How can I get thru the pain of wd

My story. about 13 years ago I had a very bad fall on ice. Did not know it at the time but I had a compression fracture at T11 and T12 from the force of the impact smack dab on my butt. Did not help that I have moderate scoliosis. Two years later I was moving furniture and felt a shock wave go all the way down my spine. That was the beginning of a long road of pain. I developed severe arthritis in my lower spine from the impact. That along with the impinged nerve in my thoratic spine lead the docs to put me on a high dose of OxyContin and Percocet. Finally in 2008 I had 1 spine surgery. In 2009 I had 2 spine surgeries and in 2010 I had 1 spine surgery. Fusions. I still have problems in my thoratic spine as that hasn't been addressed yet. I am always in so much pain even with all the pain meds. I read that long term opiate intake can actually cause more back pain so I made a decision I hope I can live with

The beginning of july this year I decided to go off all pain meds. I have been on them for 10 years. I tapered down and completely went off of them wednesday last week. When am I going to stop hurting and feeling like a semi truck hit me. My lower back is killing me. My doc prescribed tramadol but I read horror stories about that and stopped taking it today. Once again I feel set back to the first day of withdrawal. I am not craving the drugs at all but I am not sure I can take the pain of this God awful withdrawal pain. My back feels like it is going to explode. Any suggestions. I am now just taking Advil and Valium.

Welcome,

Glad you found us. I can understand, in principle, why you wanted off all the pain meds, but hope you are doing what you are doing while under the care of your doctor(s). It can be very dangerous to self-wean, both physically and mentally.

With CP, in my opinion, it's always a calculated trade off, having the need to be on strong meds and reducing the pain, or avoiding the meds, and dealing with the raw pain. Can only speak for myself, but based on the past 2 years of my life, and dealing with advanced prostate cancer, I choose to stay with the pain meds, so that I can still maintain some semblence of my former life, thought physically, its been greatly reduced.

It's each person's choice, of course, no right or wrong, and very subjective. Are you sure you really want to deal with that much pain, without the aids of the right types of pain meds? Sounds like a very tough situation to me. And again, I hope and trust you are doing what you are doing under the guidence of sound medical advice.

Please stay in touch, you don't have to be alone with this, and never give up hope.

david in sc

…headed to bed here, will visit with you tomorrow, so please do check back, as there is much to say.

SE

Thanks momto8

Today is a new day and every day gets a little easier. I feel a lot better today. I am sneezing ALOT plus other things. It seems I was set back a few days from taking the tramadol but I can't complain. What I am most surprised about is my level of chronic pain is no where near where I thought it was and where it was while on pain meds. That's not to say it isn't there just not as bad. I think I will be able to tolerate it. You know after each of my spine surgeries they had to give me so much pain medication, enuf that would most likely have killed a non dependent person and even that barely took the pain of surgery away.

I guess I am lucky that I always took my meds as prescribed and never for enjoyment only necessity. I can totally understand how a psychologically person would have a much harder time.

I am also sorry to hear of your pain troubles and would be interested in hearing about them if you care to share.

    Hello again Toomuch!

        I'm back a little late!..sorry   Your post really interest me, and I suspect many more here. You and I share some of the same problems and thinking as well. I did the same as you...and removed at least all of my Oxycontin...like Boom!...all at once! I will never do that again! It was horrible, and I continued to work at the same time.

    I'm in agreement with my buddy Tina here,...and believe you may have more of a tolerance issue over all, combined with the dependency. I will be interesting to see how you turn out...so please do keep us updated on this. The only way to know if you suffer from Hyperalgesia, would be to reduce your med intake to zero, and remain there for quite some time.

  I also have a friend who's father was a Dr and a pharmacist, and he said if you get any relief from taking your pain med's then you do not suffer from the Hyperalgesia. Again it is supposed to be a very rare condition.

    I also talked to my Dr about this, and he said he did not believe I suffered from this at all.

      Good luck!...and please remember to update us please.

 *´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•`    SE  

Thanks for the update, Susan, glad to see you found some improvement. When dealing with chronic pain, any good day is something to rejoice about. And yes, there are many of us out there dealing with our own personal pain stories, and since pain often doesn't show up on the outside, many people not afflicted, have no idea of what we go through, the daily struggle to make it till the next day, etc. I love it when people not too attached to me come up and say, "Hey, you are sure looking great". I give a fake smile, and think, if you only knew how much I am hurting even as you speak. But you have to suck it up, and pretend everything is ok.

