Doctor Will Not Prescribe Pain Meds

[cannablissss]

I used to have chronic migraines about last year that lasted for about a month. They came on very suddenly when I wasn't expecting it, and it felt like I was being stabbed in the forehead numerous times. Sometimes they got so bad that I would drop wherever I was, clenching my head until they went away. It seemed like nothing would help.

My doctor initially prescribed me hydrocodone w/ apap because I would have to have the lights off during my appointment, being so light sensitive. It was only a supply of 30 though, and didn't cover me the whole month. I had to take any where from 2-4 a day to find relief.

He informed me that these types of medicines can give you what's known as "rebound headaches," which occur when you rely on a medication for your pain that when you stop taking them or are off of them for a little while you can get headaches as well because your body is used to finding relief in pills.

My doctor prescribed me Naratriptan, it works by narrowing the blood vessels in your brain to relieve the pressure. I agree with the above posts that with the overwhelming heroin situation these days doctors are quite reluctant to prescribe narcotics unless you're actually in pain from sprained/broken bones, arthritis, etc. You can take 1 Naratriptan and if it doesn't work you can take another one 2 hours later. Caffeine is also a really good relief for headaches as well, in my opinion. I almost had to see a neurologist to mine until one day they finally just went away. Good luck and I hope they go away for you soon.

 

[ergegegenstont]

Opiates are not the solution for everything instead of being so hostile to your doctor maybe see what other none opiate approaches you can take first i mean whats thet harm in trying?

 

[zephyr]

^^Ignore all but Dave Wooderson and Zephyr about opiates and heroin in the sense that opiates are NOT going to help you long-term. These folks are clearly not familiar with your condition or headache treatment.

If you're just trying to scam narcotics (sorry if not but a lot of people think Bluelight will help them- we're actually not supposed to do that), they aren't the best treatment for you and please don't waste knowledge people's time here. I spent a lot of time writing this post, for instance.

To start, I am not dismissing your pain. I had bone cancer and invasive bone surgery, both of which are extremely painful. So...yeah I understand.

Back to you, please let us know if are you seeing a specialist, like a neurologist, or a general physician (might be called a general practitioner, GP, or Primary Care Physician, PCP)? What country are you in? (I have reasons for asking but post is already long.)

The good news is that there is effective preventive and 'abortive' treatment and for what is is now called "transformed migraine", "chronic migraine and chronic daily headache" and "coexisting migraine and tension-type headaches." The bad news is you aren't getting it.

Important: Taking more than the maximum dosage of acetaminophen (conservative is 3,000 mg up to a maximum of 4,000mg per day) because you can damage your liver permanently.

Pain medication: if you mean opiates like oxycodone or hydrocodone, they aren't going to help to lessen your pain like the appropriate medications, prevent your headaches or lessen their duration or frequency.

(I'm a researcher and am very familiar with literature on migraine and tension headaches and have personal experience with migraine and tension headaches.)

By the way, sensitivity to sound (hyperacusis) is not an unusual migraine headache symptom.

Also, it's not clear to me why you were diagnosed with tension headaches except that they are very common. Do you have any type of muscle pain in your neck, head including jaw or scalp? If not, do you know why you were diagnosed as having tension headaches?

Do you take any other medications or use any legal (cigarettes or tobacco, possibly cannabis, alcohol) or any illegal drugs?

Important: If you don't want to post that info, at least check that you aren't taking acetaminophen in other medications like Vicodin (hydrocodone and acetaminophen) or anything else.
You can also send a private message (PM) to me.

Otherwise, you need to do two things:

1. Get referred to a specialist (a neurologist or pain management specialist who has experience managing this type of headache syndrome). A neurologist should have a lot of experience with this. If you are seeing a specialist, you need to dump that physician and change specialists immediately.

2. Read up on your condition. Here is a good starter link with a good explanation and treatment options.

http://www.headaches.org/2007/10/25/coexisting-migraine-and-tension-type-headaches/

Please post your answers or you can PM (send a private message) to me.

I dont recall posting anything about long term opiate use not helping but did say I knew someone who has chronic migraines and is now addicted to opiates because of long term prescribed use.


Im not an expert at migraines but I get them every so often and as soon as they start to appear I lie down in a dark room with a cold cloth over my eyes and have quiet. Also codeine but panadol if I dont have any.

Your condition is a lot more severe obv so that might not be always possible.

