Tramadol Experience Anybody?

For the past 6 years I've been on opiates for chronic back pain. Most of the time it's been Percocet, but about a year ago my doctor put me on controlled release Oxycodone, with the Percocet as a breakthrough med. This all seemed to make sense to him and to me to go this route as my pain is chronic (albiet with good days). Although I think one of the reasons he made the change is because recently it seems frowned upon to just prescribe short acting pain meds as the "main or base" medication for pain management. However as time has gone on the constipation issue unsurprisingly has become more and more a pain in the edit (sorry no pun intended lol). Although I do manage it most of the time with laxatives (I.e. senna, docusate, milk of magnesia, prunes etc.) it's always a battle to try and find the right balance with keeping things moving along successfully and completely... if you know what I mean.

Anyways my Doctor just prescribed me Tramodol to try and see how that works. He says it causes less constipation. He can continue to prescribe me the Percocet as a breakthrough med. What is anyone else's experience with Tramadol in terms of the level of constipation, if any, and level of pain relief? I hear it has a similar action as other opioid medication but is weaker? Appreciate any thoughts.

Web, I have edited out a word in your post. Healing Well has a rule concerning language, since we never know the ages of people reading these post, we need to keep it clean. Thanks

Post Edited By Moderator (straydog) : 6/1/2014 5:49:52 PM (GMT-6)

For me, Tramadol was terrible. Little to no pain relief and awful side effects. Extreme dizziness and lightheadedness, ringing in my ears, and what I can only describe as auditory hallucinations. The experience actually scared me - something that had never happened to me before, or since.

I'd like to strongly ^^echo^^ what Alcie just wrote. It was a rare and extreme fortune that a doctor happened to know of these interactions, and it was he who alerted me to this. My previous providers were unaware and willing, even eager, to rx the tramadol in lieu of something they considered much stronger.

I was post-op and in the rehab facility, and it was their resident doc who happened to catch me. Imagine that! Of all places! Up to that point, no one had picked up on that potential interaction. I learned about it originally from him, and have since dodged that bullet many times, as subsequent providers would try to rx that med to me...and as Alcie pointed out, more often than not, it was me informing them of this interaction!

I've since learned even more about this syndrome right here from HW folks!

I strongly recommend doing your homework in this department!








M.

I react like Splashdancer to tramadol so therefore don't have much experience but it seems you can either take it and do well or not at all.As with any new meds just be alert to the side effects.

Yes. I was on tramadol for seven years it kind of worked ok 300mg per day. Ditto all the posts about interactions no-one told me about the serotonin effect. Do your research not highly constipating but it is physically addictive. Good luck