Doctors & Pain Meds

[harpert]

I take Gabapentin and I think it does help, although I am never pain free. I take Savella as well. Tramadol does help, the only reason I know that is because my doctor in Florida had prescribed it. My doctor in Indiana will not. Fatigue and anxiety are my worst issues right now. My hips, legs, and upper arms always hurt, nothing helps.

 

[Poisoned]

I've never ever EVER been offered anything for pain . I've never been referred to a rheumatologist . No test besides trigger point . 5 years now an I lost my career , apartment , family gave up on me. I struggle to maintain the jobs I've had since the demise of my career . I take naproxen , Epsom baths , voltaren , rubA535. I spent a small fortune on these things .

They've had no issues throwing cymbalta , celexa and Effexor at me . My body CANNOT handle those drugs anymore . I don't really understand how Effexor is better than say a muscle relaxant at this point bc I am crippled . I don't get it at all.

 

[DoobieBrother]

It's very sad to me that so many doctors have no testicles. Clearly a big pair is a prerequisite to writing scripts for meds that actually relieve pain... In my humble opinion those MD's who will not prescribe opiates 'under any circumstances' should be made to walk in our shoes - I'd wager that prescription pad would be whipped out PDQ if that were the case.

Luckily my docs both have the balls to treat their patients with what ever is needed, in my case it's morphine and percocet for breakthrough. To be blunt I would not be alive if not for those meds, as I could not live for the past 6-8 years with this level of nastiness. Oh, and one of my docs is a woman!

Drug dependency does happen (duh!) but stats also say that people who use opiates to manage neuropathic pain tend not to abuse them. This is certainly true for me: started out on dialudid, then went through every opiate except Fentanyl as the patch is tricky to get the dosage right. There were no withdrawl symmptoms when I was switched pain-killers.

To those who are refused access to opiates, my only advice would be to find another doctor, AND have a hard look at +CBD high cannabis strains. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've managed to get off the morphine all together (well.... 'cept for flares) because I now ingest small amounts of cannabis extract every 4-6 hours. No liver and kidney damage, no chance of opiate dependency, etc.etc.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening to me rant.

DB

 

[brandib819]

I originally had a hard time finding a doctor to prescribe me opiates. I was in so much pain. I was weak, I was barely walking. It took probably two or three years going from doctor to doctor across Florida who treated fibromyalgia specifically. It took me breaking down and telling my nurse practitioner for my PCP I really don't know how much longer I can go on like this if I can't get some relief to break down and tell me the name of a pain management doctor he knew who would treat fibromyalgia with pain meds if necessary. And he wasn't the kind of doctor who would throw them at you. He evaluated your quality of life related to what you did, to what you're doing, to what you wanted to do. He knew I used to dance, and work full time. Now I can't do ballet at all or even work part time. So I was on opiates for about four years. From 24/25-28. I recently got off of them at the middle of November, I never liked the way they made me feel but I liked the results and thought they were necessary. Now I realize that Gabapentin will essentially give me the same amount of relief, and my pain management doctor agrees. If my pain levels are about the same or better then there is no reason for me to be on the pain medicine if I don't want to be. So he agreed to let me go off of it. It's been a month and I've had almost no pain on the Gabapentin. When I have flare ups and bad days my pain levels are relatively the same as they were when I was on the pain meds. The Gabapentin will take the edge off, but it doesn't take it away, but the opiates didn't either. They made it a little more manageable though.

That was four years ago though, now they're getting harder on the restrictions on who can write and even what doctors can fill at what pharmacies due to over prescribing. So, yea, it's getting a little nuts. And it is making it harder for those of us who sincerely need it and do not abuse it. I'm sue many of us who do need pain meds or have to take them if we had it our way we wouldn't be taking anything. I know I wouldn't.