 

[cduggles]

^^Yes. I read everyone's posts before answering except I took a long time to write my post so I missed a few while I was writing and admittedly added your usernames in haste.

keeping also wrote a good post but it was in reply to the "whose fault is the opioid epidemic" and a request for OP to get back to us on the MRI.
I thought your post about people being prescribed opiates getting addicted was important.
It beats the posts recommending meds that don't help and doctor shopping.
Sorry, I missed the posts recommending lying to your doctor and getting pain meds illegally above my posts. Nice.
I thought the posts after my last one were fine.

My $2.00 (intentional).
I don't blame heroin addicts for not being able to get appropriate pain meds when I had bone cancer (it's regarded as the most painful type of cancer) and after I left the cancer center after invasive bone surgery.
I blame pharma companies, doctors and clinicians running pill mills for $$$, opioid seeking addicts at the ER or from their doctors, and every single person who sold or bought opioids from someone who was prescribed them.

If you buy your stuff off internet or the street, I could care less about it.

It was not easy to lift myself out of my wheelchair to get a urine test to get tested to make sure I didn't sell my meds for my undertreated pain. (Most of the time only male orderlies were available.)

And yes I completely blame the people who illegally sell or give their pain meds and the people who bought them for my problems as well,
And if you are going to start going on about your untreated emotional crap, you better have had a growing mass in your bone and a piece of your bone cut out from inside a joint to remove it and tell me which situation you needed pain meds for. If not, spare me.

 

[keeping]

And yes I completely blame the people who illegally sell or give their pain meds and the people who bought them for my problems as well,
And if you are going to start going on about your untreated emotional crap, you better have had a growing mass in your bone and a piece of your bone cut out from inside a joint to remove it and tell me which situation you needed pain meds for. If not, spare me.

was that one for me? or was it just kind of a general lampooning of those who divert opiates from patients? (ツ

 

[cduggles]

keeping: no sweetie and I wrote that in my bolded post above yours!

 

[Speed King]

Smoke weed for pain. Benzos work wonders. I was watching tv how shrooms can help cluster headaches.

I know for migraines, the medicine used is some how related to L.

Thats what I understand.

Fioricet always took care of any major headache I ever had. That was the fioricet without codeine.

 

[keeping]

was just checking cduggles! i was on your side the whole time anyway ༼ (ツ ༎༼ (ツ ༎༼ (ツ༎༽(ツ ༎༽

 

[SunState]

Hi there! Man, I feel your pain, I began Having medium to severe migraines about 10-15yrs ago during my mid-late teens and I believe it was related to hormones during puberty because they let up considerably by 19-20yo. Anyways, I've been to neurologists, had CAT/MRIs, gotten rx'd preventative medicines like Imitrex, Zomig etc and some abortive/rescue meds like Floricet and Migranal (Write that one down "migranal" or "Dihydroergotamine nasal spray") because most drugs aren't effective for negating a migraine, once it's full blown. Do You know the stages of a migraine and Do you have any auras ? This is when you should take something to lessen or try completely prevent the migraine. Anyways, one or two squirts in each nostril and literally within 5-10min the migraine and its associated symptoms is gone with no side effects. It's a wonderful quick acting drug and while I'm not familiar with your condition I suppose you have already tried or take now some preventive/abortive meds now and if you're just now hearing about this, make sure you ask your doctor next time for it. It's non narcotic so your doctor won't feel uncomfortable prescribing it.
As for psychotropic migraine meds like Stadol, a narcotic nasal spray or the Floricet combos or codeine or Vicodin, I found they aren't very effective for me Treating migraines nor were they really recreational (except the opioids)
While my DOC is prescription narcotics, I tend to agree with the doctor that pain pills should really be used sparingly and only For the worst attacks. With that said, the move to taking painkillers 24/7 is based on your quality of life and your ADL levels are reduced AND you've already tried all treatments and their alternatives with non psychotropic medication, changing diet/exercise/stress, etc and still nothing improves.

 

[cduggles]

^^Good post SunState!

****TO OP KRONOS AND ALL OTHER POSTERS****

Our friend Kronos has been diagnosed with Mixed Migraine Syndrome which is now commonly known as "transformed migraine", "chronic migraine and chronic daily headache" and "coexisting migraine and tension-type headaches."

