Crohn's Disease and pain pills

I have taken one Remicade treatment so far...I thought i was better but was not sure because i have been taking pain pills for the last week and i felt pretty normal...Well a few days ago I stopped taking the pain pills just to see what would happen...And today monday morning I feel very bad...Lot of pain and cramps to the point it made me sick....Does anyone else take pain pills for crohn's..Thanks

Depending on the type of pain pills and how much you were taking it may have slowed your gut way down and covered up how bad your D actually was.

If you were taking opiates - well for most people, opiates slow the gut down - that's why constipation is a problem for a lot of people when they take these meds.

It may be that your gut is used to being slowed down by the pain pills. If that's true, then maybe this is how your gut is all the time if you don't take the pills. Or maybe it's worse than it would be otherwise because it's reacting to not having the pain medicine and will get better in a couple days.

I'd call your doc and ask about it. See if they have any advice for you.

HOpe you feel better soon.

I have been taking Ultram 3 times a day...i had no pain when i was on the pain pills....I think it did slow muy gut down..thanks for your help.

Ultram is also known as Tramadol.

Baylinerguy, how long had you been taking your pain medication before you stopped? You may actually have been experiencing withdrawal symptoms. I am not calling you an addict because I know from personal experience the necessity of pain meds and this disease. I take 3 lortab 10's every single day and have for a couple years now. When you suffer from chronic pain, your body does become dependant upon the medication for a good quality of life. Again, let me stress that dependance is not addiction in our situations. You are not taking the medication to get a euphoric feeling, you are taking it to function like a normal person or close to it.
When a person that has been taking narcotics for a long length of times stops cold turkey like you did, your body is going to go through withdrawals and you will have nausea, bodyaches, headaches, and dizziness. Stopping cold turkey could also trigger a flare in your Crohn's disease because it is putting a sudden stress on your body and changing your routine. Narcotics do slow down the gut, but I consider that an added benefit to the main reason for taking the med. If you have been taking the med for a long time, it is less likely to be constipating you as your body has gotten used to it.
Remicade takes more than one infusion to get the full benefit and even though you may feel better after the first one it may not be a good idea to jump to eliminating your pain meds all at once. Just like you do with your prednisone, it would be smart to taper down your pain meds and let your body wean itself from them.

I use pain meds as needed, especially the with bone pain issues in addition to the crohns pain.

Artistguy, the hardest part of taking pain medication with this disease is getting past the bad stigma that the media and people have given people that take pain medication. Due to those that abuse the medication, it seems that all we ever seen on television or in the newspaper are stories of some idiot robbing a pharmacy or about the addictive nature of the narcotics. You never see the successful stories of the person with chronic pain that has been house bound or bed bound that was able to take a pill in the morning and gain some quality of life. You never see how someone was able to go do something as simple as their grocery shopping for the first time in years because they found enough relief from their pain that they could move. That would not make great news so it is not reported and those that legitimately need the meds are the ones that socially suffer.
Recently my wife had to write a politician about a health related issue for one of her nursing classes. She was not sure of a topic that was important enough to write about, so she had me write the letter and this was the subject that I wrote about. I asked that before legislation be written that makes it even more difficult for people with real diseases and conditions to be prescribed their medications, that the politicians be more educated on the benefits of the medications too. I volunteered to share my story and know of others that have been able to find some relief from using pain medication. I told the congressman of how for years I suffered needlessly due to the news stories and political grandstanding that I saw. I was so afraid of taking these medications because I did not want to turn into the next crackhead and be featured on the next episode of intervention. I know that I am not alone in having gone through this and some responsible reporting should be done. For the first couple years when I would fill my prescription each month, I was really embarrassed because I did not want anyone to know I was taking them. The pharmacist is the one that told me that I should not be ashamed for wanting to feel pain free and now I don't. As long as a person is being CLOSELY monitored for any signs of addiction or abuse while taking these medications, I see no problems with them. If you know that you have an addictive tendancy or history of drug abuse, then narcotics are problably not good for you.

