Suggest Treatment For Severe Pain After Nerve Damage

I have been suffering from severe pain from nerve damage for 12 and a half years, despite three surgeries that attempted to remove damaged nerve endings and the inplantation of a spinal cord stimulator. None of these surgeries helped. Most of that time I was on oxycontin and methadone. They really messed with my intellect and memory (both short and long term). They killed the pain, but the addictions were horrible and basically destroyed my life. For the past two and a half years I have been wearing the Butrans patches. I started with a 10 mg. patch which worked well at first. Over time I ve gone up to 15 mg., and now am on the 20 mg. patch. About a year ago I developed a bad skin reaction to the patch - brutal burning, redness, itching - to the point that I had to remove the patch after 2 or 3 days instead of leaving them on for the recommended seven days (and these things cost me a fortune)! I can tolerate the patch if I puff my skin with a cortical inhaler, but even that is becoming less effective. (And the inhalers are also extremely expensive). The Purdue people who makes Butrans told me to stop using the patch. My pain management doctor said he won t change anything. He doesn t seem concerned about the bad allergic reaction. What would you suggest I do?