THIS PARTICULAR TYPE OF HEADACHE IS TREATED DIFFERENTLY AS MIGRAINES ALONE.

ALSO, OPIATES ARE NOT VERY EFFECTIVE FOR THIS SYNDROME AND CAN WORSEN HEADACHES CONSIDERABLY IF THE PATIENT IS NOT ABLE TO GET THEM AND AS TOLERANCE DEVELOPS.

So please indicate if you are posting about migraines or other types of headaches- they can be of value! (Sunset, Speed King, and other posters before them have done this!)

This is NOT aimed at any particular poster except the one who started us down this avenue far upthread. This person knows who he is.

Best, CD

 

[TeamKronos]

^^Ignore all but Dave Wooderson and Zephyr about opiates and heroin in the sense that opiates are NOT going to help you long-term. These folks are clearly not familiar with your condition or headache treatment.

If you're just trying to scam narcotics (sorry if not but a lot of people think Bluelight will help them- we're actually not supposed to do that), they aren't the best treatment for you and please don't waste knowledge people's time here. I spent a lot of time writing this post, for instance.

To start, I am not dismissing your pain. I had bone cancer and invasive bone surgery, both of which are extremely painful. So...yeah I understand.

Back to you, please let us know if are you seeing a specialist, like a neurologist, or a general physician (might be called a general practitioner, GP, or Primary Care Physician, PCP)? What country are you in? (I have reasons for asking but post is already long.)

The good news is that there is effective preventive and 'abortive' treatment and for what is is now called "transformed migraine", "chronic migraine and chronic daily headache" and "coexisting migraine and tension-type headaches." The bad news is you aren't getting it.

Important: Taking more than the maximum dosage of acetaminophen (conservative is 3,000 mg up to a maximum of 4,000mg per day) because you can damage your liver permanently.

Pain medication: if you mean opiates like oxycodone or hydrocodone, they aren't going to help to lessen your pain like the appropriate medications, prevent your headaches or lessen their duration or frequency.

(I'm a researcher and am very familiar with literature on migraine and tension headaches and have personal experience with migraine and tension headaches.)

By the way, sensitivity to sound (hyperacusis) is not an unusual migraine headache symptom.

Also, it's not clear to me why you were diagnosed with tension headaches except that they are very common. Do you have any type of muscle pain in your neck, head including jaw or scalp? If not, do you know why you were diagnosed as having tension headaches?

Do you take any other medications or use any legal (cigarettes or tobacco, possibly cannabis, alcohol) or any illegal drugs?

Important: If you don't want to post that info, at least check that you aren't taking acetaminophen in other medications like Vicodin (hydrocodone and acetaminophen) or anything else.
You can also send a private message (PM) to me.

Otherwise, you need to do two things:

1. Get referred to a specialist (a neurologist or pain management specialist who has experience managing this type of headache syndrome). A neurologist should have a lot of experience with this. If you are seeing a specialist, you need to dump that physician and change specialists immediately.

2. Read up on your condition. Here is a good starter link with a good explanation and treatment options.

http://www.headaches.org/2007/10/25/coexisting-migraine-and-tension-type-headaches/

Please post your answers or you can PM (send a private message) to me.

I am seeing a new neurologist very shortly, and I have swirched GPs. By the way, I said I was going to schedule my MRI in 15 minutes, not have it done... Sadly that is not happening until at least August. I live in the US.

I have experimented with stuff before, but only once or twice at safe dosages. I smoke cannabis very rarely, less than 10 times total.

I do not feel any muscle pain in my neck or jaw etc.

From my understanding, as soon as I said my head hurt they threw a diagnosis at me without taking all of the steps to properly figure out what was going on.

 

[TeamKronos]

The only time I would consider using any type of opiate would be once the pain is at an unbearable amount. Trust me, I would rather not get on them and face the possibility of addiction or anything like that.

Thank you for all of the recommendations, and repeated help on the subject. I really do appreciate it.

