Pitocin shots anyone?

Hi! :)

Wow what a week. I recently found a wonderful RA, a pain specialist and I started working again after a three month departure from my old, incredibly stressful, job. The new place has 40 hour weeks, very low responsibility and is just this side of paying the bills. My new treatment additions are gabapentin and shots of pitocin, in addition to vicoprofen and Butrans patches (10mcg). My previous treatment was Butrans and a trial of hydro OR nucynta. After finding that nucynta caused way too many withdrawal symptoms if not taken at exactly the right time - regardless of whether I actually needed to take it - I am happy to report that I will never take that drug again. I would rather take baby aspirin!

So I have my new treatment. Oddly I have more symptoms. Or....the new job is taking so much out of me that I am in Hell's Flare. I am now the recipient of what feels like carpel tunnel/arthritis in my hands and wrists and severely aching feet regardless of whether I am standing for extended times. Thank goodness for my vicoprofen, that's all I can say. And what's worse is that my pitocin should be helping my pain but I am finding that it no longer does. Which makes me think that the gabapentin is the culprit. Side effects that may be intruding are increased fatigue and water retention. My hands have felt like sausages lately along with increased pain. That said, pitocins job is to increase blood flow so advanced theories on Fibro, that we all also have underlying viruses and toxins wreaking havoc, could mean that my increasing blood flow I am also allowing these toxins to run around ruining the party. I have called my RA to see if I can move my appt up so we can talk about it.

Gabapentin so far has not even made a dent in my pain, but it has made me severely depressed to take it as directed so I have now cut it back and take it every other day. Which won't help according to the literature.

The next flare like issue is the fatigue that I got beat up with. WOW. You all know the fatigue I am talking about. The 'I can barely keep my eyes open and I am walking in quick sand but there is no way I can nap' fatigue. Truly, I thought the pitocin would help this so I am a little discouraged. Also, I had my period last week and DO NOT USE IT DURING YOUR MENSES. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on anyone.

Which leads me to my current issue. Ugh. I feel like a total rookie. My appt with my pain doctor isn't for another ten days and I am running out early. He offered to give me the max (120) but I didn't want to seem like a drug seeker so I said 'whatever you're comfortable with' and he said 'let's try out 90 and see how you do'. I am also coming to CA from WA where they are very conservative in pain management and I just didn't feel comfortable pushing for more because of all of the current DEA hoopla. He was very kind and said that I can call if I start running out, so I did. I called and spoke with a nurse and told her of all of my new symptoms, which at that time I didn't even ask for a refill because frankly I had hoped that the new tender points and arthritis pain was going to be short lived. But here's the kicker, I never got a response from the doctor. They say normal turnaround is 3 days and I waited 4. So instead of calling again I just requested a refill through my pharmacy which I really hate doing for some reason. (Weird issue, I know.) the thing that troubles me about this is that I don't think I want to do vicoprofen for a while. If you're anything like me, my pain needs to always get shocked in order to stay on top of it. So with the approval of my old doctor I switched around a bit and took both short and long term pain meds (along with Butrans, it makes a WORLD of difference upon wake up) so that my body doesn't get used to anything. And I would like to discuss this with my pain guy but I am not getting the chance to.

For those of you in pain management - what has been your experience with typical pain management (patches, pills) and newer methods like pitocin shots? And any words of wisdom to say 'hey, I know it's going to sound weird but you need to give me 14 day supply of X and a 14 day supply of Y and give me the freedom to mix it up. Otherwise, like now, I am taking up to 6 a day (!!!!), instead of 3-4.

I hate opiates/opioids.

Oh! And I now have heartburn from the vicoprofen. I forgot to mention that very important part of changing up meds.