggested that yesturday when I saw him.

Today I remembered that I still have some Lidoderm Patches and I called the PM Doc and asked if I can be back on those...he said this was fine.

For now I have been really trying not to allow my pain to be my Identity and to not give it all the power...Hard

We will just have to see as time goes on. At the present the PT is still going on but has some new restrictions. They actually are to stop after 2 more visits and the PM Doc the Nurse case manager and the PT Doc are trying to get more approved before I see my surgeon on July 18th.

I miss you guys so much! I wish I could be on the board everyday and responding to you all. But time and places for access are limited at this point.

I am just doing the deal one day at a time and I am grateful for the things I do have!!

I will be to check later I think and for sure tomorrow. I could use some support and feed back as usual.
I love and miss you guys....Chrissy

[reachout]

Hello Chrissy

Sorry it is a hurtin' day for you. Chrissy, help me remember.. how long has it been since you came off all opiates? I ask because I also deal with severe nerve damage and it took a long time here... talking months.... before the nerve pain went away really significantly. Now it is just an ocassional irksome thing.

I havr found that magnesium has been a great help. It actually is an alternative supplement for nerve damage and pain. Even helps with the jerky leg thing. You know, I have learned that restoring the body absolutely does occur, just not as fast as we think it all to. It has a 'mind of its own." Hahaha! Corrrrrrnnnnny!

Give it some more time, pleaswe. I know 8-12 weeks might sound like forever, but honestly and truly, if you can hold out, I believe you will see a remarkable change.

Stay strong, hurt less (???? )
reach

[mk7657]

Hi chrissy.

As you may already know, I was taking the hydros for two degenerated discs in my back. There is some arthritus in there to make things worse.

When the opiates were completely out of my system, the pain was much worse than I rememberd it. I thought that maybe it was a mistake coming off of the pills. But after about 5 weeks or so, the pain eased off to the point where Ibuprophen was effective. I'm not sure if the muscles that support the discs in my back got stronger, effecitvely making a larger space between vertebrae, or if coming off of the opiates has a rebound effect on pain that fades with time.

No matter what the reason was, I'm with reach on this. It needs time.

I hope that your not hurting too bad. My prayers and thoughts are with you.

Mike

[skych]

Hi Guys,

Thanks so much for psoting.

I think I may get my computer back soon, but will have to get it all protected again anyway...

Right now my pain hangs around at a 5-6 which I am trying to manage with the Lidoderm patch and today I started Naproxin which is what the PM Doc said to use.

I am done decreasing off of the Clonidine which was a blood pressure med they had me on while detoxing from the Methadone. I am now in the process of decreasing off of a med called Baclofen. It is an anti spasmotic. I go down a pill a week for three weeks and then I will be done with that.

On This Sunday It will be two weeks with out the opiates! Yeah!!! But bummer about the pain. I am going to give it time and see what happens.
Last night I was a bit concerned because the entire elbow joint was really bothering me plus the nerve pain. Not sure what that is about.

Before the ulnar nerve surgery on my elbow in March I had this snapping of what they believed to be some type of scar tissue that rolls around over the epicondyle of my elbow when I flex beyond 90 degrees. I had so much pain before the surgery that I did not know untill now that it bothered me too. The Surgeon was aware of this issue of the snapping with flexion, before the surgery and if I understood correctly he said he chose not to do a surgery that would fix that part because it involved shaving bone and more pain....he was concerned that it would be to much for me to handle with the current issues.

No surgeries are full proof anyway. I may just have to live with this for ever I am not sure.
I was told that a nerve will regerate about an inch a month so they expected about up to 18 months for me with some permanent damage and disability.
Every surgery that I have had on my left wrist and elbow involved working near or on the Ulnar Nerve. As it is with my wrist I will never lift more than 20-25 pounds and I will never have full range of motion with that wrist.
After the elbow ulnar nerve transostition I have as of now not regained the feeling in my pinky and ring finger. I still have numbness and tingling in those fingers and my palm and left side of my arm. Just not as much burning.

As far as where they moved the ulnar nerve in my elbow...the nerve is in a new place so it is more on the innner part of the bend in the elbow. Less exposed to trauma there. So I won't have the funny bone thing if I bump my elbow anymore because that is actuallly the nerve you feel when that happens, and it is not in that location anymore.
I feel the pain is intermitent at this point and in a manageable state. If i get to a place where it is spiking into the 8 and 10's causing me to vomitt or can't get it under controll at that pint I will have to discuss what to do about it. I will not live with it like that because it is just to darn hard.

Life just has this funny way of changing directions on you. I guess my biggest fear is that I willl be booted out of workers comp and forced to go pack to work with severe pain issues. I have just been through so much already. I mean no amout of money or education is going to give me back my arm....you just cant put a price on those things.

I am not ther yet so I just try to stay in today and do the tasks for today! Pain is a huge distraction for me....when it is not managed right.

Right now it is back to the point where I don't even want my elbow to remotly touch certain types of surfaces.
I am wondering if the surgery has caused new nerve damage because they had to cut through to the deepes layer of my skin to put the nerve into a new bed "resting place" Who knows. I am in the process of making alist of things to ask my surgeon when I go to see him on the 18 of July.

Well I better run... I gotta go to the bank and takwe caare of some business there. I will try to get cought up tomorrow or if I get my computer back today maybe I may be able to get its protection stuff reinstalled and be on line later this evening. No promises though...Send Shay my loe I don't have time to post there today.
In Spirit....Chrissy

[mk7657]

chrissy:

It sounds like you are very knowledgeable about the anatomy of your nerve injuries, in fact, about all of your injuries. Proactive care is what my doctor likes to see, and that is precisely what you are doing.

I prayerfully hope that you don't have to go back to the methadone. But if it's God's will, so be it.

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Mike