Posted 3/24/2014 9:59 AM (GMT 0)
I suffer from a lot of pain, chronic, everyday, every wakening moment of my life, unbelievable pain.
~Severe t9 compression fracture; needs surgery
~Spines curved due to compression fracture
~Missing disk & fuzed vertebrae
~Necks too straight; dr says it's causing pain
~Muscles around spine/thorasic area are tense & very tight because of the pressure on my spine.
~Fibromyalgia; I get so many aches & pains in random places. I feel like I do major work outs even though I don't
~Pain & swelling in joints; knuckles, hands, wrists, sometimes elbows, knees, really bad in my hips, sometimes ankles. (There are time when I stand up my ankles will be super stiff and I have to fource it out of one position into another, it'll pop when I do that, I the pain is so unbelievable I have to grab onto something & squeeze it.
~pain & swelling muscles; neck, mid-lower back, arms, legs.
~TMJ; In the jaw caused by grinding my teeth at night & a major car accident, I must have hit my chin on the steering wheel & broke the disk or something, I don't know.
~Awful teeth pain; I have a few broken teeth, pretty much most of t5he tooths gone, in each one I have abscesses in. Some spots have 2 abscesses. I'm pretty sure I have abscesses in my gums as well. I can't even eat the pain is so excruciating! (No, the poor teeth was not caused by drugs, didn't do them. Poor teeth run in my family & I did a terrible job taking care of my teeth growing up.)
~Pain in ovaries; I have ovarian cysts. Sometimes these cysts will pop and the pain is excruciatingly unbearable that it literally drops me to the floor. Having cysts is awful because I can hardly ever get intimate with my husband because it will hurt too much.
~IBS which causes even more pain.
~Nerve pain; in back/spine, hips, teeth.
I think that about covers it as for my pain. Now my pain levels, well overall pain level on a 1-10 scale....I'd have to say oh I don't know, 30...basically my pain levels are off the charts. Here's a list of pain medications I have been taking. Yes they are all prescribed to me.
~Tramadol; 50mg 2 tabs every 4 hours.
~Lyrica; 100mg twice daily
~Hydrocodone/aceteminophan; 10/325
~Excederin; 2 tabs as needed
~Tylenol; 500mg 2 tabs at bedtime
~Ibprophen; 800mg 1 tab as needed
Other pain relieving methods
~Icy/hot cream
~Aspercream
~Salon Pas (like an icy/hot patch)
~Heating pad (which btw did anyone know heating pads are bad for muscle injuries, where the muscles swollen. I forgot what my dr said but he said it may feel good but in the end your actually making it worse, I think, not sure, but think it makes it swell more.Your suppose to use ice for injuries with swelling.Hmmmm, now that I say that out loud, it kind of sounds like a no brainer, huh.)
~Ice packs
~Electro Therapy pain relief(Has anyone else tried this, it's pretty crazy. Feels interesting. Now that I'm thinking of it I think I'm going to try using it on the middle of my back, it's really hurting. Unfortunately I can't use it on my neck, because it can cause severe muscle spasms resulting in closure of the air way.)
Nothing is working! I just started the Hydrocodone this week, I thought for sure this new medication was going to help my pain. But it's not helping like it I thought it would. I have tried doubling up (yes I know, your not suppose to & it can be dangerous, but I've been in severe chronic pain since I was a kid, I think I started noticing the back pain around the age of 10-13. I have been treated for pain and on off since I was 18. I have been on a lot of different pain medications, stronger strengths etc) and sometimes if I take 2 it'll help sometimes I'll need to take another before 8 hours has passed. That's actually another thing I want to bring up or more like ask. For those that are prescribed Hydrocodone 10/325 & are prescribed to take 1 every 8 hours. How many are you able to wait the whole 8 hours before needing another one? For me it wears off before 8 hours, it's more like every 4 hours. For some reason there are times where it wears off only after 2 hours! Has anyone experienced it wearing off in 2 hours?
I am suppose to be tapering off Tramadol, but I don't know how to because the hydrocodone isn't enough pain relief by its self. Plus I already know I'm going to run out of the hydrocodone early because I need more than prescribed for even a little bit of relief. I am so upset with myself because I really don't want to run out & I try so hard to not take it but when your in intense pain you can't help it. But anyways, when I do run out of the Hydrocodone I am going to need to lean on tramadol, to help the extra pain I'll be in & to help the side effects of stopping a medication. I think I'm going to talk to my dr about keeping the tramadol.
If I take Tramadol, Hydrocodone & lyrica I get better pain relief, especially when I take Nucynta 50mg with it, except I cut it in half because I'm almost out of those. (My dr had me try nucynta before the hydrocodone, seems to help pain relieving wise but that medication made me way too irritated, hydrocodone does to a little bit, but no where near how bad nucynta did. Unfortunately since it's great with relieving pain.) the problem with this is sometimes I'll get dizzy and/or nauseous.
I have been referred to a pain specialist, a great one too. I knew someone who went to him, that's how I found this guy. She said he was really good at listening to you and finding the right combination of medications to manage her pain best. She had Extended release medications to keep it under control throughout the day & instant release for breakthrough pain. It's not a sure thing I will get to be treated by this guy though. He goes over the patients records and either accepts or denies them. I'm really hoping I will be accepted because this pain is out of control. Plus I don't like being on all this medication. It's just too much on my head. I hope I can find something that will really control my pain but not mess with my head too much. I am always in a fog & I know all this medication is contributing to that. I would also like something that's not going to knock me out during the day either. I have such a hard time staying awake on this/these medications. I try taking caffeine with them too but sometimes it's just not enough.
I have a couple of medications I'm thinking might be something to try. For those of you who have tried fentanyl patches, can you tell me a little bit about it? What side effects did you get? Like with hydrocodone for me it makes me really tired and to the point where I can't stay awake, dizzy, headaches, brain fog. Does the fentanyl patches have any of those side effects? I'm mostly interested in if it made you super tired or give you a brain fog? These side effects are a real problem for me because I have diseases/disorders that cause extreme fatigue and pretty bad brain fog too. What other medications are out there? Is there a morphine patch? Morphine makes me way too tired though. Percocets use to work great for me. Didn't have much side effects and controlled my pain, but that was 5 years ago, my pain is too intense for it to help.