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Do We Expect Too Much From Our Meds?

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Fibromyalgia
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Posted 9/19/2010 7:53 PM (GMT 0)
How many times has a doc told you, " I want you to try this..I think it will help."

Do you take his suggestion and try another another med?

I always hold out hope, thinking this is going to be the wonder med. Am I wrong

to hope for something to feel better? If I stopped looking for that magic med

would my life be better? I think we all have felt the frustration of trying a new med

only to find out we suffer bad side effects or to see improvement initially, and then

not work as well. Because of the pain factor, we're looking for relief.

Maybe if I accepted that there isn't a cure and stop looking for one I would be

less frustrated. I've been trying to focus on what I can do to help myself.

If I can't have a cure, I have to settle for working on healing myself. A combo

of meditation, relaxation therapy, positive thinking and exercise.

Somedays, I feel like Stuart Smalley...the goofy character from the Saturday

Night Live skit...Daily Affirmations. The things we do to feel better... turn

Hugs, Robin

Posted 9/19/2010 8:56 PM (GMT 0)
I agree with what you're saying and I think we let ourselves down when we hope "too much", but in the same breath, I think with all of the technology there is out there, I wonder why there is never a medication that completely gets rid of all symptoms. It seems that medications now adays only lessen "some" symptoms. I think that hope keeps me going. I don't know where I'd be if I didn't have a little hope that one day, there would be something that would help.
Posted 9/19/2010 9:11 PM (GMT 0)
There is kind of a thin line between using meds reasonably and expecting them to "take it all away." My doctor always tells me about a fibro patient he had to fire because she was getting so many pain meds from different doctors, and "the cure became worse than the disease." She's now only 60 and in a nursing home. I think he tells me this when he thinks I'm whining too much! IF ONLY something could cure this crazy disorder....yes, we do have to have some hope. As they say, they can put a man on the moon, but...!
Debbie
Posted 9/19/2010 9:20 PM (GMT 0)
I remember when I was little...you went to the doctor and the doctor knew exactly what you had..gave you a prescription, and everything seemed to be better. Now, doctor's are "guessing" what we have or some don't believe us. I have never had problems with doctor's not believing me, but some of us do, especially when it comes to fibro. Either they are guessing what we have or they completely miss it. I'm sure it has alot to do with how the world is changing, but I really wish it was easy again like it was back then. And I wish we didn't have to deal with so many side effects from medications. I really don't expect a medication to fix everything, but from all of the money they are making off of us, I at least expect to funtion.
Posted 9/19/2010 9:25 PM (GMT 0)
I hear what all of you are saying.... I just can't help but wonder if there IS a drug out there that would help more. I have this sinister belief that IF the drug companies really gave us something that would help get rid of the pain they just would not make the money they do. When I look at my medicine cabinet and see all the stuff I'm taking and then look at all the meds I have purchased and could not take and then the ones I keep around just in case they might help in the middle of that bad flare I think wow... I could have bought a house, a car, put my kids through college on what I have spent in co-pays alone not to mention what my insurance company has paid... They will never find a "cure" nor will they come up with a drug that keeps me from wanting to just try anything else that "might" help. Drug companies and insurance companies would lose too much to make me feel good again.
Posted 9/19/2010 10:38 PM (GMT 0)
Id have to say Im with cajun on not giving up hope that there will be something out there someday. I can tolerate alot as long as there is still hope.
Gentle Hugs
Shirley
Posted 9/19/2010 10:40 PM (GMT 0)
I've always been a willing guinea pig for what my doc suggests. I have a cupboard
full of meds that I once was on for one thing or another. Sometimes I just think
my expectations are too high. I set myself up for disapointment.

I do have hope that some day there will be a cure. I know I must also do what I
can do to help myself in the meantime! I must say my muscle relaxer has taken
some of the edge off today!

hugs, Robin
Posted 9/19/2010 11:15 PM (GMT 0)
Steph, I think you may be right, sad to say.
Posted 9/19/2010 11:33 PM (GMT 0)
Savella was my last Guinea pig allowance from Docs. Never again. But I am also a very angry person right now so maybe I am just too jaded to give a valid opinion on this right now.
Posted 9/20/2010 12:36 AM (GMT 0)
I don't expect to be cured from medication so I think that makes it easier for me to cope. I know that I am going to have some pain. I was told when I was diagnosed that this is a painful disorder and that there is no cure for it. So I accepted that. And if I can get out of bed each day and do something constructive, I am happy. I think if we expect medication to cure us, we are expecting too much. Medication just treats the symptoms.

Hugs, Karen
Posted 9/20/2010 1:38 AM (GMT 0)
It took me 22 years to reach my limit and a container filled with prescription bottles of pills when I realized not only am I taking a long list of pills, but I'm not so sure they are really helping me at all, when I think about all the side effects and how they are actually hurting me. And so, with the help of my doctor, I began the process of weaning of several of them, on being the SSRI I was on...took me two months to completely get off of it and I've been off of it for over a month, well maybe more like six weeks and I'm still not right...my brain has not adjusted yet. Also weaned off four other medications, again with the help of my doctor. As far as my fibro symptoms, I feel NO different than before. You know how we are told that SSRIs help fibro? Well for me, NO difference now that I'm off them. Depression? yes... but I'm working with a psychotherapist on that and I think she's helping me more than any pill ever did. I am sick to death of doctors throwing pills at us. I really don't think they know what to do with us, how to "fix" us. I'm hearing more and more than FM is neurological, involving the central nervous system. I just hope that "they" can figure out exactly what it is and how to fix it
Posted 9/20/2010 6:16 AM (GMT 0)
I think we need to have hope what else do we have, Hope that today will be better then yesterday. Hope that the next hour I will be able to do something.
Hope that we are not going to get the wet weather they are saying is on the way. Hope that we will be able to go out too see our friends with out having to take a hand ful of painkillers.
I live with hope every single day. I agree that big companies love us for the money we spend. But just think if they found something that we could all take that would give us relief from the pain by taking one single tablet a day. I would pay for that relief, my life would be back to normal. My family would not worry about what I can do with them I could do those big shopping in the really big centres a few hours drive away,instead of not saying anything because I can not walk from the car all the way to the stores.
I live in hope that my Doc will find something new for me too take to give me pain relief. I will not take a lot of painkillers due to my being addicted to morphine and it took me a year to become clean as my Doctor told me. "I never expected you to do it, very few people can first time" After almost 10 years on them I will never go back. I live in hope I never need those drugs again

Kathy
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