Pain making me lose my sanity =(

[Paulycodone]

Hi guys, it's another morning from hell here in So. Cal. My new MRI friday showed my spine covered in arthritis, moreso on the left side. I've been trying to see any doctor ASAP but cannot, and the ER treats me like a drug addict. The 25mcg/hr fentanyl patches aren't helping hardly at all, but I don't want to put on more than 1 and run out sooner than I'm supposed to. These doctors are also making me see a pain psychologist to see if there's something wrong with my head. I think if I have to deal with any more of this crap I'm gonna have a tantrum, lol.

Is there any kind of 800 number to file a grievance?

 

[Dr Pepper]

Sorry to hear that :/
Having a shitty morning myself, back has been killing me since yesterday and nothing is helping. Not to mention starting interferon today and been tapering off sub.
And basically lost the drive to go out and be my own advocate for my pain issues. Have skeletal disproportion issues so my spine is never level, have to use a heel lift and butt lift on one side to make it bearable. Even when sleeping. Really sucks. And im only 19, and pain just showed up at 15. Fawk.

 

[theotherside]

^I feel your pain..........I have been getting insane back aches at work in the past 2 months and now it is to the point where I am debating whether or not to get back on opiates. I had quit them for a few months after being hooked for 5+years.....I need to go to a doctor to find out what is causing this unbearable pain!

 

[paranoid android]

Pain can litterally make you go nuts and turn you into a not so nice person. I suffer from trigeminal neuralgia along with arthritis type symptoms and when im in pain i can be pretty hard to deal with. I can't count how many times ive punched a hole in a wall or smashed something up because i was in agony.

You can file a complaint against your doctor if he has done something wrong. If he is undertreating you for the pain tell him that the pain meds arent cutting it and you need something stronger. I have found that with most doctors you get nothing out of them unless you make alot of noise about it. They hate treating chronic pain because they can't cure it so that means they are going to have to prescribe you opiates for a very long time. That they also hate but you must not let them get away with treating you like crap.

Sorry im just more then abit bitter about doctors after dealing with intense chronic pain for the last 6 years or so.

 

[panic in paradise]

same boat here...

still waiting for manageability after 2+ years.
im no where near a fentanyl patch though, well my doc and i did discuss methadone so im hopeful there for some actual lasting relief. ive been hoping these endocets would work since may.

i have a spondoapathy also, and take Humira, that helps a great deal. if your hasnt talked about TNF-painblockers, you should bring them up.
Remicaid has devastated me further with pain since trying it on 11-23-09,,, this is a TNF also, most people react fine with it; its become too much of a daily reality for me not to mention it.

they are outrageously expensive, but if you have insurance, its priceless really.

the psych may not be a bad idea, or what you are imagining, they may teach you some very very valuable copping, healthy dissociating, visualization, guided meditation techniques.

if you live where marijuana is medicine, and tolerate it, a joint of the right stuff can do a lot more then a mouthful of opioids for inflammation-TRUST THIS, its the raw ugly truth. growing it, when your pain is under control, heh, is very zen-ful and soothing, it breeds patience...
growing any plants really, i try with that, orchids, and an assortment of roses.

hemi-synch is also valuable on those long nights, also lots of physical therapy is something i hope youve done, or are doing.
swimming and the proper stretches are a good good thing.
the humira, and physical therapy got me off a cane, to a knee brace, and now an occasional collapsing knee(osteoarthritis).


i absolutely understand man, sleed dep, pain, and general frustration all balled up into one, is no fucking fun.
these things and more, help me stay mostly sane.


Life Love & Laughter!

 

[paranoid android]

Currently i am on 60mg's of morphine SR a day along with 5mg morphine IR's for breakthrough pain. I also take 2400mg's of gabapentin a day. Noone wants to even prescribe me marinol let alone something like sativex so i have to buy my cannabis off the street. It seems since i have bipolar disorder they don't want to risk prescribing me big bad cannabinoids 8) . One thing my former doctor said that really made me laugh was im not prescribing you marijuana you will just get high off it! He then wrote me out a script for 60 4mg dilaudid pills :D . Yeah doc like they won't get me high lol.

