chronic, disabling nerve pain in arms and legs

[CTyankee]

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]

1. B6 toxicity causes nerve pain and in some cases

rare, permanent damage. B6 is in lots of energy products!

[CTyankee]

3. Are you talk about a job related health problem? what is B6, a chemical used by plumbers?

[Rebl2]

12. B6 is

a vitamin, like B12 or folate are vitamins. Too much B6 can cause neurological/nerve damage.

[mopinko]

2. lyrica is for neuropathy.

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]

4. His conidition scares us to death...he lives alone, altho he has a caregiver who looks in on him

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]

5. it is crazy expensive.

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]

10. Another neuropathy sufferer

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]

11. Gabapentin/Lyrica dizzy

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]

6. Strong pain killers

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]

8. I think he needs a second opinion from another doctor. This is crazy.

I'll call him over the weekend and try to talk to him about it.

[CountAllVotes]

9. Believe me I've tried them all

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]

7. Elavil helped me

The generic is not expensive.

[CTyankee]

14. I thought Elavil was an anti-depressant. Is this another use of the drug?

[torius]

16. Yes it is given for nerve pain.

That what I got it for. Much info online on this.

[nilram]

13. Yes, he should see a neurologist.

Depending on who’s counting, there are between 100-300 different causes for neuropathy in general. Some of them are treatable, especially if they’re caught early. (If he was a plumber, I’d think they’d want to test for metals or contaminants in his system, besides whatever else they do.)

Gabapentin is the first drug they’d 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 it’s 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. There’s 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. There’s research going on at Yale about genetic causes of nerve pain, so I’d 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. There’s also a sub-board there on supplements that people have tried. Hopefully this link works… https://www.neurotalk.org/peripheral-neuropathy/

[CTyankee]

15. I will have a discussion with him about the Yale connection. Most docs here have a relationship

with Yale and that's great. I'm glad I live in New Haven with access to Yale.