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Frustrated, yet thankful

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Chronic Pain
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Posted 12/22/2009 8:05 AM (GMT 0)
I'm frustrated with the ongoing ordeal of finding the right mix of medications to keep my pain and in particular my flare ups in check. On a bad day, I won't sleep until 7am when I finally pass out due to exhaustion. Then when I wake back up, the pain will likely keep me up.

However, I'm thankful to have a doctor who cares and values my input. I don't have a pain management doctor, just a regular old family care doctor. But he takes the time to listen to my thoughts on what we've tried on the pain, and then work with me to better the situation. After reading so many horror stories on the internet about uncaring or bad doctors who don't really help as much as they could, I'm thankful for the doctor I have.

Right now I'm trying norco 10/325 with tramadol. I was unhappy with the 10/500 vicodin because of all the apap in the drug. If I had a bad day of pain, I was really limited to how much I could take and not kill my liver. Which forced me to choose a few hours a day of non-pain and suffer the rest of the time.

On a normal day it takes 30mg at once of the hydrocodone to deal with the pain. Unfortunately I have a fairly high tolerance to pain meds. With 10/500 hydrocodone, I'd be capped at 8 in a 24 hour period. And being a little bit paranoid about my organ health, I didn't want to get to the point of 4000 apap in a day.

After discussing it with the doctor, we're trying the norco because it has only 325 apap in a pill. Which gives me a little bit more wiggle room on a bad day. As well as the tramadol, which alone doesn't seem to do much, but works as a helper with the hydrocodone.

We also have discussed the possibility of trying a stronger pain medication. But for the time being I want to stay with the hydrocodone. It works, enough, not perfectly, but also doesn't make me tired or loopy, or any of the myriad of side effects others have with pain meds.

It's frustrating dealing with my body at times. The pain, the worry about damage to other organs, etc. But I'm also thankful for my doctor, and wife who help me deal with it all. I am so grateful to my wife for being hands on with my care. Involved in doctors visits and the like.

I'm glad I found this forum, it works as a wonderful source of information from other people's experiences with medications, and therapies that I may or may not have heard of before. I'm constantly trying to figure out what step to take next. What RX will work well without effecting my day to day life that badly, while still letting me function through pain. etc.

Thanks for reading.
Posted 12/22/2009 9:03 AM (GMT 0)
Amaristo welcome, i sure hope this sight will help you out, like it does for me. and i'am just getting on here more since summer is over with. i do have pain on a daily bases but they have my pain undercontoll for right now, just have alot of numbing & tingleing in my feet. and i did not want to be put on alot of meds. but i have a high tolerance to, have been on alot of pills and iam on alot right now, but one time i let my pain get out of controll and i was asking my husbund toend my life, i never ever want toget to the place again. OHSU did alot of testing on me and i and still no name on my pain. and it is very disgusting. goodluck to you. i'am usally not up this late! love packy
Posted 12/22/2009 11:33 AM (GMT 0)
Welcome to the forum Amaristo! If you are concerned about your liver and the amount of tylenol in your meds maybe you should consider using oxycodone. It is the same as percocet without the tylenol. I use this but do use tylenol when feeling swelling in my muscles but this way I can control the amount of tylenol I am injesting.

Hopefully you & your doctor can find the right mix for you!
Posted 12/22/2009 11:49 AM (GMT 0)
HI Amaristo, glad you found us! Like Jag said, if you are worried about all the acedametafin, why not ask your Doc for straight oxicodone? I'm pretty sure it come in 5mg, 10mg, 15mg & 30mg with some doses even higher. You say it take 30mg at once to rid your pain, one little 30mg pill sounds better than 3 - 10/325mgs and you won't have to worry about your liver so much!!!
Good luck new friend and please stick around w/ us!!!
Your new Buddy,
Pete
Posted 12/22/2009 3:22 PM (GMT 0)
   Hello Amaristo!  I hear you on the high tolerence to pain meds. I suffer the same problem, and it worries me and my PCD. I'm up to 80mg a day for main meds, and don't like it at all. I hate it! Sometime in Feb, they will do surgery to fuse L4 L5, and I'm really hoping that will take care of the major portion of my pain. Thanks for posting, and I wish more of the members sitting on the sidelines would do so more often. This helps all of us here, and the new members looking for helpful information as well. Take care and please keep us informed as much as you can.

    Michael 

Posted 12/22/2009 9:28 PM (GMT 0)
I've considered oxycodone, or versions of it other than percocet with more of that annoying apap. For the time being I'm trying to control the pain with as low a dose of pain reliever as possible. I'm relatively young (34) and have a long road to go. So if today Hydrocodone works....enough. Then today that's what I'll take. Because it seems likely that I'll eventually have to increase dose or more likely use another type of medication. I don't want to develop anymore tolerance than I have to at this point. I'd rather cross that bridge down the road.

