Re: Compound pain gel/Fred

[Guest guest]

Moderator's note:

I looked up this gel or cream, and the ingredients are in tiny amounts, if

anyone is concerned about them. There is also another compound nerve cream, that

contains Neurontin.

That being said, if I were taking any of the ingredients orally, I would ask my

doctor about it.

Ketamine, is primarily used by veterinarians, as an anaesthetic. Unfortunately,

people have used it for all kinds of horrible things, but like I said, this is

in a very tiny amount.

This looks interesting. I think Jim is right about keeping the menthol, might

have a cooling affect, but it might have a burning sensation too.

Naturally, this is a cream that will, and should require a prescription. I would

definitely keep this cream away from children, or other people.

Kaylene

Fred,

It sounds like your doc is at least giving you an assortment of drugs that

should help with a lot of pain.

I ,take Baclofen too. With me it definitely helps with sleeping and back spasms

but when I was taking more than one a day I was

waking up feeling totally brain dead.

At one point I was taking one early in the day and two at night ,

I woke up every morning and was a zombie for the first few hours.

We tried different times of the day for taking them etc but I found if I do more

than one pill a day I still get the brain dead effect when I wake up.

I know its great when I get muscle spasms , if I take one , the spasms are gone

in 30 or 40 minutes. Now you may not get the brain dead feeling , if they up

your dose , as we all react differently to drugs.

As far as something to rub on your back. A friend of mine swears by this " pain

cream " he is prescribed by his doctor.

It has to be made at a " compounding pharmacy " so it ends up being expensive but

he claims it works. I'm on a limited income so I haven't tried it but people who

have seem to agree with him that it helps cut the pain.

here's what my friend wrote - said

" " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " "

" The pain cream does have a slight odor from the menthol. I told my

pharmacist I didn't want the menthol in it and he said 'no problem!'

and left it out. I thought I'd need to have a new Rx written, but

not so!

The odor is mild and dose not linger. The menthol is there for

the 'cooling effect' that helps ease pain. I figure I use enough

cold pacs through the day to handle that- toss the menthol!!

BTW- I found that rubbing the cream into the areas of my spine that

generates the pain/cramps works very well. Of course, putting some

directly on the cramp works wonders too.

The cost can be a consideration- most insurances don't cover it.

My first Rx was $80.00-something at a compounding pharmacy (specialty shop).

My local pharmacist finally got the ingredients togther and now he's doing it

(he was compounding certified years ago but never had a call for using it!).

My first fill from him was aound $60.00. My last refill was $43.00- he found a

new supplier for the ingredients and the cost came own.

I think he's doing this " at cost " for me with little or no profit to him.

The following is 's compounded cream.

" PERI-NERVE #5 CREAM COMPOUND "

followed by: " NDC:00054-2618-25 DAW:C DS:30 "

The Rx was written:

Mexiletine/ Ketamine/Phenytoin/ Clonidine/ Menthol gel

or cream 2%/5%/ 5%/0.2%/ 0.25% topically Disp. 60 mg

Sig: apply to affected area 3-4 times daily

30 days

" " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " "

Now , I've never talked to my doc about this because I am on workers comp and

they usually won't go for stuff like this. So I personally can't say how good it

works but I figured I'd put the info out there in case some one wants to talk to

their docs about this formula.

Jim

[Guest guest]

Thanks Jim,

I should have indicated that I take neurontin as well 600mg tid.

I was using tramadol, but gave that up as it was causing problems for

my pancreas. Nasty things those NSAID's.

If Santa is listening, I want a new back for Christmas, and might as

well throw in a new pancreas too!

Any thoughts on that emu oil? I was using a few capisicum products,

but I think those nerve receptors got used to it as I hardly feel it

now.

I avoid all CNS stimulants (coffee, tea, cocaine, meth, and so on

lol).

Fred

P.S.

The pain management clinic is 45 miles away and they won't give me

any shots in my back if I have to drive home. Since I live alone and

don't know a soul where I live my only option is to drive myself

home. I drive to my mom's place 3x a month to care for her and I

never ever drive while on any opiates. Once I get to moms it takes

me 3 days on ice as much as possible and my narcotics for my back to

return to my " normal " .

>

> Moderator's note:

> I looked up this gel or cream, and the ingredients are in tiny

amounts, if anyone is concerned about them. There is also another

compound nerve cream, that contains Neurontin.

>

> That being said, if I were taking any of the ingredients orally, I

would ask my doctor about it.

>

[Guest guest]

--- " Fred " wrote:

>

> The pain management clinic is 45 miles away and they won't give me

> any shots in my back if I have to drive home.

Hi Fred -

Sorry to jump in here, but believe me, you don't want any " shots in

your back, " if by that you mean steriod epidurals.

