Nerve Pain / Damage in Leg During Consolidation

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Currently I've lengthened 5.5cm and out of literally nowhere I am experiencing incredible nerve pain in my right leg. The location sort of travels, from the point of the break in my tibia, and moving upwards past my knee. The pain is worse than anything experienced during lengthening. So far, I am able to cut the pain with Ibeuprofin, I have requested my doctors advice and as usual, it's crap. Take painkillers, maybe open the apparatus.

I am in dire need of advice or help on what to do, I have booked to see some neuropaths this week to get to the root of the problem, but any advice is welcome. I cannot sleep, and can barely lie down in one place without painkillers.

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Quote from: wannagrowtaller on January 30, 2019, 07:56:18 AMHow much distraction per day are you doing?

Im consolidating. I've already lengthened 5.5.

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Quote from: TemakiSushi on January 30, 2019, 09:24:03 AMDon’t they give you Lyrica, pregabarin for nerve pain?

I have lyrica, but strangely 75mg didn't do enough to stop the pain, and I needed 2 tabs 400mg of neurofen to stop it. Thank God the pain has stopped, but it was easily the worst experience of the 4 months doing this.

I have yet to have the pain come back, but also I have literally not moved in a whole day. I feel like I crushed a nerve or something, it was awful. Throbbing, stabbing pain every time my heart beat. I am going to get back onto PT but very very very very slowly.

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yes

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Which painkillers are you taking? If it's painful around your ankle, just stop lengthening for awhile and recover. It's so much harder once you pass 5cm

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Quote from: California2 on January 31, 2019, 04:31:38 PMYou write that you are consolidating.

What lengthening procedure did you undergo?

When (what date) did you complete distraction/correction?

Are you experiencing any other unusual or new symptoms other than what you perceive to be nerve pain in your right leg?

External Ilivarov, 7 days ago.

No other symptoms.

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Quote from: TemakiSushi on January 30, 2019, 02:49:06 PMMaybe its not really nerve pain
Could be inflammation caused by infection if ibuprofen worked but not Lyrica
You may need to check for sepsis and get antibiotics
Sepsis is scary.  Death rate is quite high with advanced sepsis
I really hope you get better soon

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3535127/

This probably would have been my next step, thanks for the info. I did a cycle of antibiotics as early as a month ago due to a cold/flu, so it couldn't have been advanced sepsis.


Quote from: California2 on January 31, 2019, 09:47:30 PMPurely external?  Meaning no LON or LATN and you are still in frames for consolidation?

Even without knowing the above yet, let's think things through to see if you can rule out any of your concerns. 

Nerves can grow up to 1 mm per day and because you have not distracted or corrected in 7 days, it seems unlikely that you caused any new damage--right?

So, what changed?  You stopped distraction 7 days ago and your legs are beginning to heal.

Each time you distract you cause trauma which likely produces swelling.  Swelling can compress nerves and block transmission of the pain impulse. 

If you are doing purely external, some of the swelling caused by distraction is likely going away now that you are 7 days trauma-free.  If so, your legs are regaining feeling and coming back to life.  Unfortunately, this can also mean that you are beginning to feel pain that was previously blocked by swelling.  This is so even if you do not see swelling--it's there.

If so, your pain should begin to diminish over the next week as your legs begin to heal.

Naturally, if your pain increases or you experience significant swelling or redness, you should notify your MD again.

Diary is here, detailing what pain I was experiencing previously and most recently. Full external with no nail.

http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=9418.msg97760#msg97760

Literally nothing has changed, except for possibly walking less. This week without distraction has been a lazy one, purely coincidental. One day I was lying on my stomach doing ROM knee PT, which seems to be the last thing I remember, and pain was slowly building up to my knee and lower hamstrings. Then when the evening came it was impossible to sleep, so I took a diclophenac shot to get me through, it was brutal. Before the shot I could feel my leg pulsing uncontrollably at the speed of a heartbeat.

Anyway, was able to walk a little bit yesterday, and the pain hasn't blown up again. Legs are a bit weak but maybe because I've done nothing for days.

You may be right about strange pains coming up as I consolidate, I'll keep it in mind.

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I've been on it for 4 months and my callous is great.

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Quote from: California2 on February 02, 2019, 01:24:48 AMPlease understand I am not trying to tell you what to do--we all must make own own choices.  I am merely sharing some generally accepted medical information for your consideration.

Some MDs from Asia and Europe do not accept this information about NSAIDs.  However, perhaps your callus would have been even better had you avoided NSAIDs?

Who knows?  Nonetheless, in my experience, better information generally leads to better decisions.

I accept the research about NSAIDs but even knowing it, I took massive doses of NSAIDs at one point because I had nothing else to fight the pain.

Yeah fair. My doctor follows similar practices as Russian doctors, I was originally prescribed panadols and other drugs that had limited effect. Anyway, yes callous is good. But, I am definitely feeling a lot weaker behind my knees in my tendons almost to the point of making walking impossible. Not sure if it's normal during consolidation but it's a pain in the ass.