I guess for now I'm finding the norco + tramadol effective enough and flexible. Though I just started this new combination uh..yesterday lol. So we'll see. I will have bad days and I'll judge more then.

I have a long list of concerns, but I'm trying to work through those as best as I can.
Posted 12/22/2009 9:51 PM (GMT 0)
I was on vicodin 10/650 and this summer my doc stopped prescibing it due to the tyelnol scare, so after trying oxycodone he switched me to Norco 10/325. I really hated the way the oxycodone made me feel, was messing me up but good...so for me the oxycodone didn't work as well as the vicodin and norco and I can't drive on the oxycodone, I can take a norco in the morning and it won't put me to sleep like the oxy did, but that's my 2 cents worth of advise the others know more on this...sure wish I could've been of better help..
Nice to meet you...hope the norco and tramadol works good for you...Keep an open mind about getting a pain management doctor...would also be nice to know more about you, like is it back pain you have? did you get injured? , my pain stems from a car accident...ect...there are a lot of nice people here...
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Amaristo))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
keep us posted when you can....
Posted 12/23/2009 6:08 AM (GMT 0)
I guess I could have been a little more detailed about myself and my condition.

The pain is from neuropathy which is a complication of my diabetes.

I originally sought medical attention in the fall of 2006 because of pain in my feet. Initially I thought I had some type of infection, it was a burning/shooting electrical pain. But it drove me to the Doctor. I was then diagnosed with Diabetes which must have been with me a long time undiagnosed which caused the neuropathy.

I currently take Lantus once a day insulin as well as 1500mg of metformin a day for the diabetes. My sugars are under control and my A1C tests are good.

I have several other medical conditions that also keep me on my toes.

supraventricular tachycardia (SVT): an unusual heart rhythm that I control with a beta blocker (metoprolol) This one is a little bit dangerous if I were to have the fast rhythm for a long time. Which does happen, and at some point I might have to go on blood thinners.

Arrhythmia: also controlled with diet and metoprolol.

High Blood pressure - metorprolol helps as well as Cozaar

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) - I eat safely... heh. I've also tried Lomotil and phenargan to varying degrees of success.

Plus the neuropathy and Diabetes makes for a full plate of fun time.

I've been told all along the pain might one day just go away, and should lessen as my diabetes is under control. We're now 3 years down the line from the diagnosis and the pain is worse.

My original doctor (I have since moved) started treating the pain with a high daily dose of neurontin combined with elavil. Which I found to be completely ineffective. He eventually put me on percocet with the neurontin. Which was effective enough, but the percocet made me tired, so I was really only able to take it at night when I was home from work or daily activity.

I have moved since my diagnosis and my current doctor has me on lyrica 300mg at bedtime, 2 norco 10/325 pills every 4 to 6 hours (in theory, or as needed for breakthrough pain) and tramadol 100mg 3 times a day. The variations of vicodin begin to become effective at 20 - 30mg, but only last for about 3 hours. Some days nothing helps and the best I can do is keep down swelling and try to get a little rest when possible. Other days it's all manageable and I don't curse my feet too much.

The pain I currently experience is burning, shooting pain in my feet. It's daily, seems worse at night and it's bad enough that on a normal day I can't sleep or get any rest. It can be spasming pain at times which makes it hard to get used to, it's not like a constant pain, but instead jolts of pain.

The irony of my diabetes is if it were not currently under control, I would lose sensation in my feet and the pain would be gone. The fact that I have feeling in my feet is GREAT, but as a reality check, I guess my body decided the feeling needed to come with sharp pain.
Posted 12/23/2009 6:17 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Amaristo!

And welcome to our CP family. You sure DO have a full plate. I'm guessing you're noticing that many others here also have more than one thing they deal with. I personally have been on insulin (lantus and humalog) for about 15 years and have great A1c's but it's still a hassle and it can still cause a lot of problems like what you have been sharing. I also struggle with fibromyalgia, PTSD, UC, Osteoarthritis, a rare form of dermatitis, collapsed disk, and a few other side dishes. No fun, eh? So you are in good company here. Not only do we truly care how you are doing but most often there are others who have very similar situations.

I also have a family doc who treats most everything I deal with. Plus he too listens to what I have to say and things I'd like to try. It's wonderful to find doctors like these who are so caring. I hope you can get your pain med's under control without doing any unnecessary damage. I take oxycodone in two forms and besides hating to take it, it is the only thing so far that can lessen the pain enough to give me some quality to life right now. You and I are very Blessed to have good care even with all of the misery.

Keep in touch and warm hugs,
Chutzie
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