The Pain Management Mega Thread v2.0

[*samsonite*]

Trust me, that's not pathetic...I really can't do anything, unless it's something necessary...When I'm not in class, I keep myself busy with either studying or doing some sort of research, or spacing out at the TV for hours when I can't sleep lol...I will maybe once or twice a week venture out the house to visit friends for a couple hours, but not much...that's pretty much my life lmfao...

Mine too. I used to love doing the whole dinner and a movie thing but sitting thru movies at the theater is just torture now. Part of my condition makes it difficult to do anything for an extended period (sitting, standing, laying). I can stay in a position for about twenty mins tops. Not only is it uncomfortable but I look like a fidgety weirdo, constantly shifting. What do you do to keep your mind off your pain J?

 

[*samsonite*]

Finally broke down and used my extra two weeks between pm doc appointments to smoke a little high potency medical cannibis and while in combo with my pain meds i saw some extra relief, I am somewhat glad that I don't have the option to as it made me very loopy and high as fuck!!! Passed out standing in front of a bagel the other night and last night kept arguing with my sister forgetting what we were talking about every few minutes....Jesus Christ was I out of it.

So I am done as of thursday and will go back to struggling even though I am still prescribed significant opiates they seem to not be working as well as of late.

I had a card for mmj but let it expire bc they still haven't opened dispensaries. I get UAs with my pm doc so I was paranoid about that too. Did you feel relief just bc you were out of it or did you actually have pain go away?

 

[BiggDirty01]

I had a card for mmj but let it expire bc they still haven't opened dispensaries. I get UAs with my pm doc so I was paranoid about that too. Did you feel relief just bc you were out of it or did you actually have pain go away?

I was recently UA'd as well.

As far as the relief, I guess the first hour with my pain meds were legitimate pain relief and the subsequent hours were complete intoxication.

 

[*samsonite*]

Hmm... wonder if it's worth the risk. Thanks for the info

 

[Allein]

Hi all, I had an road accident about 7 weeks ago and smashed my left tibia to bits, it's been plated and pinned back together and is healing slowly but I still can't put any weight on it. I've been on MST XR and more recently been trying to switch down to 30/500 Codeine Sulphate and APAP, the pain form the op has largely subsided but I'm left with aching pain which is more intrusive and probably in for the longer term.

I'm having a growing problem with muscle spasms / major twitching mainly in the bad leg but not exclusively and it is more pronounced when I'm trying to sleep, any ideas on how to reduce these, it's a problem I could do with out.

 

[Jktm]

TENS-units if you can get one, muscle relaxants (obviously, lol), trigger-point dry-needling if you can find someone to do it (these are really good for long term results...getting them sucks ass...had one once that made my leg from my waist-down start jerking all over the place...felt sore as fuck and nauseated for a few hours, but noticed some decent relief in the following few days...I tended to get one every 2-4 weeks when I was in PT...

back to ways to reduce spasms...
doing exercises that are safe for you and don't cause you too much exaggerated pain...don't try to do stuff that is too challenging...

Smashed tibia sounds a bit worse than the leg problems I have, but non-/poor-response to most therapies (drug, PT, TENS, dry-needling, Aqua Therapy, some more my tired ass can't think of at the moment (almost abbreviated that til I realized you might think I was adressing you lol).....) has turned this into quite the up-hill battle lol...inactivity has led to weakness and atrophy...

 

[*samsonite*]

^This.

Definitely try to get a TENS unit prescribed so you don't pay out of pocket. Are your leg spasms similar to RLS or are they isolated to the affected area?

 

[Allein]

I think Mrs atm may have a tens unit somewhere I will check, I hadn't given that a thought, thanks.

Unfortunately I've had a long term problem with very tight ligaments in the back of both knees and more recently the arches in my feet collapsed, so I've had symptoms of RLS for a long while in both legs but mainly the one that I haven't smashed to bits. They have increased but the twitching / spasm thing is additional and new, mainly in the damaged leg but also full body jolts, not very pleasant at all.

I've done diazepam to death in the past as well as other benzos with alleged muscle relaxing qualities but never got much of a result from them, not sure what other chemicals can induce muscle relaxation that doesn't work on GABA, I'm seeing my doctor in a bit but being in the UK I'll be lucky to get anything, but I guess we will see.

The damaged leg is so tight it will only straighten to about 20 degrees, the ligament has knotted and shortened during the healing process and my efforts to stretch it just resulted in increased pain and more spasms so I've left it alone until they start PT in about 3 weeks.

