medication

thankyou for letting me join the site.I have constantly been in pain for 4 years ,tried all painkillers the last one being tramadol for nearly 2 years,which did not touch the pain.I saw a new doctor (lady) in our surgery this week and she prescribed  butrans patches.first day i put this on ,i slept and had a awful dry mouth,day 2 felt okay and now start of day 3 and i have actually stripped the beds,something which came at top of list of impossible.I  feel like me,or i may be dreaming, if it is a dream im never waking up .

jasmine, i am still recieving fluoxetine for depression ,are you saying i should not have been given butrans patches?I am feeling like i used too, dont know how long this will last ,and would love to hear from those able to take it and have been on it for a longer period,as i said only 3rd day for me.

The very obvious thing is the patch is giving you some serious side effect. Possibly the dosage is too high. Secondly, if tramadol doesn't hit the spot, I'm not sure why your doctor put you on opiod patches, they are pretty much last resort over here in Australia.

You do need to find someone who specialise in pain management or a rheumatologist to look into your problem. Depression is common with chronic pain patient. I'm on Valdoxan a non SSRI base anti-depressant because I use Tramadol. Technically some anti depressant are currently used to manage pain normally neurologically based pain.

What treatment have you received so far? Have anyone take blood tests? MRI? CT Scan? Or all they have given you are drugs and more drugs?

I for example has 2 major pain area that is always a problem. Lower back and sciatica pains. Lower back pain is more like someone has stuck something there causing discomfort and pain. The sciatica pain is slightly different, it's usually numb dull ache but very persistent and hard to ignore.

There are the other less severe pains like tight shoulder muscles and occasional headache.

Different FMS patient has different experience when it comes to their pain, however there are common areas that we all do experience pain with different severity.

I'm glad you found something that works for you. It's one of the hardest parts of fibro. Just make sure your dr knows about any other conditions and stay in contact with him.

It sounds like you are already adjusting to the medication. Some people with fibro have medicine sensitives which makes it harder to find what works. You know your body best and as long as your dr is on board there's nothing wrong with finding something that works.

I've just started using Norspan patch which is similar to butrans patch, very low dose, my reason for them was I have been going on panadiene for a while and it was helping me with my sciatica pain because of the analgesic effect of tylenol and codeine. So I asked if I can use a slow release low grade analgesic they pain killer, and the doc gave me Norspan to try. The dose is quite small ATM, but I can tell my sciatica pain has definately reduced from 8 to 5. I'm also needing less tramadol. So it's seems like a winning formula for me.

Hi, Ibc. Another welcome from me!

It's good to have a place to go where people understand...I'm so grateful for this site.

Sorry about your pain. It sure does get old, doesn't it? Hopefully, the patch will keep working for you. We all wish we didn't need anything, but that's often not our reality.

Have a good day.

Debbie

I think she's saying that she feels like she's dreaming because she feels like she did before fibro took over. She can complete household tasks without hurting over it.

The first day did sound like a reaction but it didn't seem to last. I think other people telling her that her dr was wrong in the choice of meds is what has her second guessing. If she feels good and the dr is tracking her progress then she's doing well. Of course that's only my perception.

Welcome lbc

would just like to say thankyou to all of you . yes i was diagnosed with fibro,after going round in circles at the hospital  for 3 years  and then being sent to rheum clinic,who could only offer me pain clinic and sleeping tablets I  tried alot of different medication over those years,I am taking tramodol,lansoprazole,and fluoxetine also use a tens machine and all i can say is they was useless,with the brutrans patch im walking okay and did the bedding,dont know how long it will last ,and crying because it may not last and also why was i not given this before.Told they suspected ms and was relieved  when they said fibro,that was until they said nothing could be done.The butrans patch is giving me a bad head and a very dry mouth  but i have no pain else where and no spasms,but still early days.Doing normal things like getting dressed  would take everything out of me ,but i have been dressed and done housework ,still tired but that could be because im doing things or the medication

thankyou claire and glad to see you have seen improvement.I was unable to walk  or stand due to muscles in legs cramping after a short distance and loss of bladder control when they cramped,this and my arm  stopped me doing most things.I did not want more medication ,i wanted to be made better.As i said stripped bed, and also big hugged my grandson,been to supermarket and made tea with no pain.Now i can get around i will be looking at alternative therapy  and hopefully get off the medication .I  was also given my tramadol prescription and have not used them yet.only time will tell.xx

Hello, I suffer from Fibro and have tried so many pain meds. When I started going to my pain mgmt doctor he started me on fentanyl patches. Started at 25 I've been on .75 now for almost three years. It's the only thing that works. I take oxy for breakthrough. Beat of luck to you on URL patches