Unexplained nerve pain

[Niceboat]

Good day,

I am suffering from Unexplained nerve pain for about a year and a half now. It started with a numbness on my back and spread throughout the body, so I was hospitalized for a day. 2 weeks later it happened again, the doctor prescribed me 50 mg Pregabalin, MRI scan and countless blood testings, but still couldn't find anything wrong.

Recently, the doctor told me to try reducing the dose to 25 mg, but just the first day I suffered a lot more numbness than usual. I do have enough dosage for normal 50 mg though, so I will probably go back to it for now.

The problem is that I don't know anything about why it happens and only have to continue Pregabalin. Is it good or bad sign?

[hanshan]

Hi Niceboat - Sorry to hear about your troubles. Although this is a thread about pregabalin, it's primarily for people prescribed it for anxiety (it works for that, too) and not nerve pain / numbness. Perhaps someone may be able to comment - the best I can say is that 50 mg per day is not a big dose, so if that controls your nerve pain / numbness and not 25 mg, then you should inform your doctor who will most likely continue prescribing 50 mg. As for the cause, if your doctor can't tell you and you are really concerned, you could try another doctor, but that may be spending money for no real gain. Pregabalin is not a cure - it can only control symptoms, so may have to be taken long-term - it's not necessarily a bad sign. Best of luck with it.

[Niceboat]

Hi, thanks for your reply, and sorry if my topic is out of place, just want to share some thought from my part.

I also don't think changing doctor will help my cause, and specialized doctors are hard to find anyway. I will just continue with 50 mg Pregabalin for now.

[WiseMonkey]

Hi sounds like you should get to see a neurologist or rhumatologist. The numbness could be peripheral neuropathy which goes together with some autoimmune disorders.

Has the Dr had your blood tested for ANA's and ENA's which are autoimmune markers?
Definitely worth getting these tested.

[Niceboat]

Hi, thanks for your suggestion.
My current doctor is a neurologist and I already took ANA test (Negative). I even took HLA B27 just in case, also negative. The doctor said it's very hard to diagnose because the results didn't show anything strange.