 

[*samsonite*]

Sounds like you need some Soma and Gabapentin. I know it hurts to exercise but you will continue to tighten and lose range of motion if you don't. If you can, I would suggest trying the leg exercises I do. If you can stand, it works best on a curb, but you can also use the footboard of your bed since you cant put weight on it yet. I will explain what I do on my stairs and you could try to mimic it if you tolerate it. I stand on the balls of my feet on the edge of my stairs. I start by letting gravity pull on my heels without them touching the surface. I then lift my heels in the air while balancing on the balls of my feet. Pause. Then repeat. Think of tiptoeing but hold the stance. Its best on curbing or stairs where the surface doesn't touch your heels, but since you cannot stand, use your footboard or lay on the ground and use your dresser. Furniture with space underneath to flex your heels under would be ideal. I hope this isn't incredibly confusing. Ive never had to type the explanation before. This helps a lot with my spasms and tension.

 

[tricomb]

Muscle relaxers, most effective is Soma/Carisoprodol, then meprobamate, then methocarbamol, tizanidine, cyclobenzaprine ( doesn't work for me though )

 

[*samsonite*]

Muscle relaxers, most effective is Soma/Carisoprodol, then meprobamate, then methocarbamol, tizanidine, cyclobenzaprine ( doesn't work for me though )

Agreed. Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine) is junk IMO. It will make you sleepy and do nothing for spasms. Soma is king. I also have the full body jerks Atm and would highly suggest nerve meds. Although I have yet to find the golden ticket in that department.

 

[BiggDirty01]

Hmm... wonder if it's worth the risk. Thanks for the info

I should also add that while with the pain meds I was down to a 6 after being at an 8 for 3 days. Don't have a car and had to buy some of my mother's meds but she cut me down from 20mg methadone every 8 hours to 30mg every 8 as a compromise; unfortunately offered a serious downside: the less methadone made my nerve pain somewhat worse and it was only better when taken with one of my 30mg oxycodone every 4 hours (6 total)

So I guess my thought process is that medical marijuana works, well, with the high dose pain medicine (also CBD rich strains are optimal and having 28%+ THC Indicas). As it turned out for me, as a patient and in my past in small time ops in the L.A. arena (all legal). But I smoked too much bud at that time for proper opioid pain treatment (as well known on this thread 8( ) and in my last 18 months of physical recovery from way too many metal involving procedures I had stopped smoking a g or more everyday to not smoked in 18 months. The PM Docs wont have it and I don't want to play with fire too much as I would be worse for wear without my current pain doc (6 in 5 years).

So, in all any of the top strands of either indica or sativa, and I used a large joint of each (SoCal Clinic rates) in the last 72 hours and I felt significant worthwhile results that confirm its working wonder (my mom uses mmj for pancreatitis, gave up bottles of percocet and norco and demorol and went Ganja only and has a much better 5 years than she had the 5 years earlier with pancreatitis).

Give the bud a try if you are in MMJ friendly states. Start small, play it safe.

 

[BiggDirty01]

I think Mrs atm may have a tens unit somewhere I will check, I hadn't given that a thought, thanks.

Unfortunately I've had a long term problem with very tight ligaments in the back of both knees and more recently the arches in my feet collapsed, so I've had symptoms of RLS for a long while in both legs but mainly the one that I haven't smashed to bits. They have increased but the twitching / spasm thing is additional and new, mainly in the damaged leg but also full body jolts, not very pleasant at all.

I've done diazepam to death in the past as well as other benzos with alleged muscle relaxing qualities but never got much of a result from them, not sure what other chemicals can induce muscle relaxation that doesn't work on GABA, I'm seeing my doctor in a bit but being in the UK I'll be lucky to get anything, but I guess we will see.

The damaged leg is so tight it will only straighten to about 20 degrees, the ligament has knotted and shortened during the healing process and my efforts to stretch it just resulted in increased pain and more spasms so I've left it alone until they start PT in about 3 weeks.

In one simple word : "Lyrica". All I can tell you is that in areas of muscle or nerve pain this medicine can significantly reduce symptoms. Truly excellent thing in my life.

 

[Doomed2pain]

Muscle seizures are the bane of my life at the minute, I cannot even hold my drinks steady and am having to use straws, I feel like I am 5 :/

 

[Allein]

Saw my doctor, he offered me Diazepam (as they do in the UK) I turned it down as he remembered I had a bit of an issue with it, nothing else to specifically address the spasm / twitching issue and I didn't want to start naming drugs as I needed more pain meds and have some recorded addiction issues.

He was pretty good about things and told me I wasn't taking enough pain meds, so gave me more codeine and MST and told me to start taking more MST again after I cut down. With more pain meds I'll start trying to stretch out my legs, thanks for the exercise tips *samsonite* I'll give that a try, your right the more I don;t do it the worse it's going to be in the long run.

