Health
Related: About this forumchronic, disabling nerve pain in arms and legs
We have a good friend just cancel (again) on us for dinner due to this disabling condition. My questions are:
*Is there no drug he can take to alleviate this pain? He says no. I have nerve pain caused by post herpetic neuralgia myself (not his situation) and I take Gabopentin with success.
*Has his doctor checked him out for possible nerve damage? He was a plumber for 30 years, can that cause disabling nerve pain?
*Is a neurologist the specialist he should be seeing for this?
*Has he been checked for other causes of nerve pain?
He has great health insurance so I know he has enough coverage. When he feels better (this condition comes and goes) I plan to ask him these questions...he lives alone and we worry about him...
rainy
(6,178 posts)rare, permanent damage. B6 is in lots of energy products!
CTyankee
(64,826 posts)a vitamin, like B12 or folate are vitamins. Too much B6 can cause neurological/nerve damage.
mopinko
(71,597 posts)it helped my fibro a lot. i dont take it any more, and dont have a lot of pain right now.
but he should get a full work up. he should start w his pcp, and see who he should go to from there.
he shouldnt suffer like this. pain is bad for you. it is also always important to find the root cause. it sounds pretty serious to me.
CTyankee
(64,826 posts)and keeps in touch by phone.
As for Lyrica, my primary care doc gave me a sample of that and I believe that was what caused my fender bender a couple of months ago. I can't prove that it impaired my driving but it might have. At any rate, I can't take it because it is too expensive and there is no generic. It's OK because I get relief from the other nerve pain med I take now...
mopinko
(71,597 posts)i backed it out in art because i had to pay out of pocket for meds for a few months.
there is supposed to be a generic on the way, but who knows. i suspect it will be "evergreened"
i wonder what the generic will cost.
Born1950
(1 post)I had bad side effects with Lyrica. It affected my balance and made me feel like I was in a pinball machine because I was bouncing off the walls and furniture in order to not fall. Gabapentin works okay but not all the time. I have neuropathy in my feet.
CountAllVotes
(21,032 posts)Sadly, it is not just in my feet.
It is all over my entire self!
It is so very difficult to live with.
You get real close to giving up at times.
Hang-in there!!
CountAllVotes
(21,032 posts)That is the only thing that makes it go *poof* just for a bit.
There is no cure for neuropathy and wow does it ever suck!
CTyankee
(64,826 posts)I'll call him over the weekend and try to talk to him about it.
CountAllVotes
(21,032 posts)From tylenol to lyrica to everything else.
This is a curse!
I hope he can get some help.
Thanks for trying to help him.
torius
(1,652 posts)The generic is not expensive.
CTyankee
(64,826 posts)torius
(1,652 posts)That what I got it for. Much info online on this.
nilram
(2,957 posts)Depending on whos counting, there are between 100-300 different causes for neuropathy in general. Some of them are treatable, especially if theyre caught early. (If he was a plumber, Id think theyd want to test for metals or contaminants in his system, besides whatever else they do.)
Gabapentin is the first drug theyd try for a sensory, small-fiber neuropathy. For most people, it has the lowest side-effect profile. Lyrica hits the same receptor in the nervous system, but needs to be taken only twice a day (Gabapentin is taken three-times a day). I take a time-release version of Gabapentin, but its practically as expensive as Lyrica. Unfortunately, these just tend to blunt the pain rather than relieve it. He may have to be patient and up the Gabapentin or Lyrica dose to an effective level. Theres also maybe a half-dozen non-opioid drugs that they can also try.
Some folks are having good luck with some combination of hemp/canibis/CBD/THC. There are some supplements that some folks get good results with. And some get good results with acupuncture, meditation, massage, or other alternative treatments. After a full neurologic work-up, maybe a pain clinic could help sort out alternatives.
Top-notch centers for peripheral neuropathy include the Cleveland Clinic, John Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic. Theres research going on at Yale about genetic causes of nerve pain, so Id think the Yale New Haven hospital would be a top-notch place to go, too.
A place to troll for more info is the Peripheral Neuropathy board of NeuroTalk. Theres also a sub-board there on supplements that people have tried. Hopefully this link works
https://www.neurotalk.org/peripheral-neuropathy/
CTyankee
(64,826 posts)with Yale and that's great. I'm glad I live in New Haven with access to Yale.