Ask your doc about SCS. It is a real life saver. How it works: Your nerves can only transmit one signal at a time, and the stronger signal is the one that gets through to the brain. SCS is a stronger signal, but not painful at all. Since the SCS signal is monopolizing your nerve pathways, the pain from your knees to ankles is magically gone.

When I woke up from the anesthesia, all I could think about was Ahhhhh.

Think about it Mark. You deserve lasting relief.

I admire the problem but i don't have any answers.
I just wanted to let you know your not alone in this
I know for me lyrica and the like just aren't for me but I know I've said no to that med so many times and it feel like I get worn down enough to try it again than I think hold up and I stop myself.
I found this site has set my mind straight on lyrica as i went through a deep depression that both me and my therapist at the time just couldn't find an answer to this helped answer that question I wish I would of known that a few yrs back
http://www.prescriptiondrug-info.com/Discuss/lyrica-side-effects-199160.htm#.UTIsVWZf6A8.blogger

I know this drug is great help to some but this for the not so helpful

and here is that link to eliminating nerve pain
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/complementary-medicine/200811/eliminate-nerve-pain-naturally#.UTJAIziY1ZB.blogger

hang in there and keep us posted
tori

Your on a pretty low dose of Methadone and it would be the one to go up on. As a long acting med, Methadone is one of the preferred these days if it works for you, Methadone has a really long half life, so it stays in your system for quite a while, which allows you to take less at longer intervals, which is usually the goals, less meds with more relief. Talk to your PM and see if you can up the Methadone, it may even cause less need for the BT Oxy.

Take care,

Kat

Kat is always the "go to" person here for information about meds. She always has the right answer when it comes to dosing, so I'd listen to her advice.

As for the SCS, I'd ask about one. I have one as well and it's been a God-send to me. Long periods of time with no pain in my legs or feet. Occasionally the pain breaks through the SCS but b/t meds help with that .Right now I need a whole body SCS. I hope someone invents one soon!
Sandy

thanks to all of you for your reply's, whats SCS i tried the cordial simulator and that was a nightmare, i go to my pain doc on Friday so i am trying to get as much info as i can, my pain doc sucks but here in Florida pain docs are hard to get. all they care about here is stopping all the junkies from getting oxy, at the cost of people like us who have a legitimate need

Hi Mark. SCS is spinal cord stimulator. They snake leads into your epidural space in your spine to the level that covers your painful area. For you that would be thoracic. Mine is cervical for my arms and hands.

You first have a trial where they insert the leads and leave the wires attached to a hand-held unit. That way you get to try before you buy, so to speak. If it works for you, you then get one that is implanted under your skin. I've had mine for close to 3 years and I love it.

oh yea i did that trial, the doctor that inserted the wire was brutal and when i used it it made my pain worse, it irritated my nerves i hated it

Hi; I don't know if it will help, but have you considered a Fentanyl patch? Before I started using them I was in a wheelchair for 3 years, and had tried everything. My doctor started me on a medium dose (75 mcg/h), and I could tell a difference. The next month she bumped it to 100 and I was walking within two weeks. It works great for me as long as I can keep it on. The problem is that when I have it on, if I'm overdoing it I don't know until I start having problems.
I hope this helps. Good luck!

Hi. I have pain from nerve damage too and was going to suggest trying a patch like amia did below. Im on the Lidocaine ones and while they don't make all the pain magically disappear they do ease it alot on the spot you put on and that helps you get more much needed sleep.

I've heard conflicting things about oxy on here and from different docs. My current pain management specialist said oxy does nothing for nerve pain and, after i went thru horrible withdrawals, i found that to be true because there was no change in the nerve pain once i was off them.

Good luck with your appt, i hope they find something to help you.

