United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

It has been two years since my accident in May 08, I had nerve transfers in Oct. My injury resulted in avulsions in the c5 and c6. For some reason, the pain has started to increase in my hand. I have a constant burning sensation in my index finger as well as my thumb. I take Gabapentin 4 times per day at 600mg. I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how do you deal with the pain.

I would appreciation any info that you could share.

Jeff Jones
hilltopfwb@me.com

I was hit by a transport May 19/10. I have had pain in my hand and wrist since day 1 and know what your going through. I would love some input on this myself as i'm going crazy!!!

Guys, I'm sorry to say there is not a lot that can be offered on this. I went through 5 years of trying every drug under the sun, and regret it completely. The stuff sapped the "fire" out of my spirit, and kept me in a depressed state that was more crippling than my injury.

I did clinical trials at Stanford University for pain control via real time MRI assisted meditation. This was the best thing that I could find, in giving me some power back in being able to learn how to control how I experience the pain. Pain is a perception, and learning how to redirect your attention and perception was key for me. Best of luck!

read up on it here:
http://ubpn.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... t=stanford

Christopher wrote:Pain is a perception, and learning how to redirect your attention and perception was key for me.

Agree 100%. I am past 24 years now with a complete avulsion of all 5, I have never taken any nerve drugs. The best way I can say how I deal with the pain is I have been active from the start, both mentally and physically.

Best way I can describe it, is if I am talking to someone about my injury and they ask me if I have pain, I say, now that you asked me about it and I have to think about it, then the answer is yes.

I found this very interesting, I found this site by accident about four years ago, I was trying to spell the injury, I give talks on overcoming challenges to High School kids and I needed to provide an outline of my talk, so I literally came here by accident. I can't say I ever talked to anyone else with this injury since I was in the hospital 24 years ago, one of the things that means is that I didn't think about my injury much, I know that sounds funny, but it is how I have handled it. So when I found this site and read some of the things people were dealing with, I thought I could help others out and give some years of experience to what people were dealing with. That turned into me developing an athletic arm sling for others and then me talking and interacting with lots of people with this injury and how to use the sling to get athletic again. We have made over 70 of them, so I am having lots of conversations.

So, the interesting thing, my experience with pain has gone up the last few years. I am positive it is because I am thinking about it more, being asked to discuss my injury more and my experience with it more and most importantly, I am having to describe how I deal with the pain, so it makes me focus on my pain, or as Chris said, my perception of my pain. I am ok with the trade off because I want to help others out if I can, but I do know I can't sit around all day thinking about my pain, if I did, I would be miserable.

So my advise, get busy living life, get your mind active with your work or your studies. Get physically active, I can tell you I DO NOT experience pain when I am running, riding my bike, snow skiing, water skiing or any other physicall activity I do.

Hope this helps some,
Dan

Thanks men, I appreciate the input