 

[Doomed2pain]

I do physio every day or I wouldn't be able to move my limbs anymore. I have been on diazepam for over 6 months now for muscle seizures and weirdly enough I can go without taking it and not have any form of wd symptoms, I wouldnt recommend it though.

What mg mst are you on atm? Is it helping? I never found morphine very effective it just doesnt agree with me, zero relief but gives me tons of issues.

 

[Jktm]

Went to my PCP today...hopefully these slow changes will help...she gave me the choice of doubling up on the butrans or going back to trams, and I with the 20mcg patch, and was able to talk her into giving me a few tramadol a day for B/T...I didn't want to give up the c-III status before going to PM, so hopefully this will be enough to tide me over til then...

We talked about why she had cut my flexeril, but it was actually because my insomnia (as opposed to me getting thrown on something for it...she felt that with me being on 900mg of flexeril/month for the past 17, 18 months had gotten my CNS so used to that amount of depression that it was causing the insomnia...she didn't want to try me on something for sleep because she doubled my patch and didn't want to do too much at once like the last appt...If I am still having issues, I'm thinking of mentioning halcion, because I've actually had it at the dentist before and it worked well as a sedative...not a hypnotic, but a sedative...and that I responded well to it...

I'm a little nervous mentioning it because 1, it's a CS, and I always try to avoid naming of controlleds, and 2, it's a benzo, but my other option would probably be a z-drug which are partially cross tolerant with them anyway and don't do a damn thing for me anyway...lol

I'm feeling a bit more sound though, knowing how much she's trying to help me out...

 

[Brompton Cocktail]

Hello all. I have a question or two for ya. Ive been in PM for a couple years. Been on oxycontin 3x a day for a year and a half. Ive noticed the last few months that the pain has been unbearable so my dr switched me from 120mg of oxy a day to 10mg opana ER 2x a day. I got no relief whatsoever from the opana. So my dr upped it to 20mg 2x a day. Still no relief. He ended up putting me on a higher dose of oxy. Anyway my question is is it unusual for opana to not work on some people? I tried railing it, took several pills, and even plugged it and got NO pain relief whatsoever. So is it me or does opana not work for some people?

 

[Allein]

I do physio every day or I wouldn't be able to move my limbs anymore. I have been on diazepam for over 6 months now for muscle seizures and weirdly enough I can go without taking it and not have any form of wd symptoms, I wouldnt recommend it though.

What mg mst are you on atm? Is it helping? I never found morphine very effective it just doesnt agree with me, zero relief but gives me tons of issues.

I really can't be doing with any more Diaz, it's taken me more than a year get finally get off it after giving up the booze, the amount I would be prescribed wouldn't do much with the level of tolerance I would still be carrying anyhow, I never really found it much of a muscle relaxant anyway, apart from when I was unconscious

MST has been a weird one, I had a fair not of IV morphine and oramorph in hospital, then came out to MST Continuous at 60-80mgs a day, I had little to no opiate tolerance. It was OK for a bit but it seemed to turn on me and I had sweating, malaise and nausea so I switched down to 30/500 codeine and APAP, mostly minus the APAP.

I'm taking both now and tolerating the MST, probably just needed a bit of tolerance, it's working OK there isn't much in the way of choice in the UK, I can't take Tramadol as I'm on an SNRI.

 

[*samsonite*]

Hello all. I have a question or two for ya. Ive been in PM for a couple years. Been on oxycontin 3x a day for a year and a half. Ive noticed the last few months that the pain has been unbearable so my dr switched me from 120mg of oxy a day to 10mg opana ER 2x a day. I got no relief whatsoever from the opana. So my dr upped it to 20mg 2x a day. Still no relief. He ended up putting me on a higher dose of oxy. Anyway my question is is it unusual for opana to not work on some people? I tried railing it, took several pills, and even plugged it and got NO pain relief whatsoever. So is it me or does opana not work for some people?

Opana is consider stronger than oxycodone. But if you were on 120mg of oxy then you should've been prescribed 60mg of daily Opana. How did you rail the Opana? They switched the formula this Spring and they are now hard as rocks. Worse than the new OxyContin. Anyway, I was on Opana for a year and found it to be really effective. However, when they changed the formula I developed GI issues and it was less effective. I think it wasn't breaking down properly. You could literally shit them out whole. It was worse than the OxyContin, as I mentioned, so I switched back as well. My confusion is with the Opana you actually took. If you were given the old formula (peels and crushes easily) you were probably just not given an appropriate mg. If it was a waxy looking pebble of a pill then it's bc the new formula sucks.

update: you said 20mg Opana 2x daily? That wasn't high enough of a dose. You should've been given 30mg 2x daily.