Nerve pain in left leg.

[Marcy47]

Went to my Dr to get help with severe pain in left leg. He thinks it is a trapped nerve in my back, and referred my to the physio. As there is a long wait for the physio he prescribed amytriptiline to be taken at night. I took 1 and after a while started to get palpitations.Saw a different Dr today and she has prescribed Gabapentin 300mg. Has anyone tried this medication for nerve pain? I will take 1 tonight see what it does. I am also taking Codydramol 4 times a day.

[Sharitone]

I had it for sciatica. It didn't agree with me, but nothing so very terrible.

[Booklover57]

I take Gabapentin for nerve pain in my head and neck and have done for over a year. I started on 300 mg and increased to 600 after a couple of weeks and no ill effects. It takes a while to be effective but has worked well for me. There was a recent thread on this site about gabapentin a few days ago from memory, people had varying results. I hope it works for you. Drowsiness is one of the side effects.

[Birdfriend]

wow. This sounds like me! I’ve been struggling with extreme nerve pain in my lower left leg. It’s difficult to walk as it is so painful- burning, stabbing pain. It often wakes me up at night. I’m down to 5mgs of steroids having started at 60mgs in April’23. I’ve had X-ray, vascular ultrasound, MRI and nothing has been detected.i have an EMG ( nerve conduction study) scheduled for next week. Dr. Put me on 900mgs of gabapentin as it may be a neuropathy. I’ve been on it for a month with no relief. It’s getting worse. It’s awful🥺

[Marcy47 in reply to Birdfriend]

Sorry to hear you are in so much pain, I hope you get some relief soon. My pain is only in the front of my left thigh, hip, and groin and is definitely nerve pain. Codrydamol does give me some relief for a few hours. Good luck 👍

[VeeWat in reply to Birdfriend]

Hi Birdfriend

How did the EMG go? What was the procedure like?

[Birdfriend in reply to VeeWat]

the EMG can be painful . However, I was mentally prepared because I’ve already been in so much pain 😵‍💫. The EMG confirmed I have a lower leg neuropathy which I already suspected. I read a research paper that reported a rare neuropathy associated with GCA.

[VeeWat in reply to Birdfriend]

Hope you get answers soon.

[Birdfriend in reply to VeeWat]

thanks for following up. Neuropathies are very difficult to treat. Physical therapy and a nerve med like Gabapentin are typical recommended course of treatment

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Where is the pain? What makes it worse?

[Marcy47 in reply to PMRpro]

Good morning, it moves around, first thing in the morning it is a sharp pain in the left groin. When I walk around it is also a sharp pain down the front of the left leg. When I take a pain killer it eases after about half an hour, but comes back after 3hrs, sometimes it is a tingling in the leg rather than a pain. Sometimes it is a pain at the top of the left hip, which makes me walk lop-sided. My doctor has suggested I take more painkillers, 1 codrydamol + 1 Paracetamol 4 times a day ,but that is not recommended on the patient information.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Marcy47]

What dose paracetamol? And how much in the codrydramol? If they are tablets with 500mg paracetamol it is OK to take ONE of each. You can take up to 4g, 8x500mg paracetamol, a day. Under no circumstances any more. But if he didn't make that clear to you, a lot of patients would take more.

Does this

my.clevelandclinic.org/heal...

fit with your symptoms?

But I don't really think paracetamol will cut the mustard ...

[Marcy47 in reply to PMRpro]

Looks exactly like my problem. I will ask my Dr for his opinion. Many thanks. 👍

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Marcy47]

There are a few on the forum who have it.

[Pixix]

just be careful & watch for side effects, I’d say. I took it for two weeks and it altered my well-being as well as making my balance bad…& a feeling that I was very drunk! Many take it for fibromyalgia without any side effects, & hopefully you will be one of those! The drug that helps me a little is amytripytylline but I see you had side effects. Always remember the leaflet in the box if you’re prescribed new drugs, it alerts you to whether what you’re feeling is a common or rare side effect.

[sidra1968]

I take 1800 mg Gabapentin (600 mg 3 x per day), for nerve pain..honestly don't know if it is the drug that is working, unlike how I know for fact the epidural steroid injections in the cervical spine area work miracles on me..but since I am a lot better I don't want to change anything. Pain management (for nerve pain especially) is a lot throwing things at it and seeing what works for each person. Gabapentin many times takes 2 weeks to work, and any mild side effects should subside. That said, many people do not like it.

I tried Pregabalin first and I got weird (not painful) spasms at the front and top of my ribcage, so switched to Gabapentin (but who knows if that was even the cause, but it seems so). I also take low dose (10 mg) amitriptyline, which I requested after reading a study that 25% of people got pain relief from low doses. Again, not sure if it works on me, but I think it helps me sleep a bit better, regardless

[BiteyDelano]

Hi Marcy47,

I too was first prescribed Amitriptyline, didn't seem to do much for pain but helped me a little to get to sleep.

I was subsequently prescribed Gabapentin (Neurontin) 300mg, 3 per day. Disappointedly, this also didn't do much for the pain.

I should say that at this time I was bedbound and in absolute agony with sciatic nerve pain (which subsequently only L3 disk surgery was able to relieve).

After surgery, I experienced substantial burning pain in my front thigh and other areas which slowly dissipated.

Good luck!