Sorry to moan but can anyone help! I am in the most excoriating pain, I’ve tried to ignore it but its just getting worse. I don’t know how to explain it, I suppose its a nerve pain (only in my left leg), night time is worse, I can’t sleep with any covers resting on my leg and certain clothing seems to irritate it. Is this ms related? I’m currently on gabapentin, waiting for my ms nurse to return my call. Do I sound like I’m going mad? Maybe it’s not ms related at all, it’s been 8 weeks, I’m now at the point of wanting to cut my leg off!!! X
You sure don’t, I have had a similar problem for the last 3 months, GP & Physio both said it was a mechanical problem with my back, today’s MRI scan shows back is fine however new demyleation on my spine so likely cause is MS. I’m also on Gabapentin, might be worth asking your GP to increase dose & also consider additional pain relief. Good luck.
Hi
No, you don’t sound like you’re going mad - you sound like you’re havng a horrible time! That’s sounds like it’s MS, though there’s no harm seeing your GP just in case it might be something else. Your GP may be happy to up the dose of gabapentin, or prescribe you something else like pregabalin.
And a non-drug option is to explore mindfulness meditation, as it’s been shown to help woth pain management (google mindfulness & pain management, and you’ll find stuff about it. If you’ve not heard of it, mindfulness is simply the practice of noticing what you are experiencing in the moment - what you’re feeling physically, what your thought & emotions are, what you can hear, smell & taste etc. But the trick is to let go of the desire to label those things as good or bad. The aim is simply to accept things as they are.
When it comes to pain, the idea of noticing it & not doing anything about it sounds like it could be hell. But the strange thing is, it does help, and I find my experience of the pain lessens. I used to say I’m in pain, but actually that’s not true. It’s only a tiny bit of me that’s in pain. By being mindful of the whole of my body, I notice that almost all of my body is feeling different things other than pain. It’s a bit like looking at a map, and the pain is a feature on the map. Noticing the rest of my body is like zooming out of the map, and so the pain becomes smaller. Alternatively, I can zoom in on the map, and explore the pain. Then I notice that it’s not constant - it comes & goes, and has different feelings. Generally, if I’m wishing the pain in my leg would go away, I’m more likely to feel tortured by it. But if I’m able to give my leg permission to feel whatever it’s feeling, then it tends to ease off quicker.
Last year I took part in a study on mindfulness that was funded by the MS Society and found it really helpful, not just for pain management but also for emotional well-being and helping with things like stress.
I don’t know if any of that makes any sense, but I hope you’re able to find yourself less tortured by the pain somehow.
Dan
Hi, I know the feeling of wanting a leg amputated!!! It`s so miserable!
My pain was in both legs and bottom cheeks…
amitriptyline sorted it…began on 25mg…got up to 100mg before it zapped the pain…that was 13 years ago…am on 75mg at night now.
I did try to reduce it under doctor`s supervision, but pains returned.
luv Pollx