Hi Maggiejo,

I'm so sorry you're suffering like this and getting no help from your neurologists.

I'm really surprised they're giving you such a hard time about the gabapentin; what you were taking is a really high dose but it's not unheard of. My neurologists have given me permission to go up to 3600/day if necessary. I have never quite reached that dosage but took 3000 for quite a while.

Have you looked around for other neurologists who might specialize in neuropathic pain? Did the pain mgmt docs give you any alternatives to spine injections?

One more thing you might ask about is a neurostimulator implant. I did the trial in October and it was helpful for obturator neuropathy which isn't responding to gabapentin (I already take gabapentin for small fiber neuropathy). I plan on having the permanent implant done soon.

You might try a teaching hospital. It can be a real pain to get shuffled around and asked the same questions by 10 different students, residents and various specialties but generally there is an attending physician who supervises the whole thing and gets a picture from everyone's input. Just a thought. I live near 4 excellent teaching hospitals so it's easy for me to see one but I realize that you might not be close to one geographically.

In any case, I wish you all the best and hope you get some good help from a kind doctor.