My pain is undertreated and since i don't see my doctor more then once every 3 months or so since he is a hours drive away and it's always about a 2-3 hour wait to see him i don't get a chance to tell him exactly how much misery i am in. Also he seems to not take my pain seriously enough maybe this is because i have bipolar disorder. GP's often think that anyone with a mental disorder is just making up the pain. This boils my fucking piss

 

[rangrz]

I myself have learned to ignore physical pain. Broken bones, slices, GSW's, ect. If its not urgent to my staying alive, I just regard it as a pointless sensation and zone it out. I suppose it took alot of training to do that, but its something to consider. Try to dismiss the pain as non useful sensory input and therefore irrelevant.

Not trying to trivialize, just sharing something that has worked for me.

 

[panic in paradise]

hmmm, he just acted like we never seriously discussed methadone.
he told a month ago i was now a chronic pain patient and subject to random ua's...
today, he, or the clinic doesnt really handle chronic pain patients...

several months ago he said he was sending a referral to a university pmc, where im already a patient, and takes months to get into... but, he didnt, and acted confused as to why i want to go, and ever being asked that.
honestly i had them fax him originally with their recommendations, in may, i could of walked in, but that chance left in july.
then i asked him to refer me, because i needed a new one...


i....

 

[Lolie]

It's not at all unusual here for chronic pain management to include a range of different health professionals including psychologists and physical therapists. It's also not unusual for a combination of different kinds of medication to be used to manage long term pain - some drugs are just more effective at controlling different types of pain than others. If your pain is arthritic in origin, then I'd definitely expect anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, and physiotherapy exercises to play a large role in your treatment.

The psychologist can teach you techniques to help reduce pain. The better you are able to manage your pain with non-narcotic options now, the longer it will be before you hit the "ceiling" where narcotics no longer work for you at all in therapeutic doses (something you don't want to happen when you have a degenerative condition which will only get worse with time). It's important to remember that the aim in chronic pain management is to keep pain at manageable levels, not to eliminate it entirely.

Can you not get an emergency appointment with whoever prescribed the fentanyl for you? Is that the doctor who ordered the MRI? It's unclear from your OP which doctors want you to see the pain psychologist - is it the doctors at the ER or your regular doctor?

 

[Silenced]

The psychologist can teach you techniques to help reduce pain. The better you are able to manage your pain with non-narcotic options now, the longer it will be before you hit the "ceiling" where narcotics no longer work for you at all in therapeutic doses (something you don't want to happen when you have a degenerative condition which will only get worse with time). It's important to remember that the aim in chronic pain management is to keep pain at manageable levels, not to eliminate it entirely.

I think that's what it so true. I know it's easier for us to just think that drugs will make our life better, but it can definitely hurt us in the long run. I know it's easier to hear that than to actually listen and work on techniques for managing pain... I'm battling that myself.

 

[Abuserwithcause]

Know man

Feel your pain got neck problems on my own, something about the "Shock absorbers leaking" and going to evolve into prolaps <Dont know what it is in english hope its the same. Went throw a bad period swallows about 30-40 rivotril tablets over 2 days and ended up in a hospital with no memory of what I did. Doctor sent me on a Xanor ( Xanax) Prozac and sarotex path that really fucked me up bad, it made me want to end it all... Bad choice by the doc. Hang in there my dad who got the same thing use now oxycontin ( ore something) deposit tablets and have been for many years with good results 1 tablet last 12 hours I think.

Now on lyrica myself( Pretty awsome pain killer, slows down the nerve system ore something)

 

[panic in paradise]

this song; above many others, is one i consider invaluable for when im in too much pain to see, talk, sleep, think, or move with-out extreme frustration or wanting to just scream.
please give it a listen, set it on repeat and keep it as background noise, it will soak in and sooth, the composer is a master at that, and this song is designed/formulated for this very situation actually.
ups/downs/nostalgia/unheard wave crash-slow intentional breathing rhythm/innocence/confusion/fear-grasping holding on and releasing into gentle patience...

Arvo Part - Spiegel im Spiegel

please give it a listen,,, this is another tool for me that is always accessible(memory aswell) in times of maddening pain/sleep dep, and the drugs aren't working... and all i can do is accept.

 

[Paulycodone]

Had to go to the ER again tonight, but chose to go to a different one. I was actually treated like a human being this time and am feeling a lot better. Just had some bad luck I guess.

