Re: Lidocaine Cotton Ball Treatment - Carol

[Guest guest]

Carol, here is an archived post that I think will answer some of your

questions about the Lidocaine treatment for v.pain. If you have

time, go to the group home page and do a search on Lidocaine Cotton

Ball Treatment. ~Chelle

--- Ciara <emailciara@> wrote:

This is something I wrote forever ago, but hopefully

it will help explain the lidocaine treatment Arline

was mentioning.

Below is my post on lidocaine.

I see a lot of questions about the Lidocaine Cotton Ball treatment,

so I'll try to do my part and explain....

WHAT? You can either get a script from your Dr.

(you'll probably need to ask,they don't seem to

often suggest the LCB treatment, although my Drs.

have been receptive when asked). If you cannot get

script, or choose not to, you can order online.

Mine is from www.canadapharmacy.com. I believe it says

Xylocaine 5%, but it will come up when you search

for " lidocaine " . There are 2% and 5%

strengths. The study that made this treatment

" famous " on our list used 5%, and most of us use 5%.

Lidocaine can be compounded (like the slippery KY

base Regina uses from her pharmacy), but will work

fine for most (and usually be cheaper)without being

compounded. If you want compounded, you usually need

a script from your Dr. and then need to find a

pharmacy that will compound for you.

WHEN? Get your cotton ball (some of us use sterile,

some don't) out every night. By the way, a couple of

us, including Debbie and myself, rip the cotton

ball in half, or three pieces, depending on how big

it is. Put lidocaine on it and insert it right

before you go to bed and take it out in the morning.

I

believe the study suggested that people should do

this every night for several months. I haven't been

doing this a month yet, so I don't have any personal

advice on how long to go, but I will probably try

every night for at least 3 months. After that most

people use a couple times a week for maintenance or

only right before intercourse (I believe lidocaine

eats through condoms by the

way). I think it's best to use every night on the

cotton ball and then directly on tirgger points a

couple mins before intercourse.

WHY? Debbie and Sue have been able to have almost

pain-free sex, which they both attribute in part to

the use of the LCB treatment. I believe the study

(which is in the Files

section on our group webpage by the

way) suggests that it is believed that over time

this treatment reduces our chronic inflammation and

sort

of " retrains " the nerves. In my opinion, it's a

rather inexpensive, safe, simple and effective

VV/VVS treatment as VV/VVS treatments go.

WHERE? You want to tuck the cotton ball into your

vestibule. I think of this as pushing it up about

1/2 " " inside " , even though I know that I'm not

technically

inside the vagina yet. You want to put it against

your most painful points. For most VVS (pain with

entry), it should be far enough in that it will stay

in while you walk around, but not so far that you

couldn't push it out by doing a kegel. Another way

to think about it is that it goes in the spot that

you push tampons past (the same spot where if your

tampon isn't in far enough, it'll be

really uncomfortable). You'll feel the cotton ball,

and may feel a slight sting, but don't worry, after

about 2 minutes you won't feel anything in that

little area.

HOW? Squeeze out about 1/2 " of lidocaine onto the

cotton ball. I carefully move it around a little

with my finger (and then rinse my finger off so it

doesn't go

numb). You don't need to cover the entire cotton

ball, just most of the top. Inset as described

above, go to sleep, and take out in the morning.

I believe some of us on the list also apply the

lidocaine directly to our trigger points about 15

mins prior to intercourse, and have had a lot of

success with that (combining it with the nightly

treatment). I believe someone mentioned that her

partner didn't go numb at all (as it's mostly

absorbed after 15 mins). And, as I mentioned above,

don't rely on condoms when using

lidocaine.

~ Ciara ~