The doctors don't bother to tell you that this isn't even an FDA-

approved procedure! In fact, it is extremely dangerous. If you read

the package of the steroids they use, it clearly states that it

should NEVER be used in an epidural around the spinal nerves - the

preservatives used in them are actually neurotoxic. They are made

for joints which aren't made up of neural tissue, and they are

perfectly appropriate for that.

But steroid epidurals have the risk of causing Adhesive

Arachnoiditis - which is a permanent, untreatable spinal cord injury -

and if you think you hurt now, you don't want to even go down that

hellish path for the rest of your life! Speaking from experience

here! And some doctors even still perform them without a " live x-

ray " to guide their hand - they do it just by " feel " and as a result

can easily put the needle through a major nerve or even puncture the

spinal cord itself. (Heck, those kinds of errors can happen even with

live x-ray!)

There are also very good objective scientific studies that show that

epidural steroid injections don't work any better than placebos. So

you'd be taking a terrible risk for absolutely no gain. No reputable

study out there has ever shown that they do one bit of good for back

pain.

The reason a lot of people *think* they work is that some doctors

include a topic anaesthetic right in the shot (I'm not talking about

the local that is put into the skin so they can insert the needle -

this is a drug that goes into the epidural space with the steriod.

The doctors don't bother to tell you that little tidbit either!) So

as a result, the patient gets some amount of immediate relief, but it

wears off as the anaesthetic dissipates over a few days or weeks. But

it was enough to convince them to go back for more and more shots,

thinking they just need " one more treatment " to be cured!

However, the anaesthetic does absolutely nothing to treat the

original injury, so it's just a short-term painkiller that actually

sets the patient up for more damage because they overdo and hurt

themselves further, thinking they're actually cured, because the

doctor presents the shot as a " treatment " for the underlying problem

(which the studies show it doesn't accomplish at all.)

Honestly, the reason doctors give those shots is because it is very

expensive, so they make lots of money off them. Many so-called " pain

clinics " are nothing but epidural factories. The fact is that they

don't make anything at all off writing a prescription for pain

medications.

Can you tell I'm a bit ticked off with this modern day equivalent of

snake oil salesmen and the way they take advantage of people in pain??

(One caveat - I'm speaking specifically about spinal epidurals using

steroids - NOT any other kind of shot into the muscle or knee or

other joints, and not an epidural anaesthesia like for pregnancy or

surgery. Those kinds of treatments often do a lot of good - it's

just the steroids specifically are not supposed to injected near

spinal nerves under any circumstance.)

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now. I just wanted to let you know that

you're actually lucky your pain clinic can't do the shots they'd

obviously otherwise love to give you. I hope they are appropriately

treating your pain instead.

Cheryl in AZ

Moderator

[Guest guest]

Hi Cheryl,

Thanks for the advice. No apology needed for jumping in, I was/am

eager to hear from anyone dealing with this. So, " jumping in " is

what Yahoo groups are all about for me.

You supplied a plethora of information that was germane to my initial

posting. THANK YOU!

Aside from the daily 10mg baclofen, 40mg of vicodin, 900mg of

neurontin, oxycodone prn (I try to not use those too much), and the

fentanyl (I try to not use these too much as well); there is nothing

else that would help relieve this pain aside from surgery?

I am scared _ _ _ _ less of surgery because I fear they will say " it

went fine, but you will need to be in a wheelchair from now on " . Or

it went well, but doesn''t help much as I have heard from many people

(have never had surgery, so the idea is a new thing for me). Saying

they goofed and damaged a nerve now making me have to use a

wheelchair all the time is a BIG fear/worry.

I know a wheelchair is in my future without surgery, but at least I

can walk some and use the wheelchair as needed.

So, I am still open to any suggestion for internal or topical

medications. A topical something that would ease the pain enough to

get me to sleep would be great.

I am losing sleep to the point that I asked for chloral hydrate for

sleep; its the only medication in my Medicare Part D formulary that

is free. I think Radar got some chloral hydrate once in an episode

of MASH involving a Turkish soldier. It knocked Radar out.

I tried a chiropractor 6 months ago and he said he could make me

perfectly well (despite the ruptured disks). Yea, pull the other

leg... it jingles. He put me on a massage machine for 15 minutes

that I really liked (I want one of them at home) and then " adjusted "

my back.

Needless to say, I was laid out in the house for five days after

that " adjustment " only getting up to let Cody (my chocolate Lab

service dog outside), or to grab a slice of cold pizza & water, and

to the bathroom.

Food consisted of a large pizza that was delivered that I ate cold after the

first day. Basically, I was in bed 23 hours a day.

Thanks again all, and I am still open to any help or suggestions.

Fred

& Cody

--- Cheryl in AZ wrote:

> Hi Fred -

>

> Sorry to jump in here, but believe me, you don't want any " shots in

> your back, " if by that you mean steriod epidurals.

>