Which painkillers work best?

Hey everyone,

I was wondering what painkillers you use for yor UC pain, OTC or prescription.

I have really horrible painful cramps and am wondering what works best for the pain. In the past I've taken bentylol (doesn't help) and dilaudid for the pain. What works best for you guys?

Thanks!

My GI has nevr prescribed me pain pills. Her take is that if you're having that much pain, you're flaring and you need to find a solution for the inflammation. I understand her feeling but at times, when things are reallly bad, I can understanding needing to take something for the pain.

What are you taking to manage your UC?

Thanks for the responses. Notsosicklygirl:

I am currently taking prednisone, cortifoam and cortenemas. 5-Asa drugs don't work for me. I am also about to start Remicade in the coming week.

My GI understands that treating the pain doesn't accomplish anything if you aren't treating the inflammation. But by the same token, he says he can't justify having me in pain while we try and suppress the inflammation. My pain and cramping has me doubled over in pain, crying in the fetal position. It's the worse pain I've ever felt...worse than giving birth to my baby!

Hey ucinmtl, those cramps sound like they're pretty bad if dilaudid isn't helping. As other poster's mentioned you have to be careful with all opiate based painkillers because they all cause pretty wicked constipation relatively dependent on the strength and dose of the particular drug. Not to mention the obvious risks of physical addiction.

You could possibly try tramadol. It's mechanism of action is similar to both opiates and anti-deppresants like cymbalta, which is now commomly prescribed for neuropathic pain. Bear in mind though, it may still cause some constipation and is still addictive.

There is also a medication with various names that cosists of belladonna alkoloids combined with phenobarbital. I know it is used to treat IBS and I have heard it thrown around that it may help with IBD. Hopefully someone else will chime in on this one, or you could just google phenobarb/belladonna. Once again though, this medication also carries a risk of physical/ psychological dependence and withdrawal and phenobarbital is particularly dangerous and deadly when mixed with alcohol.

Bottom line though,pain sucks. Pain=stress and stress slows the healing process. The hot water bottle is probably your best bet, but If your doc is cool with giving you pain meds and you think that they help, you might as well use them.

I have found Tramadol to be pretty good for this. I does take around an hour or longer to have any significant effect for me (50mg a dose for me or sometimes 100mg if its very bad.) If you do end up using it, do please be careful, regardless of what may be said about it not being addictive, I do try to keep the amount I have down as low as it takes to numb the pain as tolerence can be built up and also, whether this is pyschological or not I don't know, I find it just being around me means as soon as any pain starts to develop I will feel an urge to just take it. One time after a few days on 150mg I decided I wasn't going to have any more and by god even after a relatively small period of low dosage intake I was experienced withdrawel symptoms, sweating a lot, vomiting, anxiety, headaches, body aches... horrible horrible. So yes, do please be careful. I'm currently tapering off it after a nasty spell, but a long haul flight coming up on Sunday might undo some of my good work.