Maddy, I partly agree with you about the opioids not working for nerve pain. With my own personal experience, they work, but not very much. But I have both nerve pain and, I can't remember what the other kind of pain is called. But I have both types of pain, so while the opiates that I take regularly work rather well for my back and knee pain, it doesn't help all that much for the nerve pain. And I'm also on the max dose of gabapentin as well. I don't take that for pain as much as for the other symptoms it takes care of, like full-body "twitches" (I have multiple myoclonus, have had it since I hit puberty, so I know it's not from any medications I'm on) as well as the general achiness and lead feeling in my body. If I miss a dose, I can't move because my body feels like it's full or lead. You know what I mean? At any rate. I just started taking nortriptyline a few weeks ago to try out for nerve pain, because I remembered that when I was taking amitriptyline years ago for sleep, towards the end it no longer worked for sleep, but I still felt great in the morning when I woke up (I stopped taking it about...6-7 years ago), so I figured I'd give nortriptyline a try, as that's the most prescribed of the tricyclics for nerve pain. It's definitely made a difference for me with the burning, stinging nerve pain. It doesn't TOTALLY get rid of it, but it definitely dulls it enough where I don't notice it 24/7. I personally think that the tricyclic antidepressants are underutilized for nerve pain these days, now with Lyrica and Cymbalta and Savella being used. But tricyclics work in a different manner than those three drugs, and there's some kind of mechanism that, even though they don't work as well as an antidepressant, they seem to work very well for many people with nerve pain and chronic pain in general.

And Mark, have you ever discussed getting a pain pump implant with your doctor? The implant that is connected with your spinal cord and the medicine goes right into your spinal cord and brain and bypasses having to go through the whole GI tract and blood before it kicks in, and therefore you need to very, very little amount of the medicine to do the same, or greater, amount of work. My doctor wanted me to get one, but I was told by my back speciatlist that they were phasing that out at the hospital that he works for. However, I don't know if they ever phased it out at my other local hospital, so I think I'm going to ask if they are still doing the implants here at the other hospital, because I've been having issues with my skin and the patches, as well as long-term issues with oral pain medications, because I'm a hypermetaboliser and also have a very, very high tolerance. I think my best option would be a pain pump, and my GP agrees, it's just trying to find a hospital that still does the implant surgery. But at any rate, that might be something that you might want to discuss with your doctor. I personally think it might be still too early on, because as someone pointed out, you're on a rather low dose of methadone at the moment and you have quite a lot of wiggle room to up your dosage at the moment (well, there is no ceiling with opioids, outside of buprenorphine, it's all dependent on the individual's tolerance to opioids), but that might be something that you'll want to keep in the back of your mind for the hopefully far off future.
I also agree with trying to give the fentanyl patch a try. I know that some people view them as scary, but if you follow the directions, there's really nothing scary about them, and it's actually a little safer than methadone, really. I like them because you only need to change them every 72 hours, instead of having to worry about making sure you take your long-acting pill every 8 hours on the dot or else you start going through withdrawals, which is how it is with me because of how I metabolize drugs. When it starts wearing off towards the time you're supposed to change your patch, it doesn't hit you all at once, it slowly wears away. The patches come in both the gel reservoir patch, and the matrix drug-in-the-adhesive patches, so there's a choice between the two if you do choose to discuss that with your doctor.
You have plenty of options. I hope the best for you and hope that you get your medications adjusted properly so that you can feel some relief from your pain!

By the way, wow, didn't think my comment was nearly that long LOL! Sorry!

I hope your appointment went well Friday and that your doctor gave you what you needed to stop your pain! Have a great Easter.

Jeanne (AmiaEagle48)

yes i have considered the pain pump but since my bad experience with the cortical stimulator and my bad luck with doctors in general and my desire to get off narcotics eventually, i don't want to do the pain pump only when i am totally out of options maybe

As far as the methadone is concerned ... its possible to get up to a dosage that will eventually block the effects of any other opiates. It seems counter active -- a little like peein' in the wind.

Your doc *should* know ... I'm not gonna mention dosages etc... not giving medical advice.

Wish you luck - hope you feel better!

Methadone does not block other opiates. As you see Mark also uses Oxy as a break thru med. The only time Methadone would block the other narcotics/opioids is if it was mixed with an antagonist. Methadone has a half life of 24 - 36 hours so it stays in your system for a very, very long time which requires less dosages of the drug, and it's been proven to be very effective in pain control, especially in neck and back pain.