Request: Resources for Neuropathic/Central Pain due to SCI

[Joel2]

My wife had an SCI about 5 months ago and is now
six weeks post surgery on a C4-C6 fusion and removal
of stenosis.

She is not paralyzed but since the injury has had
extreme hypersensitivity in her hands and some shooting
pains down her arms.

From what reading I've done so far I gather this is
neuropathic and/or central pain (synonymous?).

I'm also gathering that there simply is no real solution
yet. Some people find some things work, others find
something else. Argh.

For her, the more activity, the worse it gets.
But permanent bed rest certainly isn't an answer!

We haven't yet tried neurontin (she tends to have problems
with anti-seizure and anti-psychotic medications - fairly
severe problems: Bipoler-III).

I saw someone mentioned myofascial. I'm certain
that makes no sense in her case.

Would people please suggest resources that might help
me figure out how to help her? Ideally I'd love just
one web page that says: Do this and that! Hah!
Were life so easy.

The hard part for me is to get enough time to research
this adequately. Someone also has to keep working,
keep the house together, etc. Yes... stressed!
(Not to mention we have our out of work sister in
law and her kids living with us now. Not complaining:
just trying to figure out how to keep it together.
I should find another forum just to discuss that!)

Anyway. A bit of letting to with a real request in
there. I need good resources to research.

Thanks!

Joel

[alan]

The forum moderator's website, painonline.org, is a good place to start.

[David Berg]

If you want to get a little more into depth, you should also look at the Pain Research forum where Dr. Young has posted abstracts of articles about pain from various professional journals.

You seemed a little unsure about neuropathic pain vs. central pain. Central pain is one form of neuropathic pain, it just refers to neuropathic pain caused by damage to the central nervous system. Central pain is sometimes referred to by more specific terms, such as thalamic pain that is caused by damage (usually a stroke) to the thalamus. Unfortunately, central pain can be caused by a number of conditions, such as MS, some types of cancer, etc. I have a webpage at PainOnline called Who Gets Central Pain that talks about that subject further.

David Berg