Wish me luck on my sacroiliac joint steroid injection this morning lol

 

[Help me please]

^ Glad to hear you got taken care of Pauly. The knee pain that caused me to go on opiates is getting better for me. It's been two years since my bad surgery and while I still have pain it is not as intense. I insisted my pain Dr wean me off the oxymorphone and hydrocodone starting last July and now am on a tapering dose of Morphine fast acting. The last two days I have had really major back and hip pain which goes away if I sit and relax. I have this fear that it will become a constant pain and cause me to need a cane to walk and stronger opiates again. I hope it is weather related! We are just starting to get our cold weather a month or two late but it's here to stay now.

 

[Paulycodone]

i never took Opana before (oxymorphone) only morphine and dilaudid. Did it seem to work well? I know theres a ER type. For now im just taking 1-2 10/325 percocet every 6 hrs, and wearing 25mcg/hr fentanyl patch. Diphenhydramine and Hydroxyzine seem to help me take less percocet though

 

[Ksa]

<censored by user (profile compromised)>

 

[Paulycodone]

I ask the docs to give me whats best to help my back and stop the pain, right now it's Lodine, Skelaxin, Lyrica, Lidocaine patches (aside from the opiates) and a couple other things not for back or pain that I take: (an anti-convulsant and blood pressure medicine, I'm very overweight) Usually I take advil or excedrin or ultram for pain, if you have some sort of interest in what and how much I am being prescribed you can talk to me privately through a messenger.

Thanks

 

[MiamiRoxi30s]

I ask the docs to give me whats best to help my back and stop the pain, right now it's Lodine, Skelaxin, Lyrica, Lidocaine patches (aside from the opiates) and a couple other things not for back or pain that I take: (an anti-convulsant and blood pressure medicine, I'm very overweight) Usually I take advil or excedrin or ultram for pain, if you have some sort of interest in what and how much I am being prescribed you can talk to me privately through a messenger.

Thanks

You do realize that's an awful amount of medication?

 

[Paulycodone]

yea I hate taking all these different things, but they rather have me do that the just take 1 really strong thing I guess....I don't know

 

[paranoid android]

You are right! Fentanyl patches aren't helping because opiates won't help you! Ask the doctor to put you on 200mg Celebrex(Celecoxib). Something tells me you won't do that but at least you know the right treatment.

Opiates do help pain caused by athritis but they are usually given with a anti-inflammatory. That is unless there is a reason (such as stomach troubles) why the person can't take NSAIDS. Both together definetely help more then either one taken seperately for me atleast. For the arthritis symptoms i get i take 800mg's of ibuprofen (yeah i know it's really bad on my stomach but it seems to be the only NSAID that works for me without ripping my guts out) every 6 hours or so with the morphine i take and this usually helps alot.

You do realize that's an awful amount of medication?

In your opion yes but not really. Im on about 6 different medications for psychiatric and pain control reasons and this does not even include the cannabis i smoke (both to get high and to ease pain) as well as ibuprofen and anti-nausea drugs.

I myself have learned to ignore physical pain. Broken bones, slices, GSW's, ect. If its not urgent to my staying alive, I just regard it as a pointless sensation and zone it out. I suppose it took alot of training to do that, but its something to consider. Try to dismiss the pain as non useful sensory input and therefore irrelevant.

Not trying to trivialize, just sharing something that has worked for me.

I have ignored immediate pain from various injuries lots of times but chronic pain seems to be alot different then pain that is only temporary caused by a injury. I have banged up my knees pretty bad or thrown my back out while playing hockey and ive walked home on a turned out ankle. Hell i even helped my g/f move into a new house when i was sick as a dog from pneumonia, i had been puking for 2 days and hadent held down any solids in that time, my ribs felt like someone had kicked them in with steel toe boots and my back hurt like hell. But with the help of some codeine and ibuprofen i got through it and after awile you tend to just ignore it and by then it's just like get er done b'y . Good thing too since the stupid wussy movers refused to do their fucking jobs when they saw that we actually had more then a couch and a few boxes! fucking total pussys and what really pissed me off is that they actually had the nerve to ask for the money they where supposed to get for doing that job even though all they had done was drive to our house and look at our stuff and then tell us that they couldnt move our stuff . If they didnt wanna move stuff they shouldnt have been in the motherfucking moving buisiness! Fucking wimps . Good thing i was really sick because if i had not been i woulda put both their asses in hospital for being so useless. Sorry bout the rant OP

But chronic pain is a different thing altogether really. I have always had a pretty high tolerance for pain but chronic pain is much different in my eperience then pain caused by a injury or illness that does not last long.