12 WEEKS TIL WEANING OFF MEDS

I had gotten a 2nd opinion from a dr IN THE SAME Practice, i didnt have a choice who i saw unfortunately, They are both preaching "because of your age" but they are also banking and stating that after doing their swimming and stretching routine that i will kick the pills to the curb. I am confused as to why this has not been done before and why they are saying it like its a "MAGIC FIX"

The stem is working but the stem is for my waist down, i am now having ALOOOOOOT of pain in my shoulders neck and arms/chest.

I have been getting home from work and just going to bed i am soooooooooo tired, and i do this a couple times a week if not every other day. is this normal>

BG, over the years we have had a lot of young people come through this forum in the very same boat you are in right now. However, their drs told them straight out why they would either not rx narcotics to them or they were weaning them off. The drs all say that over time a patient can & probably will build a tolerance to their medications. When this happens they either increase the dosage or switch to a different medication. Over time the patient will max out their pain medications & there is nothing left they can take because the dosage would be too high & not safe for the patient. If a patient maxs out their meds out & say has an accident of some type or needs surgery they need to be able to have the proper pain meds available. We see people all the time here that has been on pain meds for quite some time & they have surgery. Their post op pain is off the scale because the typical dosage does not touch the post op pain & the drs are afraid to give a higher dose. That results in the patient having uncontrolled post op pain. That is not a good situation to be in.

And again, the environment of pain mgt has taken a huge hit. We cannot stress this enough to people today. This has been in the works for several years now. But most patients were not having any problems in the beginning getting their meds every month & therefore they were not paying any attention to what was going on. Then they start having problems getting their meds every month & its like what happened. I see pain mgt becoming so much more restrictive than it has already become. Unless something changes to where the government is not involved chronic pain patients are going to be hung out to dry.

I am guessing you are not a surgical candidate for your neck issues. Stress & anxiety will contribute to your pain in those areas, causing the pain to be even higher. You have been stressing for months over this medication thing. I don't know what type of work you do but bad posture will cause problems, or if you do a lot of computer work where you are sitting. There are lots & lots of different things that can & will contribute to your pain level. We just have to try various things to see what works.

Short of your PCP continuing your meds I just don't see another PM dr willing to continue your meds with 2 drs saying get off of them. Take care.

The best thing to do is educate yourself about what is happening in the world of pain mgt. It is getting extremely restrictive. We are losing pain mgt drs because they are tired of being told what they can or cannot rx for a patient. The DEA is involved & although its recommendations only at this point, if you don't follow through with the recommendations these drs are given a lot of grief. They are scared of losing their license to practice, so many of them are getting out of pain mgt care. I think we are going to see very limited pain mgt care in the future & unless a person has a terminal illness a lot of people will be without care. The stigma of having chronic pain has come full circle to work against us. I never thought I would see the day a pharmacist could over ride a drs prescription & the pharmacist can say I don't think you need 4 of these pills a day instead I will fill your script for 2 a day, or be told I will not fill the script because I don't think you need these pills. It is here & it is happening.

I urge you to somehow pull yourself together, you are only making yourself feel worse. Its not going to be easy but all you can do is give it your best shot. I am very familiar with how Kaiser works & I know that you are limited to seeing them. I would have expected this 2nd PM dr to agree with the other one, there was no way this one would have disagreed with the first one.

Exercise really can help, especially stretches, swimming, yoga, etc of the low impact/stress variety.

Don't think of this as a forever thing because you can't predict the future. You're going on a med holiday which will reset your receptors and your meds will work better if you still end up needing them.

Trust me, its much better to prove to yourself that you can survive without the pain meds. That way you'll be in control no matter what happens in the future.

What about other types of meds? Injections? Heat/cold? Anything else that helps?

I'm 28. My problems stem from brain damage, so truly unfixable. I've been keeping myself resistant to tolerance by taking much less than I should because I'm worried about the future.

There are days I take nothing so that I keep the relief from the meds in perspective because any help is better than none and really nothing is garunteed from month to month.

I hope you end up with less pain than you think you will and that this ends up being a semi positive experience for you. Even if it just shows you that you're a lot stronger than you think you are!