 

[cduggles]

Dear Kronos,
I'm so sorry you have to wait that long for an MRI.
Definitely tell the neurologist that you are going to see that you weren't evaluated thoroughly by previous doctors. (I wouldn't say the "neurologist who diagnosed me" ).
You should be at minimum asked a series of questions and given a neuro workup (the hitting your knee and elbow and can you feel this poke on your feet and hands kind of thing).
As I'm sure you already know, the most important thing is that you feel comfortable with this doctor in terms of competence and that you are heard and have any questions answered.
Obviously no one could or should diagnose you over the internet! However, I do want to add that what your doctor called Mixed Migraine Syndrome is not the most unreasonable diagnosis, because of the constant headache component punctuated by much more severe headaches, which does sound like transformative migraine.
The reason for the name is an idea that these headaches are on the continuum of migraines with some possible elements of tension headache thrown in. In your case they would be uncommon (atypical) symptoms, but still exclusively associated with tension headaches. You might only have migraine symptoms.
However, the two headache types (chronic and acute) require two treatments, one for the chronic headache component and one for the more intense headache. It's kind of a mixture and it's different from episodic migraines in that you are working to eliminate or lessen the chronic component and decrease the frequency and severity of the acute component of your headaches.
I'm hoping that the treatment section of the link might ring a few bells about what you've been prescribed and for how long.

Please keep us posted. We want the absolute best for you!
These headaches must be awful. If you have any questions, please post them. There might be someone here with your same syndrome and if not, people (including me ) will try to be helpful.
Best, CD

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I tend to agree. Prescription opiates have been scapegoated as the cause when it's a very complex issue. I don't think it's a coincidence that heroin became cheap and readily available right when we invaded Afghanistan the number 1 producer of poppies in the world. Throw in a massive financial crisis with huge youth unemployment and a myriad of other factors.

I think the increased introduction of fent into the heroin is the greatest player but it is a perfect storm.....because they didn't really start cracking down hard until around 2012ish to 2014 when the ODs skyrocketed....that's also when the street price nfor a Roxy tripled.

If it was as easy as stopping scripted opiates well we should be over this mess now?...but no less scripts now and more deaths than ever. DEA is allowed to fail this miserably at their job for so long is ludicrous. Everyone always talks about the opiate crisis but not about how the approach is failing so badly....the definition of insanity is keep trying the same thing and expect different results.

Sorry for the hijack

 

[Speed King]

In my area, you can only get 7 day pain med scripts.

I'll admit, I don't completely understand the opiate issue, but it seemed that when the media hyped how "bad" it was,'it fueled the problem.

I'm happy I don't need opiates anymore. I'm stuck with Ketamine for pain issues

 

[TeamKronos]

Thanks for the help cduggles, It is appreciated very much. I will definitely ask to be re-evaluated once I see the neurologist.

Something I add that is meaningless, but I want to add nonetheless, is that the doctors name is Dr. Temple, which makes me laugh.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

In my area, you can only get 7 day pain med scripts.

I'll admit, I don't completely understand the opiate issue, but it seemed that when the media hyped how "bad" it was,'it fueled the problem.

I'm happy I don't need opiates anymore. I'm stuck with Ketamine for pain issues

Because ppl in debilitating pain love to drive to doctors then 7 different pharmacies to maybe fill a script....so I basically have to withdrawal every week since the pharmacies are always "out of stock"

That's the first I heard of this what area? There needs to be a class action against the government on behalf of pain patients

 

[tacodude]

The 7 days of pain meds is due to the new cdc regulations also with the reduction of prescribing sustained released opiate medication...... They are worth checking out and taking with you to pain management office as I've found many doctors using it as an excuse to not even discuss opioid pain medication while some will lie and state it is office policy to not consider opiates because of the new regulations. Pain management doctors today are now heartless and really don't care if you are in pain just that they have a job and are earning money.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

...good thing sinoloa cartel provides all the medicine we need...at least someone is looking out for us.

 

[David Wooderson]

I am scheduling an MRI with my doctor in about 15 minutes, once that is done maybe they'll stop worrying about me faking an illness or something, and actually help. If not, I'm going to see what I can do to get to a pain management clinic.

Have you tried Sumatriptan?

It goes by the brand name Imitrex.

It has pill/injectable/intranasal forms.

It will work!

But for long term relief I sincerely suggest microdosing on lsd/mushrooms, without ding that I would have been dead years ago.

Is this what you experience Kronos?


One thing you can look into in the mean time is an Oxygen rig, you use a oxygen tank with a non-rebreather mask which you can learn about on many headache forums, they will terminate headaches drug free, and you can't overdose/hurt your body on it either, just be careful with any open flames. https://clusterbusters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/OXYGEN-12-20121.pdf

This site saved my life:
https://clusterbusters.org/