Anyone else have intercostal neuralgia after treatment?

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Springflowers
Springflowers Member Posts: 85
edited July 2018 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

I have been dealing with terrible pain right lower ribs, cancer side, for six months. I had ultrasound abdomen and pelvis, MRI pelvis, chest CT and x-ray. I have seen med onc, rad onc, GP, chiropractor and thoracic surgeon. He is the one who diagnosed me. All the docs disagree on cause whether surgery or radiation but all say no cancer. My pain is upper spine, lower ribs and into my hip. I am on a medication that is not working but makes me dizzy, blurred vision and gain weight. Looking to see if others have this and what works.


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  • Yanito
    Yanito Member Posts: 2
    edited July 2018

    After 1 year of having significant pain in my rib cage and radiating into my back I went to a Dr. and was diagnosed with Intercostal Neuralgia. After being treated with nerve blocks, cryablation treatments and a host of narcotics the Dr. proclaimed that he no longer was willing to treat me due to, his belief, that I had become dependant on the narcotic remedy, this even though he routinely takes urinalysis testing and my levels were never elevated. I eventually was put in contact with a Dr. at a research hospital and he also diagnosed me with intercostal and after listing the treatments I already had he recommended a neurostimulator implant. The surgery was simple and the recovery went relatively quickly. The results have been pretty good with a 60-80% pain coverage. There has been the draw back of knocking my internal leads loose and having to go back in to reattach them but it is worth the return of quality of life. Hope this helps.

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  • dtad
    dtad Member Posts: 2,323
    edited July 2018

    Yanito...I’m so glad you found a facility that gave you some relief. This is a perfect example of why IMO being treated at a university based teaching hospital is so important !

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  • Springflowers
    Springflowers Member Posts: 85
    edited July 2018

    Yanito thank you for your reply. I read it yesterday morning and have been thinking about it since. To answer your question, yes it is helpful to me, very helpful. This is such a rare illness that i am finding it hard to find others to communicate with. I did find a support group on FB and one of the contributors got hers from breast surgery as well ( hers was benign). It helps me because i have a hard time wrapping my brain around how a lumpectomy could affect nerves in my ribs. I am a nurse so perhaps i think too deeply, so therefore i keep thinking it is something more serious. It helps to calm me to hear of others experiencing the same. I think you are incredibly brave. I am scared to try nerve blocks and the like, i want a magic pill :). I am going for "nerve stimulation" from chiro next week. Waiting for my new doctor to get information from previous doctor. I think Lyrica is helping a bit, at least i am sleeping at night that is a good thing.

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