Lori,

You can look up some of my earlier posts, but I work full-time and everything I tried for pain left me too fuzzy to be effective. My doctor eventually placed me on Namenda. It was developed in Europe for neuropathy pain and found it works great on Alzheimer …

So now my pain is totally under control and I have a very clear head again! I know everyone is different and what works for one does not work for another – but it might be worth a try.

Good luck!

Tara,

Seems like nothing I tried helped me with the pain. It was so intense, it would take my breath away or sometimes I would just curl up in a little ball and cry and cry. Then my neuro prescribed Namenda – in the US, FDA approved it for Alzheimer’s but it was developed with treating nerve pain as one of the stated goals. My neuro’s wife is a pain mgt doctor/pediatrician and she recommended he try it for me since I was in agony.

I’ve had great results from it’s use. I truly can say my pain is well controlled. You can search on Namenda for earlier posts, but I continue to love it, am off all other daytime pain meds and my use of the hydrocodone continues to drop. I still have a decent supply left from my August prescription … before the Namenda, I was going through a prescription of 70 pills every 4 weeks to now rarely using it at all.

I tried Lyrica and HATED it – it didn’t totally control my pain and I gained a hunk of weight for my efforts! Yuck, yuck and more yuck … for me. I have some friends on it now and, while they hate the weight gain, they love the way it controls their pain and feels extra weight is a small price to pay for pain free days.

In this forum, I know of only two others that considered/tried the Namenda. Regina tried, but it made her too sleepy to continue. Clare was considering it and not sure if she ever tried it as she was about to start on Cymbalta (if you two are reading – how are you each doing????)

So, like everyone always says in this forum … we are all so different in what works for each of us. But I found I just had to keep trying different things until I found what works for me. I wish you great success in diagnosis and treatment and pain free days every day! 😀

Linda – Glad to hear you are still doing good on the Namenda. I have been on 20 mg of Cymbalta for about 4 days and the pain was getting less in the first two days and now the pain is back and I am so tired all the time. So, don’t know if this will help me. I go to the pain doctors on July 31, will let you know what they do for me. Hopefully, they will try the Namenda. About the sensations you mentioned before, I sometimes get feelings liked something is crawling up my leg and I look and nothing is there. It is a weird feeling. Will keep you posted on my appt. and I sure hope that light down the tunnel is not a train coming. LOL.
Clare in Michigan

Hey Linda – It’s great to hear you are doing good on Namenda. As you can see it is midnight and I am up yet because of my pain. It has been horrible the last few days. I go see my internist tomorrow and I am hoping she will consider the Namenda. There is nothing better than to have a pain free day. I am also considering finding a new neurologist. You had a laugh from my experience with why I thought I jerked in my sleep, here is another giggle. I was sitting with my daughter (she’s 13) and my mom at the kitchen table and all of a sudden my hand cramped up and my fingers curled in except for the middle one (you know which one that is). At first we just looked at my hand and then started laughing about how it looked. I looked at my daughter and said, “I hope this doesn’t happen when I go up for communion just as the pastor puts the wafer in my hand”. We started laughing so hard. It really does help to get some humor in your life. Well, I hope your pain will be gone with the Namenda and that it has no negative side effects for you, which it does not seem to have. You must have a very good doctor. Have a good day tomorrow.
Clare in Michigan