Health Organization for Pudendal Education

Im bout at th end of the road, nothing has helped, wasted tons of money on doctors that really dont care, unless u got $$$. Im nearly banckrupt, selling everything just to pay for drugs that just mask the pain, afraid of surgury that is only 50% sucessful, not that I could afford it without borrowing $ anyway. No such thing as insurence, it doesnt cover much, I doubt obamacare gonna do anything 4 me either. Why am I even typing- its 1am and I cant sleep again. Get only 3_4 hrs sleep per night, whatever happened to dr kavorkian?

Gilbert, surgery doesn't work for everyone but it works for a lot of people. I tried the surgery option when I was at the end of my rope, not sleeping much, and I have my life back now. Or if you don't want surgery you could try the neurostimulator or pain pump route. You still options.

If you qualify for disability you might be able to get your healthcare covered. If not, In the world of healthcare, sometimes you just go ahead and have the treatment and work out a payment plan afterwards. Often a good portion of the charges will be written off. Talk with the hospital about what's available for people who don't have insurance.

Violet

We all feel hopeless at times -- but there is hope and don't give up!!! I find the first thing to do is get your pain under control with medicine -- even if it does just cover it up. Then, you can sleep and think clearly about what the next steps are. Hang in there.

gilbertgrape wrote: ↑Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:31 am Im bout at th end of the road, nothing has helped, wasted tons of money on doctors that really dont care, unless u got $$$. Im nearly banckrupt, selling everything just to pay for drugs that just mask the pain, afraid of surgury that is only 50% sucessful, not that I could afford it without borrowing $ anyway. No such thing as insurence, it doesnt cover much, I doubt obamacare gonna do anything 4 me either. Why am I even typing- its 1am and I cant sleep again. Get only 3_4 hrs sleep per night, whatever happened to dr kavorkian?

I really wouldn't bank on medication being the answer, I would combine it with something else and go from there.
Typically with chronic pain, you will need escalating doses of pain killers and then you will ultimately end up on opioids.
The side affects of the pain killers for nerve pain are tolerable for some but not for everyone. At the moment, I seem to be able to tolerate gabapentin, pregablin, amitriptyline and duloxetine. We shall see how I fair on 2nd line agents. Personally, I found duloxetine to be a waste of time and amitrptyline made me late to work but it did help a bit. If you can tolerate it, I would suggest pregablin over gabapentin as pregablin initially gives you much better relief potentially at a lower dose/it acts for longer and you only need to take it twice a day instead of three times a day with gabapentin.
The other aspect is that they will only provide partial relief. Pain specialists consider a 30% reduction in pain good and after that take the approach of injections or physio or "brain retraining" (sudo science). Their stance is typically "put up with it", so it's important to consider all your options including surgery.

I really hope you have found a solution, as pain killers really aren't working for me. Hopefully surgery will be my salavation.

I wanted to reply, as I can relate to the despair and worry that PN causes.