Discussions that mention morphine

We desperately need your help and I hope someone on this board can recognize these symptoms and give this family some direction. A friend's 18 year old daugher woke up two weeks ago with hives all over her body, and muscle swelling....36 hours later she was in the hospital and has been in intensive care ever since. NObody knows what is wrong with her, and she is in so much pain throughout her entire body, even morphine doesn't help. Her dad said when he helped her to the restroom yesterday, she was screaming because of the pain, you simply cannot touch her anywhere. What on earth is wrong?? They have done blood tests, muscle biopsy, every test you can think of, and they don't show anything. They have tested her for Lupus, Rhuemetoid Arthritis, anything and everything, they have 8 doctors on her case right now and not one of them can identify her symptoms and what is causing them. The hives are gone, but she's had this incredible pain throughout her whole body for almost two weeks now, if you so much as touch her she screams, and says even her heart hurts.
Can anyone at all on here help? Does this ring a bell with anyone at all??

if there is nothing actually 'there' that you can see that would be a possible indication of a problem,well it does sound like some sort of neuropathic type of pain or pain syndrome.neuropathic just means that it is stemming from the nerves.the thing is,what caused the hives to appear and was the pain actually a part of that or was the neuro pain actually triggered by some sort of possible 'damage or affectation "it had on the nerves?this sounds really truely bizarre actually.is there ANY possibility that the docs have stated that those hives could have with any possibility have been shingles?this would kind of "fit" with thetype of onset and the resulting pain syndrome she appears to have.

I suffer with quite an array of different types of neuropathic type pain syndromes all due to different types of actual nerve damage.some is from sympathetic nervous system damage and the spinothalamic tract damage inside of my spinal cord.One is called RSD or complex regional pain syndrome,and the other(from the thalamic)is called central pain syndrome.

I would hughly suggest you start looking at some good neuroanatomy sites and read about neuropathic pain syndromes and their possible causes,thsi may at least help you and her family to try and understand what she really IS dealing with here.this type of pain will usually NOT respond to any of the more potent opiate based meds(narcotics)as you are treating a nerve and not an actual painful type injury or something,do you know what I mean?The fact that you stated the morphine didn't help also would back up the neuropathic pain theory.this type of pain actually reponds to things like anti siezure meds(they work for epileptic by calming down the out of control nerve signals that normally trigger their siezures?so in theory,these types of meds will also calm down out of control pain signals)i use gabitril and was on neurontin before that,these meds really were the only type of meds that actually gave me any real relief.I was on very high dose narcotics which did absolutely nothing for me.some types of the tricyclic anti depressants also will possibly work,like elavil(amitriptyline?).

the big thing here is actually finding out what really triggered the hives and what is causing the lingering neuro pain,and are they actually part of the same process or actually non related..i do hope she has some really good neurosugeons working on her case.neurologists just really don't have anywhere near the amount of good experience and overall working knowledge of a neurosurgeon,trust me on that one.

going to a good university teaching hospital is also a good place to go for answers when you are dealing with the more bizarre types of medical problems,really.they just tend to see the worst of the worst and the really obscure types of diseases and conditions.I do think seeing the head of the neurosurgery dept there and having an eval done would be ra really really good place to start.I didn't get any real good answers about my spinal cord issues until I went to the university of MN where I live.the head of NS there had over thirty years of experience and was very knowledgeable about my particular spinal cord cavernoma.

right now,its kind of a guessing game til the docs can start getting some more definitive medical infor.hopefully they will be able toa ctually Dx the real issue and be able to treat it properly.the bidg thing right now for her is that she is recieving the best pain control possible.if the strong narcotics are not really working,trying the meds I mentioned would be some very good alternatives.I am sure that her docs have actualy figured out by now that she does indeed have some sort of neuropathic pain syndrome and are treating her with those appropriate types of meds.

I really do feel for her as I know just how excruciating this type of pain can be.start googling neuropathic pain or their syndromes.this will at least give you some helpful info about this type of pain process.

please keep me posted on just how things are going,K?i will be hoping for the best for her.FB