Hey all!!
I am new here and this will be my second post. Glad to find some people with something in common however sad that it had to be under these circumstances as I KNOW how pain can affect ones life and it is terrible.
Seems that the common thing in these forums in the meds..........well of course it is as they help us tolerate the pain. I have been on pretty much everything known to man for pain management and had pretty much every therapy devised to help back pain.
Small amount of background.....Hurt my back over twenty years ago. Have had debilitating pain for over 10 years or so and two surgeries in the last few years. The first was a lamenectomy and the second was a fusion just over a year ago. I am in constant pain in varying degrees and have really found nothing that makes it ALL better but some meds have made it okay to face the day on some level.
I have been to a few pain management docs, not shopping but changes in inurance made it a must. I have had different experiences with them all. There is some stigma attached to the big three meds..........oxycodone (Percs, Oxycontin, Percodan). Also morphine and last but not least Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) which is the grand daddy of pain meds and the best you can get for relief. Now Darvocett and the like have lots of acetametphin as you all know, so do most of the other meds used for pain. They say that it works better in conjuction with it. However we all seem to run into the same issues with too much of it and the worry of liver issues. Did you know they make a 1.5 gram Percocet????? No acetametaphin in it at all. This is what I take and it is 1500 mills along with my 60 mg morphine twice a day sometimes three times a day. No liver issues and no worries at all.
I am not advocating taking this much medicine, however I am opiate tolerant of course and the years of taking them have made it a must to take the amounts I take now. I also have been on Fentanyl patches and other various meds to help with my pain. I do not recommend Fentanly to anyone unless in the hospital..........just my oponion as it is crazy dangerous for resp depression and if you are taking other meds you just might stop breathing.
Morphine in oral form is almost ALWAYS a timed release deal and hardly as effective as oxycodone for BT pain. I admit is can help but for those in serious pain you will not find it all that helpful I do not believe, however everyone is different. Ones mans soup is anothers meal and all that.
I guess my whole point is some docs rely on your ingnorance and prescribe what THEY feel is best for you, that is great looking at it from a health stand point. Bad from a pain point of view. Educate yourself and know what each med is and what it does. You will better be able to have a meaningful dialouge with your pain doc when you know what you are speaking about. And they will be more apt to listen to you when you do as well, at least in my experience. My pain doc is a great guy, a pill counter and a drug tester but I appreciate that in him, he is trying to keep me safe. On the flip side of that he is also willing to prescribe what works as long as you are keeping up your end of the deal by not running out of meds or pharmacy shopping and they will find out. My doc loses about six to seven people a year on overdose........scary stuff so nothing to play with.
Good luck to you all and I hope you get some relief, sure understand your plight as I endure it everyday. That and pretty much lost everyone around me to this. Others just do not understand eh?
Kevin