Ongoing neck and hand pain solutions?

No I have not tried a Spinal Cord Stim and from my experience with handling Workers Compensation claims they cause more problems then good. I am seeing a pain Mgmt Specialists and a Chiro. I am taking Neurotin for the nerve pain in my arm. It does help but makes me very sleepy and it does not help the neck and shoulder spasms due to the bulging disc's. The pain Mgmt physician did mention radial frequency but wanted to try the ESI's and Facet Injections first. Currently neither of them worked and due to the inflammation the chiro believes it is causing pinching of the nerves and the ulnar nerve. They are going to wait until the middle of Aug. to see if anything changes and if not then we go onto the next thing. I was wondering if any one had any other suggestion because the meds make me tired and the meds for the nerve pain and burning in my arm does not touch the neck spasms. Flexeril was prescribed for the spasms but when I take both meds I'm down and just feel really out of it. Thanks for your response

I'm benefitting from my Spinal Cord Stimulator. I've tried 5 different muscle relaxers over the years and settled on Flexeril as being the best for me. Have you tried any others? Neurontin is a very old version of Lyrica - I was on it for many years and had some really bad side effects. Lyrica works much better - still has side effects but I get more out of it. Steroids are incredibly bad for your body - why put something into your system that will do harm to a lot of you rather than try a procedure that deals with the only the affected area? Not any of my business - just offering these things up for consideration based on my 15 years of living with chronic pain and neuropathic pain. Best thing to do? Get into support groups online, get involved, find out what is beneffiting people. Best of luck to you - ElizaJane

I just reread your comment (frustrating that we can't see it in our replies!). I know it's hard to adjust to these medications, but you will, in time. It's better than the alternative, which is to live with the pain. It's amazing as to what levels of meds your body can tolerate with time. I hope for you that you find a solution and don't have to live on the meds. But if you do, your body will adjust. Don't throw out the stimulator - before I'd settle for living on the meds I would give it a try. You can check out raceagainstpain.org and the Neurotalk message boards have a SCS group - very informative.

That's great the Spinal Cord Stim is working for you. Is your area of pain in the cervical area or the lumbar? I'm not sure what the side effects are yet because I am also taking flexeril at the same time. ( usually). All I know they all make me tired and foggy. I did try Lyrica and It did nothing for me. The Neurotin at least takes makes the burning in my wrist and arm tolerable. I will keep your suggestion in mind but I'm sure you know how the insurance companies work. Conservative care has to be exhausted before authorization for certain procedures will be authorized. Thanks and I'm glad your getting some relief. My neck/spasms started in 1991 and is now chronic. Thanks