“MY PAIN: Under my right rib cage, follows through up under my right breast, round under my arm (can’t wear bra as causes pain to get worse), goes round into my back. TREMENDOUS PAIN. still there with pain killers.
Hi guys,
i just wanted to Post an UPDATE on my situation, as when all this first happened to me i struggled to find information. I found people with same problem on sites like this, but no one ever updated on their progress so i want to do this for the future people who might indure this horrible problem.
It has now been almost 2 years since my gall bladder op which caused the pain.
About 6 months in i had some localised Steroid injections which prooved helpful and got me off my back.
I have also since had some electro currents put through my nerves T5 through to T12, had this done 3 times but no success so we have moved on from this.
today we went about to distinguish which nerve exactly is causing the pain. My pain is under my right rib cage and goes round up under my boob, under my arm around to back. Pain is horrendous. on ongoing pain killers which some what help, but still can’t live a normal life of any activity (tramadol sr 200mg, lyrica 300mg, norspan patch 20mg).
My pain specialist has done a few nerve blocks with just a local anaesethic today to try and figure out exactly which nerves are causing my pain.
We have got it down to T7 & T8.
I know, you would have different nerve numbers involved but just wanted to let you know where i am at with treatment. I have 4 options from here.
1.Spinal Cord Stimulator – not real keen on this idea as don’t want them touching my spine, and also as you will feel the constant vibration of the device. Plus not keen on the implanted box.
2.Peripheral Neuro Stimulator – same implanted box, but wired into the actual nerves under my rib cage rather than into spine.
3. Thermal Neorotom (nerve burn), basically burning off the nerves involved, will result in numb area, they will grow back within the year. risk of pain being worse of return, but process can be repeated.
4. Phenol Asletion (chemical), bacically same as nerve burn above but the chemical liquid is pump into nerve instead, kills off nerve in same way, will result in numb area, but hey better than pain!! and nerve can grow back etc as per nerve burn.
At this stage i have option 4 booked in. There is no reason why it should not work now we know the nerve causing the pain.
Will continue to update when i can.
If anybody want further details please message me and i can even give you my pain specialists details. I am in Cairns, Australia.”