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Femoral neuropathy
I have had Femoral Neuropathy since 2012. The pain was so bad I wanted to die. I cried day and night until my doctor had dosed me high enough with gabapentin that I could function. It was a massive amount I hear that has never been prescribed. Thing is, we worked on the dosage weeks at a time until I could face the day. I was taking 3300 mg per day. FF to September of this year, my doctor retired. I had to go in and be seen by a new doc and also to get refills. They were “in no way shape or form going to prescribe that heavy of a dosage and lose their license “. So they sent me to pain mgmt. That doc says no way also. In fact she wants to wean me off all together! So I’m freaking out, be cause I know what her answer is. Injections in my back. She says yes. I told her the reason I have this neuropathy is because I was having those injections and the doctor severed the femoral nerve! No more injections for me. I’m being taken off Gabapentin because of the drug classification, yet it was the only thing that worked. So, now she has cut my dosage in half. I can barely move without pain and I need something that is going to help me. I tried medical marijuana and it didn’t faze it. So unfortunately I started drinking more. I don’t want to drink. Does anyone know if the R- lipoic Acid would help me? And the dosage I would need? The doctors have said that the nerve is not gonna heal if it hasn’t done anything in 13 years. I’m 62, I have dogs I wanna walk and grandkids volleyball games to see. Help!!!!
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Welcome @maggiejo63, I can't imagine how difficult it has been to manage the Femoral Neuropathy pain since 2012. I'm pretty sure you are not alone as others have mentioned similar struggles with the condition in other discussions. I did a search of Connect for "femoral neuropathy" and thought I would share the link with you so you can scan through the list of member comments to learn what others have shared - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/comments/.
If you haven't seen this article, it may also offer some suggestions that you might not have seen or tried.
-- What to know about femoral neuropathy: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324084
You asked if R-Lipoic Acid would help. I wished I could tell you that it will help but the truth is that it may or may not help depending on a lot of different factors. There are other members who have mentioned R-ALA has helped them. There are quite a few discussions on supplements for neuropathy if you want to scan through them - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/.
Have you tried any supplements or alternative treatments for your femoral neuropathy?
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1 Reaction@johnbishop
Hi John! Thanks for your information. I’m going to look through it more this evening. The only alternatives I’ve tried was the medical marijuana, and that was bust, plus way too expensive! I was really hoping that I could find something that would also tame down my fibromyalgia. These doctors gabapentin helped both and I’m soon to be off of it. Or at the very least a much less dosage amount. Thanks again for the information, I’ll dig right into it!
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1 ReactionHi @maggiejo63, Hoping I'm not overwhelming you with links but since you mentioned you were also looking for something to tame down your fibromyalgia, Here is a search of Connect for "fibromyalgia what helps" - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/
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.
@laurenthewise1