I have had CD for 15 yrs now and pain meds have always been a very important part of med regiment.  They have given me a quality of life i could not have gotten without them.  I don't have a set amount that i take but on average i take 5mg one to two times a day but mostly at night.  After an average size meal i need to take something to help relieve the gas cramps and the pain from the diahrea.  Along with the pain meds i am on entocourt, humira, aspiro and cipro when my flares spiral out of control.  I am very lucky to have a GI that prescribes them for me whenever i need them.  He is very trusting probably because I have been with him since i was diagnosed in college.  He understands the relieve it gives me and is sympathetic to the general annoyances and at times crippling pain that CD can cause me.

I like others here still feel guilty about using them.  I may be paranoid but i swear some pharmacy techs and parmacists give me that look of disgust when i get my meds filled.  It angers me that abusers have produced this stigma that all pain med users are pill poppers.  People that have a chronic illness should not be made to feel guilty for trying to live a normal life like everyone else.  Give these nasty pharmacy techs a week on CD and let's see how they cope!  Sorry for venting but as you can see that it does get me a little fired up!

thats how I feel when I pick up my med's, like a junkie, But they need to walk a mile in my moccosins. so I have gotten past all of that. funny yesterday my gi had to fill my pain script early, so I went to pharm and it wwas the pharmacist who was the only one there, so I had 90 vic's and entocort to pick up, on my way down for rem. so I told pharm. I said the trouble with ent. is remember to take 3x a day, I said pain med's I can take because

there is pain involved, and I told I have cd, It seemed like I needed to justify myself. when I walked out of pharm. I thought who cares, I'm the one suffering. I feek like telling gi just give me whiskey and laudlum and that seems to be the best(not that I've tried whiskey and laudlum)

AG

I take codeine every day, however my GI would never prescribe pain pills for the CD as he said they were not effective for the CD pain. I originally had the codeine and then tramadol for a neck injury and resulting nerve damage after banging my head. Don't get any major CD pain any more since surgeries but they do help slow down bowel which is major issue as have short bowel syndrome.

Have to say never had pharmacist question me or give me any sort of funny looks. Then again I live in small town in UK and whilst drug abuse is everywhere nowadays it is not an area renowned for this problem. If anyone did question me then I would tell them it is between me and my GP, no one else's business!

I was on Remi for a while until it stopped working for me and in turn I needed emergency surgeries with mult complications. ever since then I have been on pain pills. With the amount they had to remove and the disease came back each time close after I am in lots of pain daily. I am on Humira weekly , Pentasa and entocort (was placed on entocort following my colonoscopy). I just had my CRP labwork done last week or so and will get the results next week. I do notice on days where I dont take my pain pills I do have more D. granted I wont (most likely have a normal BM again after all my resections). My script is to take 1-2 percoset every 4-6 hrs as needed for pain. Most days 2 a day get me by somedays I feel ok enough to take none..then there are the bad ones where I may need 6

t-dwag...your post is so spot on...I've often felt this same way...but I have a PM doctor, and some great Dr's...and my pharmacists have been great (except for one, which I called and complained about, and the matter was resolved quickly)...honestly, I think my pharmacist knows even better than my doctors what kinda of private hell I've been going through as they see all my scripts from my rheumy and my GI, not to mention when I need the antibiotics too...heck the pharmacists and techs all know me and my and DH on sight

Oh, and the C effect of the meds...kinda BIG reason why I like them...I feel somewhat human again...

I have been on Loratab 10 for the last two years. I think they are not working that good anymore. So I ask my GI Doctor to give me something stronger. He told me that is as strong as he will go with pain pills for crohn's. I was told I need to go to a pain clinic to get something else but he would let take a loratab ever 3 hours as needed. I called a couple of pain clinics and if you are not a current patient it is a 4 month wait to get in. I will hopefully be healed by then.
When I went the other day to fill my big big bottle of 220 loratabs, the pharmacist put me thru hell. First he came over special to have tech go do something else so he could ring me up. He ask for my Id ( which I understand) but he checked it for like two minutes and said you have lost a lot of weight you need to get a new id. So I told him that is what happens when you have a chronic disease like I have. I also had my two kids with me and he made sure to tell me the side effects ( he focus on driving on loratab). He did all this even thou I told him I had no questions. I now have transfered all my pills to another place and called district office to report him. The strange thing is that I have going to this location for two years and he has never did this to me before, let alone rang me up. Good Luck, Mr.D