Hey guys,
My worst post injury pain management problem has been chronic urethra pain.
It can be a constant slicing/burning sensation, comparable to what some
people get during urinary tract infections. My symptoms started after years
of passing kidney stones and procedures for kidney stones. The best guest
of my urologist is that all lead to nerve damage that drives the pain. Why
is it when complete quads have sensation below the injury level it's never
pleasure?!
The pain became so bad it was really shutting down the rest of my life and
got me thinking of suicide when my actual accident and paralysis did not.
so we tried absolutely everything both traditional and alternative
medicines. Nothing seemed to work, even massive amounts of morphine. By
keeping a very detailed pain diary, I did discover that Neurontin sometimes
helped reduce the severity of my pain episodes, by about a third, though
not their frequency. That still wasn't enough to give me my life
back, but I have taken it regularly ever since. a couple of years ago I
tried to see if I could stop it, but I quickly had pain flareups and so
went back to it.
I stumbled on my current solution by accident. I was briefly treated for
some severe spasticity after taking a spill out of my wheelchair. My old
school doctor prescribed an old-school anti-spasmodic, Soma. At the
same time, my neurologist had me temporarily back on Norco (according to
my tracking it might have reduced pain experienced by 5 to 10% under some
conditions) while trying to figure out what else we could try. The un
planned cocktail of the two, while not contraindicated, had an amazing
effect on my pain. During mild to moderate episodes, it shut it down
completely, like flipping off the switch. During severe episodes of pain,
it pushed it way down so that I could be functional again. It was the holy
Grail.
I have tinkered with the cocktail a couple of times, in hopes that the
underlying causes might have declined over time, and when my insurance
company stopped covering Soma as part of its across-the-board campaign
against opioids. Reducing the medication and substituting similar
compounds, such as Valium instead of soma, didn't work. Meanwhile, there is
no sign of declining efficacy or addiction – – I am not taking more now
than I did five years ago.
I doubt my cocktail would help you in your situation. The symptoms are so
different. My point is, to cautiously explore outside orthodox treatments.
Our conditions are such a tiny minority that case history simply doesn't
exist. Will my physicians ever write a paper talking about how these three
meds in concert solved a highly unusual chronic pain condition in an aging
quad? No. The applicability just isn't there for wider treatment. Each of
us is left reinventing the wheel for our own quasi-unique conditions. I
wouldn't experiment outside of a doctor's care, what I would want a doctor
that is willing to try and try and try different approaches, even Hail Mary
passes, on the chance that you can put together a novel, individualized
treatment..
Don't give up
ed
.
Regards,
Ed Tessier - Mobile: (909) 994-5900
Jeved Management, Inc.
