Pain medications

Hi everyone, I am just wondering how many of you guys are on pain meds and if you have trouble getting them from your GI or general practitioner? I am always given like a 60 pill container of hydrocodone, and then when its all gone I have to go back and explain that I am still in pain and that I need some more. The docs think that I am a drug addict now or something, because I need the pain pills. They were the ones that gave it to me in the first place, so if they have a problem with the narcotics , I think that they should find me a non narcotic option if that exists. The GP is reluctant to prescribe me anything and wants me to talk to my GI doc. The GI doc wants me to talk to my GP about it. Just a complicated nightmare , just like everything else with this disease. My pain is from the gut from the crohns, I also have to bulged discs in my lower back that happened for no known reason. There is also pain from the Crohns arthritis. I just don't know what to do about the pain and think that there should be an easier way to get the pain meds if you need them. There also should be non narcotic options , but I am not aware of any. Please if you know of any let me know. Thanks!

I take Percoset.. I started them when I was in the hospital in January and have found that they work wonderfully.. the only thing is I hate asking my doctor for them! She will only give me a prescription for 20 at a time, so I feel like I'm asking all the time.

I had the same problem with my primary care doctor, she said people with Crohn's don't have pain but would reluctantly give me 30 vicodin every 30 days. She also said it's a hassle because when I call in for a refill, she has to look at my chart every 30 days. I didn't know I was such a burden to her! Anyway, I went to a pain management doctor at the suggestion of everyone here & it was great. The doctor was very nice, she said she had a lot of Crohn's patients & was the first doctor I've ever had to acknowledge that not only does having Crohns itself cause anxiety but having constant pain makes it worse. She asked me how much medicine I thought I needed, wrote me a script for that amount & also gave me a script for a muscle relaxer for nighttime to reduce anxiety & help me sleep. It was such a relief to have someone care & understand.

My GI just put me on tramadol. I was on vicodin but my GI says that it actually makes your immune system kick in even harder which is obviously bad for us. The tramadol is a synthetic med close to codine. It is not an opiate so chances of adiction are much lower and it also may help with depression. So far so good. It seems to work better if I take it before the pain starts. It doesn't give me a headache like vicodin does. Overall so far I am happy with it. I am taking 2 to 3 50mg pills a day. (sometimes less sometimes more) Also, since it's not a narcotic my doc must feel more comfortable giving me refills. He prescribed a 30 day supply with 3 refills. Its worth looking into.

Yup...lifegiver my PM(Pain Management) is...PM's keep up to date on the latest and greatest in pain relief...they also know how to fill out all the paperwork so that they DON'T get in trouble(of course, there are some bad guys out there, but that is true of any specialty)...they may suggest things that might help a whole lot and would not have occurred to your GI or PCP...the Chronic Pain on this portion of the site is wonderful too...