Nerve pain

Hi Angelk

Sorry to hear that you are suffering from nerve pain. While I haven’t had the experience you are having I noticed you haven’t hD any replies so I thought I’d reply to you  Hopefully someone with your experience will be on here soon to answer your question. If the pain is still bothering you over the New year period you should ring your BCN or your oncologist and they might be able to advice you on what to use for the pain.

Hope it gets sorted soon and that you have a good 2022.

Best wishes

Daisy53

A good person to speak to is often your local pharmacist as they often better placed to advise on side effects and drug interactions.

Hi Angelk 

sorry to hear of your suffering!  I will be interested in any replies as I had 7 cycles of chemo, followed by lumpectomy, radiotherapy and also had 18 three weekly cycles of pertuzamab and trastuzumab, which I completed on 24th November, so about 6 weeks ago.

I too found that I started suffering with very, very itchy hands as the time went on.  On the top of my hands around my veins. So very itchy!

as I am now finished I am hoping it is not long term damage to my nerves, veins ?

still itchy now though and lately I have scratched so much I have bled a little?

I hope there is someone on this forum who can advise?

Agree about asking pharmacist. My Gp's surgery. Has a pharmacist and she is very good and helpful X I have some residual nerve pain from my treatment but it, lucky for me, is fleeting and not too much of a problem. I do feel for you and hope you get some realistic help.

Hope 2022 brings better things xx 

Thank you for this.  My oncologist and GP are well aware of the problem I have but have tried everything to ease the itching but unfortunately nothing has worked.  I’m hoping there may be some natural alternative I could try or have even considered acupuncture to see if this would help.     Best wishes for 2022 to you as well.

I tried the pharmacist but he couldn’t suggest anything I haven’t tried.   I’m hoping someone on here may have found something to ease it. 

I expect you have tried Eurax. I have used it but for a small patch only. Try acupuncture it has helped me with joint aches and with swollen ankles so it can work. My Macmillan centre offered 6 free sessions. It is also worth going in and speaking to one of their nurses as they can be very proactive and a bit outside the 'normal' medical route. Feel for you xx

Thanks very much for this I will get in touch with them.   I have tried Eurax but again it didn’t really make any difference.  

Hello Angelk so sorry you are suffering.  I had terrible nerve pain during chemo and radiotherapy.  It centered in my butt and  coccyx it was a absolute agony with muscle spasms so bad I could barely walk.  I had lots of prescribed painkillers which never took the pain away.  I hobbled to chemo with walking sticks.  Oncologist couldn’t work out the cause.  I guess it was neuropathy!  Finished radiotherapy in November and I’m now walking my dog.  Still got coccyx pain and joint pain.  I do hope you can find something to aid your discomfort.  Keep asking you team for help and best wishes.  J x

Hi Angelk

Sorry to hear you’re suffering from nerve pain.  I have chemo-induced neuropathy in my feet and was referred to the pain team at the hospital. They suggested I tried menthol aqueous cream but sadly it didn’t work for me.  I was then prescribed lidocaine patches/cream to help numb the areas but didn’t help in my case.  I ended up with Doxepin cream which has been a lifesaver for me as it takes away the burning sensation. I guess using cream on hands is not as practical though! 

I also had a course of acupuncture at the hospital and now self-needle weekly at home and I think this has definitely helped with increasing blood flow to promote healing.  Be aware though that if you’ve had lymph nodes removed that you don’t usually have needles in that arm.

My team warned me that nerve damage can take a long time to recover, up to 3 years, and in some cases might be permanent so it could be a long journey but hopefully you can find something that works for you.  It’s worth asking if there’s a specialist pain team at your hospital that you could talk to as they might have further ideas of what might help.  Good luck!

Loffie x