Starting the testing tomorrow for burning it. There going to numb each never till they find which one is hurting. It's a nerve in my hip joint it's pinched I guess. The pain meds even morphine aren't working.

Anyone do this yet? Good? Bad?

Bill, I fell back in 1986 while we were doing the Lake City Army ammo plant hazmat clean up, broke two lumbar vertebre, some ribs & heavily damaged my lumbar discs..... so I know nerve pain..

Have they tried you on gabapentin yet? It was designed to do something else, but it had a side effect of helping to dramatically decrease nerve pain. It was the first relief that I'd had of zero pain in nearly 25 years. but it can also make you ravenously hungry... I gained 10 lbs in one week.. and the results were tapering off on the pain too...... some folks have great luck with it & little or no side effects....on a minimal dose. now after all my other cancer surg I'm back on the pain meds..... but that 1 week with little pain was so nice........ I'd forgotten what a pain free day felt like.

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be safe,enjoylife,journey well

Not yet,but good luck

I had the problem 18 months ago. The pain was nasty and the meds didn't do much. I had an epidural and was put on Gabapentin. I tried cutting back on the Gabapentin and the pain returned. I went back to the full dosage and no pain since.

My Dr. has me on neurontin, zanaflex, dilantian, tegretol & oxycodone for nerve damage pain. With out them I'd be dead. They don't stop all the pain but they make the pain bearable.

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I'm 67. I don't do timeouts.

I take as little as I can get by with, if I do take some, I won't drive. I'll have an ale if it'll take off some of the pain with a lesser dose. I'm nonoperable stage 4 lung to liver.. fighting it still with chemo, treasuring each day He gives me. so my docs aren't real worried about me starting bad habits. after I mow the yard, or work in the garden I'll pay or it, but it's still great fun. When I want to go shooting or drive, I do without the pills all day so that I can.... it's worth it....Hope that gabapenten (?)med can work for you, I had limited luck with epidurals...........

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be safe,enjoylife,journey well

I had a badly pinched nerve in the L4 or L5 area...can't remember. It went from a local pain, to a burning through my hip/butt cheek, then evolved into a shooting burning pain down the back of my leg until I couldn't feel my toes.

People ask what the pain was like and I describe it as a blow torch burning me to the bone all the way down the back of my leg. I could sit, or stand...nothing else. If I moved from sitting to standing it about crippled me.

I didn't use much in the way of pain killers. I was eating 20 advil a day just to be able to make it to work. After work all I could do was lay on the floor. Couldn't play with the kids...nothing. After about 6 months of just sucking it up I went to the doctor again.

They told me surgery was the only option. The first doctor came in and said it just like this:

"You need surgery, I can do it on Tuesday. I'm going to cut a big "L" shaped incision in your back, fix the problem, and you'll be out of work for 3 months. Talk to the nurse to get it scheduled."

I told him there was no way I was going to miss three months of work and asked if there was a minimally invasive way of doing this surgery. He said "No" and walked out.

I hobbled out and got a second opinion. The second doctor said there absolutely was a minimally invasive way to get it done. He could make a one-inch incision in my back and I'd walk out of the hospital a few hours later.

I scheduled with the second doctor. They told me to quit taking that much advil and gave me a real pain killer. It didn't "kill" the pain but it made life a lot better than it had been when I was just toughing it out.

Sure enough, he fixed it up and I was out of there that afternoon. I took one week off of work just to be safe. The second week I worked half days just to be really safe...and everything has been pretty much great ever since. I'm probably 90% of what I was before. I can't do dead lifts or other exercises that are really intense on the lower back...but I love the work he did on me.

Oh...this was funny. In the pre-op area they have all the patients lined up that are going in for surgery and the nurses are bustling around like bees and doctors are coming in to talk to their patients...it was busy. Well the doctors do a quick pre-op interview to make sure everyone is on the same page for the procedure...the last thing they want to do is operate on the wrong thing. They don't want to amputate your left leg if it's the right leg that's the problem, so the interview is the final check to make sure everything is correct.

Well he walks up to me as I'm laying there waiting for surgery on my lower back and he asks how I'm doing. Then he asks "So what are we operating on today?" I casually started rotating my left arm and holding my shoulder and said "Man doc, I can't wait til you get this shoulder fixed so I can start throwing a football again."

I thought he was going to faint. He started turning white as a ghost and then I quipped "HA! Just kidding. It's my back. You shoulda seen your face dude."

Everyone shared a nervous laugh after that.

I also remember when the anesthesiologist put the mask on me, told me to look at the clock and count to five seconds. I thought "I'm gonna fight this stuff and see how long it takes them to knock me out." I didn't make it to five seconds...there is NO fighting that stuff...it's like a light switch...they hit it and you are OUT.

Good luck.

I had some of the Gabapentin along with some pain meds several years ago. I was wadded up for two months till I changed Drs. Saw him got the drugs and was walking in nine days. Now I did get goofy. But before the drugs I would have been happy to depart this world. 5 hydrocodene a day and still hurt. Tapered off the meds over a six week period. We react to these drugs differently.

Three blown discs, congenital spinal bifada ****ty attitude and the mother of all shoulder nerve impingements and gabapentin, outside of some decent commercial (fill in the blank), saved my ***. But, it is additive.......and one has to gradually increase dosage for desired effect. The Nerontin.

My wife 2 yrs ago had pain so bad in her legs that pain blocks didn't work. Youngest is an emergency room doctor and told her to see a surgeon. She had 5 discs fused and is pain free, she said it was the best thing she ever did. Not sure this would help you but the pills she was taking would have made her a drug addict. Larry

I had pinched nerves in my back and caused my left foot to drop and had to wear a brace on it and suffered from much pain too that drugs didn't help much with. I had back surgery where they channeled out an area to put the nerves in and eliminated the pain and foot drop.
Later I did tear up a couple discs and had pain in right leg and had to use a cane. Drugs didn't help much again nor did injections in my back help much. I had a second surgery and had screws and rods inserted which has helped quite a bit. I did have to retire on disability though as I could no longer do my job.
Good luck with your situation and try and find a good surgeon if it comes to that.

I have had great relief from use of an accupuncturist. Went to a very well trained chinese woman. It seemed to relax the muscles so the swelling went down as did the inflamation. Problem is results vary widely by individuals so what is perfect for me might not work for others. I would spend time looking for help if I had a need cost is rather low and I don't think there are any side effects.

Good luck with your procedure Big Bill. Please let us know how it works for you and hope you feel better. I too have back pain issues and I'm possibly going to have that procedure done. I had minimally invasive surgery done on one of my discs 3 years ago and the pain is back. I have degenerative disc disease compounded by very aggressive Rhuematoid Arthritis. The RA has attacked where the surgery was performed and has increased the problems. A stenosis is the result and when the RA quiets down Gabapentin and Vicadin make life bearable. I'm trying to prolong surgery due to the RA variable.