Hi all I am a 60 year old man living in the UK, about 35 years ago I suffered a sporting injury to the groin area and have been suffering ever since with bouts of chronic pain. I have tried several times to find a solution but with no real success, I have been diagnosed with nerve damage and was referred to the pain clinic where I was recommended to take gabapentin .
I have through the years literally had to crawl up stairs to get to work because the pain has been so debilitating. During the last 30 years I have managed by taking pain killers and limiting what I do during major flare up’s, thankfully I have managed to successfully maintain a career and during the last five years have worked from home because walking up stairs is to painful.
The problem is that every year the symptoms have got a bit worse and following another injury about 3 months ago I am in constant debilitating pain. Having had to endure pain for so long I am used to trying to look on the bright side while waiting for the symptoms to reduce in severity, but now the good periods are few and the waiting is longer therefore I only have what I would call a 25 % life the rest of the time is resting hoping that the next day will bring some relief.
I have resisted taking long term medication i.e gabapentin but now I am at my wits end and cannot endure this for much longer. My doctor prescribed me Naproxen for a month which is an anti inflammatory however there is no real relief. I am therefore after all of this time giving into the idea of long term gabapentin , I need to do something because I feel that I am starting to go under and have been thinking about death and at what point the quality of life that is available is worth carrying on with. I cannot discuss this with my wife because she will just say go back to the doctor and having tried this on more than a few occasions over the last 30 years I know that this will only result in months on a NH waiting list and eventual referral back to the pain clinic.
I would be grateful for the opinion of people on this forum who will understand the debilitating physical and mental damage that long term pain results in as to what is the best thing to do, I have an appointment with my GP in two weeks time when the Naproxen runs out and at the moment I am thinking about agreeing to start the gabapentin .
Sorry to hear you have been suffering for so long, but I am not sure why you would resist long term medication.. what is your diagnosis? Pregabalin and nortriptyline helped me with pain.