Here at this group, the common denominator is pain, we all understand that, so any empathy is natural and genuine, even though the reasons for our pain can vary so much. As I have told many others in the past 4 years of my life battling prostate cancer, you can't truly understand or appreciate chronic pain, unless you have experienced it. It's one thing to get hurt or have a tooth ache, etc, and hurt for a few hours or a few days, then it is to live with Level 5-10 pain 24/7 for weeks, months, or even years at a time.

Good luck to you, hope things continue to improve for you. Never give up hope!

David in S.C.

Hi everyone,

The good news is i think I'm going to live!!!! At least that's how I feel now. Yesterday I turned that glorious corner and aside from the occasional sneezing, insomnia (it's 3am here) I feel so much better in terms of wd pain. Boy when you are going through the worst of it you think it's never going to end. Even my brain feels better today. I can think a little clearer and carry on a conversation even if it's with myself since hubby is sleeping. I had my every 5 week eye injection yesterday and I was really worried on Tuesday that I wouldn't have the strength to go. I didn't mention before that I see a retina specialist because for whatever reason I fall into the category of "you are way to young to have macular degeneration at age 56". The only way to keep from going blind in my right eye is to get these injections. When I first learned that i was going to need them last november it was one of the most disturbing things I thought a person should have to go through but at number 8 I am getting used to them. Plus my retina specialist is awesome! Plus i can see!!! When i first went in my vision was 20/100. Five days before that it was 20/20 so it came on fast now with treatment it is 20/30!!! There is always the chance my left eye will also become affected but so far so good.

Ok now for the bad news. The burning is back in my right SI joint. Rats. Plus my thoratic spine is feeling worse. My doc wanted me to start at the pain mgt clinic but they told her I needed to try physical therapy first. Ok I will go......for the umpteenth time if that is the hoop I must jump thru first.

David you are so right when you say that people you run into that ask you how you are feeling or say how good you look just have no idea what it's like. I too just smile and say fine because honestly they really dont want to hear otherwise anyway. What I hate is when we park in a handicap spot ( which I only do if I am having a really bad day or there just isn't any option). Even with a bonafide placard people look at you when you get out and just because you are not in a wheelchair or have some other visual deformity you just know what they are thinking.

SE do you take anything for break thru pain on the 2nd day to help you. One thing I so admire about you is that you continue to work with all of your pain. Just before my first surgery I was 3 credits short of getting my degree in photography. It was a passion of mine. I loved creating interesting digital works of art in photoshop using the photos i took. I also loved being in the darkroom. But i had to give it up because it was just too painful to stand, bend, or concentrate. We have to give up so much ourselves as it is just a struggle to get out of bed in the morning....

Well this post went on longer than I intended so I probably should push send now. I am thinking of all of you and the support you gave and continue to give me. Susan

Hello everyone, First i would like to say thank you for the people who wrote to me last week when I was at my worst. I really appreciate it. I have good news and bad news. The good news is I lived through all of the awful withdrawal symptoms from the high doses of Oxycontin and Percocet's I was taking. I had one day that was pain free off of pain meds. I thought that was a good sign. The bad news is the next day the pain all came back. My r. SI Joint kept me in bed for 4 days. The more I moved, the worse the pain. I tried a lot of the over the counter pain relievers and nothing worked. I even tried the Tramadol that my doc prescribed and that didn't touch it, just made me feel weird. Finally, she prescribed me some Norco 10/325 and I am managing on a half a pill every 6 hours. It doesn't take all of the pain away but it helps. I was hoping not to go back on any narcotics but when you are in pain you will do what it takes. I am glad that I can get by on the low dose for now. In fact it helps just as muchas the high doses of the other meds I was taking so just like Tina and SE predicted, I needed a medication reset. It's been pretty depressing overall. I did email the surgeon who did the standard r. SI Joint fusion in 9/09 that failed, and then replaced it with the r. SI Joint iFuse fusion in 9/10 to let him know that the pain was as bad as it was before the first surgery. He ordered another cat scan and xrays so maybe something went wrong with the 2nd surgery as well and he can do something to fix it. One can hope. Susan

I also forgot to tell you when I ran out of my meds I was also taking 12 to 15 5mg oxys everyday. I felt like I wanted to die, you must have a strong support system and here you will have that!! Anytime day or night!