I have been experiencing SEVERE itching for yrs actually, but for the past six months it has been especially rough. I am recving some relief with 900 mgs a day of gabapentin, but it is far from gone. Skin on arms and legs look like I'm a meth addict with all the scratches and lesions. Also hip and buttock pain has gotten way out of hand. It hurts to stand too long, sit and soon after lying down, I have to get up and try to walk it off. I do not belong to a pain clinic, but am hoping my rheumy might be able to inject next week when I go again.
Any suggestions for relief of itching or is anyone else experiencing similar symtpoms? I seem to have all the symptoms from previous discussions as well and BOY do I feel for all of you!
Chronic pain sufferers are really pretty unique people aren't (we)? I appreciate everything I read!!
Gosh Ann, thx so much for the info! I am so glad you were able to find relief. I will definately look into and mention these to my doc.!! I rarely chat as I mostly just read, but this is exactly why I love this site...for assistance!!
Have a great day!!
Ann A. said:
I am so sorry that you have these symptoms. I have experirnced many of them. I experienced the "creepy crawley itches" as a result of spinal stenosis. I had surgery for it in 2011 and most of the symptom is now gone. I also had lots of butt pain caused by a problem with my sacroiliac. I attended the spine clinic at my local physical hospital and gof a great deal of help from a doc who is board certified in physical rehabilitation medicine and interventional pain management. I wish you a physician who knows as much about reducing pain caused my issues with spine as my doc. No more gabapentin needed.
sacroiliac? Did it feel like it was right next to your tailbone?
Sorry Mamallama didn't mean to get off topic with the itching issue.
I go through points where I itch like crazy. I take oatmeal baths, and I have a heavy stock of cortizone cream. It doesn't fully take it away but it helps it a little. Also, my doc rememended Claritin or soemthing of that sort, again it helped but didn't fully take it away
Ann A. said:
I am so sorry that you have these symptoms. I have experirnced many of them. I experienced the "creepy crawley itches" as a result of spinal stenosis. I had surgery for it in 2011 and most of the symptom is now gone. I also had lots of butt pain caused by a problem with my sacroiliac. I attended the spine clinic at my local physical hospital and gof a great deal of help from a doc who is board certified in physical rehabilitation medicine and interventional pain management. I wish you a physician who knows as much about reducing pain caused my issues with spine as my doc. No more gabapentin needed.
As far as the itching, I have done all you mentioned. I have tried every itch product on the shelves of about every drug store I've been too. I even tried vagisil!! Go figure! I thought well if it itches...Ha Ha Ha. Didn't work. I even worked at a large Cancer Ctr in AZ for awhile and tried Emla, which is a cream that deadens the skin around/over a port, and THAT didn't even help! It's like nothing I can describe. It even wakes me up and get blood from scratching/lesions on everything! Sorry to be venting so, but it can be maddening to say the least!
As far as Ann's hip/back/butt issues I don't know where hers was exactly, but mine seems to be painful to the touch right at the lower spine with pain radiating deep into buttocks and around my to the front of my pelvis. It is progressing rather quickly and I am getting concerned. I used to always have the typical SI problem that would send sharp pains down into my thighs almost taking my leg out, but it is changing. I have always gotten relief from my Chiro, but this last time I went, it made it worse. What do you do huh?
Thx for replying tho, I really appreciate it! MamaMarshall said:
Ann,
sacroiliac? Did it feel like it was right next to your tailbone?
Sorry Mamallama didn't mean to get off topic with the itching issue.
I go through points where I itch like crazy. I take oatmeal baths, and I have a heavy stock of cortizone cream. It doesn't fully take it away but it helps it a little. Also, my doc rememended Claritin or soemthing of that sort, again it helped but didn't fully take it away
Ann A. said:
I am so sorry that you have these symptoms. I have experirnced many of them. I experienced the "creepy crawley itches" as a result of spinal stenosis. I had surgery for it in 2011 and most of the symptom is now gone. I also had lots of butt pain caused by a problem with my sacroiliac. I attended the spine clinic at my local physical hospital and gof a great deal of help from a doc who is board certified in physical rehabilitation medicine and interventional pain management. I wish you a physician who knows as much about reducing pain caused my issues with spine as my doc. No more gabapentin needed.
I am taking note of all the info and written some notes to take to my rheumy next week. I have been especially interested in the parasthesia you spoke of and in researching that, I came across transverse myelitis which also sounds familiar. Don't know if any are my problem, but I do know that I am getting progressively worse by the day and I WILL find someone that will find a solution. It could just be the lupus but, the fact that I just said, just lupus, scares me! ha Sometimes I have found also that a doctor, no matter the discipline or their rank, can become so used to seeing a patient that they get too comfortable with passing issues off as 'same ol, same ol' and I will not tolerate that anymore. I've been doing this too long and I'm getting too old to fool around!
Thanks bunches to you and all of you who have responded to my cry....XOXOXO
Ann A. said:
By 2009, I had a firm dx. Most of my neuropathic pain came from the stenosis and the rest from the SI. had lidocaine patches, flector patches, Pennsaid (same NSAID as the flector patches-Voltaren - in liquid form rx only), and Emugel (Voltaren in gel which I buy OTC from Canada). All of these topical NSAIDS because I already had ulcers. I also had epidural steroid injections and ablation of the sacral nerves S1-S3 along with the gabapentin.
The only thing that helped the neuropathic pain was the Neurontin. But as the nerves became more and more compressed the area affected by the nerve pain grew until I could no longer feel the bottom of my right foot. After more than 35 years of living with the pain from the congenital steonsis I finally opted for the surgery.
I was the one who demonstrated the leg length discrepancy to my docs and PTs. The SI pain is only a ghost of its former self because my right shoes are now built up to compensate for the difference. When it becomes annoying I use my tens unit and some of the gel or liquid.
Since the surgery the neuropathy is also a ghost if its former self - no more paresthesia and no more God please take me away pain.
It is sometimes difficult to comprehend that I lived with so much pain for so many years which is now ameliorated by 1/4 of plastic built in to my right shoe. But then I remember that no one could figure out what was causing the pain on the right side until the left kidney was unblocked. My chirpractor used to note that my leg length discrepancy switched sides. Once the kidney fixed the left side stopped being in spasm.
My only point is that
Correct diagnoses are so important to correct treatment.
And sometimes getting a correct diagnosis can require more than a second opinion.
If I had pushed harder for a referral to a spine clinic pain management doc, I could have cut my time in pain by 10 years.
My old pcp was wrong. My rhuemie was wrong. Two orthopedists were wrong. I paid for their error with my pain.