About 2 months ago was when I got my blood patch after my lumbar puncture a week and a half prior.

For a week after my BP I had bad nerve pain in my legs. I was on prednisone for a week after and it helped it subside until now.

So about 2 months after the blood patch my nerve pain in my legs has come back. It took a month and a half after my blood patch for my csf leak symptoms to finally go away.

It’s like I just can’t win. The nerve pain in my legs has come back with a vengeance. It’s the worst when I’m laying down. It’s like someone is trying to rip off my legs from my the soles of my feet to my low back. It’s like a bad stinging pain that you just want to stop because it’s so uncomfortable. Not only that, but it’ll feel like bugs are crawling all over my legs.

It started off small but then has got worse every single day to where I can’t even sit comfortably anymore without nerve pain. Only been a week since it came back and it’s hit hard. My lower back where I got my blood patch has also gotten sensitive and hurts.

Not only that, but just a few days ago I started to get headaches again while standing up. I was like ahh this has to just be a coincidence no way I’m leaking again. Well, it hasn’t stopped. I am also getting nauseas.

Nerve pain is the absolute worst because you know it can grow to absolutely ruin your life and there’s no stopping point for it. I don’t know what to do anymore. I’m obviously going to talk to my doctors but like Jesus Christ. I can’t deal with damage from my lumbar puncture and blood patch.

What I don’t understand is that gabapentin doesn’t help this nerve pain at all, but my Hydrocodone does. Gabapentin helps my other nerve pain but does zip for this. I don’t know why Hydrocodone would help this situation. Ahhhhhhh I just want to scream it’s never ending

  • SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    What’s up with the antacid? Never heard that and I’ve never had issues. Also, pretty sure it’s longer than a 7 day period. My pain mgt doc told me it’s a slow ween off and from what I’ve seen online some people do it over a month or more depending on dose

    • ubermeisters@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      The antacid info came from the info packet along with the prescription from my local Safeway. The 7 day weening period is as per some app that my mom uses for checking medication information. Shes a medical professional, now professor, in a different but not unrelated field, so i trust her info. Please get your own info from your own trusted source! I will be sure to bring it up frankly with my Ortho Surgeon before stopping, I promise.

      As i understand it, the antacid (being a calcium compound, generally) will render the gabapentin chemically inert (aka the medicine really really wants to bond with the antacid), since it is designed to “bind to the alpha2-delta site on calcium channels” in your nerves, According to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114047/ …thanks GPT

      So, my thesis above might not be accurate, but the info quoted below, is.

      https://www.drugs.com/tips/gabapentin-patient-tips

      May interact with some other medications including antacids, hydrocodone, morphine, and other drugs that cause sedation or dizziness. May also cause false-positive results on some urinary protein tests.

      Do not take gabapentin at the same time as antacids such as Maalox or Gaviscon. Separate administration by at least two hours. Take exactly as directed by your doctor, do not increase or decrease the dose without his or her advice.

      Common medications that may interact with gabapentin include: antacids, such as those containing aluminum and magnesium

      • SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Interesting. I personally haven’t noticed a difference whether I take antacids within that time frame. Taking it 3 times a day makes it hard to time antacids. ¯_(ツ)_/¯