My name is John, I had a stroke in April last year along with 2 episodes of Arterial Fibrulation. Its now over 1 year, I consider myself lucky that I have made some recovery but I am struggling with the nerve damage to my left hand side,
My left hand is giving me the biggest problems, Hot and cold burning. Unable to grip, I have lost the dexterity in the hand and i am now losing musle mass in my arm. Everything I do with my left hand is now painful.
This has gradually got worse over the recovery period, My consultant put me on Pregabalin and upped my dosage because of the burning sensation. I had to come off the pregabalin mainly due to side effects and it not helping the problem.
I was put onto Duloxetine, Within 5 days of taking them I was unable to pass water, Apparently this is a regular occurrence with this drug, I was immediatly taken off them and my new prescription was Gabapentin 300mg 3 times a day.
After “several” weeks of getting use to them. They mellow me out but it has not helped really with the burning sensation. My whole left side is very sensitive.
My consultant and Doctors have all told me that its not possible to repair nerve damage so I just try to get on with my life, Albeit with difficulty.
If anyone has the same problem, I would love to hear from any survivors who have come across this problem and could advise and help me deal with the problem.
I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you in advance for your help.
Hello John - Just a quick hello and welcome message. I can’t offer any specific advice that may help you, but I am sure there are other members here who will be able to share their experiences.
You mention Gabapentin which is being discussed on another thread and so I have shared your post on that thread and am linking the other post to this …
Hi & welcome @JP141 sorry to hear that you are struggling with this nerve pain. I don’t have any specific advice but similar things have been discussed on here before. I’ve added a couple of links for you in case they help.
You must investigate, John ; paraesthesia / fibromyalgia / cortisol…?
Any research and understanding you do to help yourself will be of far greater help than any pill you can be persuaded to take.
Do your nerves work? can you feel (somatosensory cortex)?
From my brain, I can send messages out, but only receive very poorly.
That means I can move but not feel ; minimal feedback. You’d never know by looking at me: For example ; I can’t find my hand in the dark.
In my case, my body sends out a huge cortisol spike to shock my nerves (deafferentation) back to life.(I haven’t been able to feel my affected side for 3 years). That leads to a state of semi-spasticity every 3 days, because my nervous system is entrained to an infradian cycle due to brain damage to my hypothalamus. Don’t worry if you don’t understand ; nobody does, including myself ; even though I study 24/7. Mrs5k mentions CPSP ; that too is a factor, and a big subject that not many understand well.
If you’d like to troubleshoot your case let me know, but I can suggest DeepSeek medical AI will get you a long way with some practice.
Good luck, Roland
The hypothalamus is a small, ancient structure at the base of your brain, about the size of an almond. It is the master conductor of your HPA axis. It tells your pituitary when to release ACTH, which then tells your adrenal glands when to release cortisol
Welcome to the community, I’m sorry to hear about your stroke and the struggle you’re going through with you’re nerve pain.
We have some information and a PDF you can download about pain which you may find helpful to have a read of. I hope some of the responses on here have also been helpful for you.
If you need anything whilst you’re using the Online Community, please don’t hesitate to tag me using the @ symbol and my username.
I am to riddled with this central pain From a medullary stroke in January 25
Left side no temp sensation, left foot constant cold burning tingling unless put hair dryer on it or shower head on it foot spa also works but soon as stop resumes so strange/uncomfortable/annoying before I knew what was happening it was so bad as was all down rib cage and i was convinced was heart problem
Find its at its worse wen feeling down or anxious
I take 200mg gabapentin morning and night don’t think does anything going to stop it I think soon
I’m on the gabapentin 300mg 3 times a day. Doesn’t do very much for my hand and face. Sometimes I miss the one in the afternoon because it wipes me out
