After being angry at having been yet again prescribed antidepressants to deal with nerve pain, I did some research. Apparently it's a thing. For some people the antidepressants seem to ease persistent nerve pain. I did a lot of reading. But what I'm getting is the percentage of people whom it seems to help isn't much different then the percentage you get from placebo effect.
It helps that now I know all I have is scar tissue. Scar tissue with nerve cells that are still somewhat alive and occasionally send pain signals. The neurologist had suggested I keep a journal to see if the medication worked. I decided for now to go back to putting capsaicin ointment on the bump. The difference is now I'm rubbing it in 4 times a day. When I was putting it on a year ago it was so sensitive I could not rub it in. I would put some on and let it absorb.
About 15 minutes after I rub it in I get all sort of weird nerve pain effects. I visualize how the pain radiates from the bump much like a 60's plasma globe. It's like you're touching the glass where my bump is and pain jolts radiate from that point. And then it passes. This is after the first week of putting capsaicin. The analgesic effect is cumulative so I'm hoping as the weeks go by that the pain effect diminishes to the point where it no longer does that. The hope is from numbing the nerve cells enough for enough time they will stop sending pain messages out and I will no longer have random head pain caused by them.
The other thing I realized is that about 6 months after the surgery, when I was getting 1000 times more weird nerve pain reactions from my surgery, I got the vaccination against shingles. One of the reasons to get vaccinated is that if you catch shingles, you will have less nerve pain, for less long. But it's possible getting vaccine at that point may have also added or continued my nerve pain longer. I have no regrets getting the vaccine. Because the head nerve pain I've been experiencing sucks. I'd hate to have more of it in more parts of my body, which could happen if I got a full blown case of the shingles.
Right now I'm trying the cream. It had removed about 80% of the weird nerve pain I was experiencing when I did it for 3 or 4 months. I'm hoping that topical cream will do the trick. My mental health and brain chemistry is fragile and I work hard to keep it functional. Most medication I take internally affects my mood and functioning, so I'm really cautious with what I put into my body.
The dexamethasone broke my migraine. I took 10mg 3 days in a row at breakfast with food. It put my stomach on fire for 4 days. It did make my head feel a lot better. My allergies seem bad and seem to have hit me slightly differently and were likely part of the cause of the migraine.
Since leaving the hospital I've taken religiously asthma med Pulmicort for lungs, and Rhinocort for nose. Also the past 3 days I even had to add Olopatadine for my eyes. I woke up 3 days ago in the middle of the night with leaky eyes. By morning my right eye had a film making vision fuzzy. I've woken up with my eyes glued shut from allergies. Usually not in May, usually in late June. But with the cold wet spring we have, I suspect my allergy to trees is compounded with mold this year. Either way the eye drops are keeping my eyes from leaking, though they burn a little still.
Three months ago I got a call from my family doctors office to tell me she had retired. I'm seeing the new family doctor assigned to me on June 4rth. From what I can see she's young and the reviews on ratemymd are very good. I asked person if her wait times were shorter. She laughed and said much shorter , rarely have to wait more then 30 minutes. With my previous family doctor it's been more than 3 hours!!!! So we'll see how we like the new doctor.
It helps that now I know all I have is scar tissue. Scar tissue with nerve cells that are still somewhat alive and occasionally send pain signals. The neurologist had suggested I keep a journal to see if the medication worked. I decided for now to go back to putting capsaicin ointment on the bump. The difference is now I'm rubbing it in 4 times a day. When I was putting it on a year ago it was so sensitive I could not rub it in. I would put some on and let it absorb.
About 15 minutes after I rub it in I get all sort of weird nerve pain effects. I visualize how the pain radiates from the bump much like a 60's plasma globe. It's like you're touching the glass where my bump is and pain jolts radiate from that point. And then it passes. This is after the first week of putting capsaicin. The analgesic effect is cumulative so I'm hoping as the weeks go by that the pain effect diminishes to the point where it no longer does that. The hope is from numbing the nerve cells enough for enough time they will stop sending pain messages out and I will no longer have random head pain caused by them.
The other thing I realized is that about 6 months after the surgery, when I was getting 1000 times more weird nerve pain reactions from my surgery, I got the vaccination against shingles. One of the reasons to get vaccinated is that if you catch shingles, you will have less nerve pain, for less long. But it's possible getting vaccine at that point may have also added or continued my nerve pain longer. I have no regrets getting the vaccine. Because the head nerve pain I've been experiencing sucks. I'd hate to have more of it in more parts of my body, which could happen if I got a full blown case of the shingles.
Right now I'm trying the cream. It had removed about 80% of the weird nerve pain I was experiencing when I did it for 3 or 4 months. I'm hoping that topical cream will do the trick. My mental health and brain chemistry is fragile and I work hard to keep it functional. Most medication I take internally affects my mood and functioning, so I'm really cautious with what I put into my body.
The dexamethasone broke my migraine. I took 10mg 3 days in a row at breakfast with food. It put my stomach on fire for 4 days. It did make my head feel a lot better. My allergies seem bad and seem to have hit me slightly differently and were likely part of the cause of the migraine.
Since leaving the hospital I've taken religiously asthma med Pulmicort for lungs, and Rhinocort for nose. Also the past 3 days I even had to add Olopatadine for my eyes. I woke up 3 days ago in the middle of the night with leaky eyes. By morning my right eye had a film making vision fuzzy. I've woken up with my eyes glued shut from allergies. Usually not in May, usually in late June. But with the cold wet spring we have, I suspect my allergy to trees is compounded with mold this year. Either way the eye drops are keeping my eyes from leaking, though they burn a little still.
Three months ago I got a call from my family doctors office to tell me she had retired. I'm seeing the new family doctor assigned to me on June 4rth. From what I can see she's young and the reviews on ratemymd are very good. I asked person if her wait times were shorter. She laughed and said much shorter , rarely have to wait more then 30 minutes. With my previous family doctor it's been more than 3 hours!!!! So we'll see how we like the new doctor.
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