I had surgery 11 weeks ago and have proably not been without pain since. Initially I accepted the pain was to be expected for sometime after surgery. However probably after 3 weeks of Panadol/Nurofen regime having no effect I realised the pain was different to surgery and healing pain. It was stabbing, burning pins&needle and numbness. I spoke to my OT who sent me back to the Dcotors at the Hand Surgery Clinic and I was prescribed Pregabalin 75mg twice daily. I took one at night and went to bed, took one the next morning and went off to work only to be lead to sick bay by 12noon to have 2.5 hrs sleep. Went back to the Doctor and they prescribed 25mg twice daily, no improvement in pain. Since then I have played around with my dosage and can manage 75mg at night and 50mg in the morning. However, the results are minimal and in particular night time is the worst, not getting much sleep and have to work.

My biggest concern is that this may become a long term thing as the way it has been described to me is the nerve had been bruised and will heal or it has been damaged and????????. Can anyone give me any hope that after this length of time the nerve may still only be bruised or if you have ongoing nerve pain have you been able to control it?

thanks for that, I am doing OT seeing her weekly, obviously doing exercises and massage. I now have a little handmassage machine which seems to be more effective than my two finger massage. Wearing silicon on fingers and palm up to 23 hours a day. Scars are still very tight, raised and hard OT is not happy I am on Pregabalin so it puts me in the middle a bit. For me the frustrating thing is doing all I can to achieve a good outcome but seeing little reward thus far. Ongoing pain tends to wear down your abiity to cope and I am trying to remain positive. Hoping this will be temporary.

Hi Diane

During the day I have silicon tube on my fingers and a piece of clear silicone which is very thin and sticky on one side on my palm supported by pressure tube. At night I have moulded silicon apparatus for my palm held in place by the splint. I wear only pressure socks on my fingers to help reduced the swelling. OT told me the silicon can be worn up to 23hrs per day and that is what I try to manage. The silicon piece I wear during the day I have only had for 3 weeks but the scars have softened quite a bit. Also the massage apparatus which I have only had since last Wednesday is making quite an improvement as well.

Regards
Lorraine

Dawn, I have been with the OT since day 4, however, not too much they can do while you have stitches and scabs. once they were gone the silicone was moulded onto my hand for the night splint, maybe week 3or4. The silicon softens the scars which apparently helps with healing. OT just told me silicon is very good for scars and it certainly has softened them. She didn't go into the properties of silicon and how it works. The tubes do make my fingers feels confortable especially when working.

Lorraine

pia2some:

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lorraine:

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Dawn, I have been with the OT since day 4, however, not too much they can do while you have stitches and scabs. once they were gone the silicone was moulded onto my hand for the night splint, maybe week 3or4. The silicon softens the scars which apparently helps with healing. OT just told me silicon is very good for scars and it certainly has softened them. She didn't go into the properties of silicon and how it works. The tubes do make my fingers feels confortable especially when working.

Lorraine

Thank you. I'll have to ask about it when I go this Tuesday. Yes, I started with the OT on day 6 after my surgery. So I've only been twice. I already had custom made night splints. She reheated and remolded it to work with my post-surgery hand. But I'll definitely ask if she works with the silicone. Interesting.

~ dawn