xani

Ha I seem to have the phrenic nerve pain all the time. When i dont eat, when gas builds up, when I overeat, when i carry weight on my left shoulder or in my hand or on my arm, If i have anything acidic or heavy. I have Erythromelalgia and on Neurontin 300 5 times a day and Endep 50mg. I also have to have de-gas right after meals or else the gas will build up and cause dreadful pain. The only thing that can relieve it is by lying flat on my back or by taking an NSAID, anti inflammatory. I had surgery 3 months ago, it was dreadful in the beginning. I nearlly passed out a few times from the pain as it was so intense in my chest and shoulder. I found by keeping an ice pack on my gut near the lap band on the left side and hot pack on my shoulder it helped somewhat. Recently it has been slowly getting better but its still there. For the last month ive been getting spasms and stabbing pains near the lap band on the left side at the bottom of my rib cage where the phrenic nerve sits. It wakes me up and i have no choice but to put an ice pack on it or rub some tiger balm or chinese massage oil into it to relieve the swelling. Its driving me nuts. My doctors are talking of opening me back up again to shorten the tube from the lap band to the control port. I dont think this will make a difference. I believe my lap band is sitting right next to my phrenic nerve. How do I know this? Well when i lie down and press on the area roughly where my lap band is positioned, it hits my phrenic nerve and sends a shooting stabbing pain to the nerve and up my chest. This is not a co-incidence. I really dont want to go through surgery again, it was a big shock to my system with the initial surgery and took me over 1.5 months to recover - as with my condition Erythromelalgia it takes me a long time to recover from any injury. Im seeing my doctor again in 2 weeks to see what the plan of attack would be.