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Chronic neuropathic pain in sacrum months after discectomy

Five months after my L5-S1 discectomy, I started getting burning sacrum pain. It has been almost another five months of level 6-10 pain. I have had multiple sacroiliac joint injections which helped a little bit. We tried nerve blocks on the lateral branches of all of the sacral nerves and the top of the sacrum. This stung like lemon juice on a cut - I think because of the rupivicaine (caines tend to sting and hurt me). The nerve block was not
effective.

I had been on gabapentin and stopped thinking it wasn’t doing much. In hindsight, I am not sure of the timing and whether it had been keeping nerve pain at bay. Now I am on Lyrica 150 mg a day moving up to 300 mg a day.

I have taken cymbalta in the past and it didn’t do much.

Gabapentin lotion does not help. NSAIDs do not do anything. Only Percocet helps and only a little bit.

My physiatrist is starting to think that I should try ketamine infusions. He also gave my a central sensitization survey which I scored well above what was needed to qualify.

I am in the metro DC area, so I am working on getting into the Johns Hopkins pain treatment center.

I would welcome any suggestions as well as any suggestions of doctors that do ketamine infusions.

I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, so everything is a bit more fragile on me if that relates to any theories on pain.

Thanks!
2 Responses
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20803600 tn?1546262537
COMMUNITY LEADER
Nerve pain typically can take up to two years to subside- depending on the amount of nerve that was damaged by compression or other injury, and length of time prior to being freed.
Gabapentin is usually helpful- but can take awhile to find the correct dosage.
The dosage range is from 100 mg /day to 3600mg/day.
I took both gabapentin and Lyrica for severe nerve pain. Both ,I wasn’t sure how much they were helping until I stopped them. I quickly realized they were helping far more than I realized.
Helpful - 1
973741 tn?1342342773
Hi there. This sounds like such a hard thing to deal with.  I don't live near you so don't have any actual doctor recommendations but have read a good deal about ketamine infusions and people's stories and they seem to really be amazingly helpful.
Helpful - 1
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st. louis, MO
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