Hi all I am Claire x
I suffer from chronic pain and have a variety of tablets every day. Am looking for some advice regarding making the post out of all the Drugs I have. I don't know HOW I can prove I'm just a normal person looking for advice from you clever lot!!
I've been searching for months for advice and google has lead me to your forums so PLEASE help!!
I will now list what tablets I have daily!!........
40mg morphine
400mg tramadol
Amytriptaline
Lyrica
Baclofen
St. John's wort
Hay fever tablets
Kalms
Sometimes 240mg codeine phosphate.
I've done some very quick research into what reacts together but figure you guys may be able to make more sense for me!!
Thanks so much for your advice guys xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'd try to get off the tramadol. Don't take it with St John's wort and amitriptyline. That sounds like a terrible idea. Despite what they say, tramadol is probably harder to quit than the morphine.
If you must take the tramadol I'd talk to the doctor about quitting the anti-depressant. Do they know you are taking st john's wort as well? St John's wort, 5-htp, etc, are pretty strong honestly, despite what people think. I would not mix them w/tramadol--that seems like a very bad idea.
Tramadol is a pretty powerful anti-depressant on its own though. But doctors will freak at using it for those purposes and elavil is a pretty good ad from what I hear, so meh. Pick one or the other imho. It can be really, really, hard to quit. In your case you have lyrica and morphine and an anti-depressant though. So it probably won't be bad at all. Taper down really slowly. Like 25mg a week, no faster. Despite what people say, tramadol w/d is worse for a lot of people than normal opiates (unless you are taking extremely high opiate doses--you aren't).
Also, why do you take both baclofen and lyrica, is that necessary? I would think lyrica on its own would be enough.
I would try to get off either the tramadol or the anti-depressants. Pick one. Taper down really slow, talk to doctor. For tramadol more than 25mg a week and you'll get withdrawals (some may have not gotten any, but that's the exception not the norm). Normally I'd recommend benzos to get off it but you are already on so many downers that that would be a terrible idea.
For pain, the morphine (or the tramadol) should work quite well honestly. Morphine side effects get annoying though for many...I hate to say this but have you tried mixing in Aleve or Ibprofen w/the morphine as needed? I know, I know, silly OTC meds. I find aleve knocks out some pain better than opiates. And imho aleve+an opiate is far better for back pain than either alone. Downside is: hard on your stomach--so talk to doc first if using it a lot. I don't think there's any harm in taking it a couple times a week as needed though. I know it's a silly suggestion but many don't give good old naproxen a shot. It works. Especially combined w/an opiate. IMHO the diff between it and an opiate alone is huge. On the other hand, I never had any luck w/tylenol doing a damn thing--maybe others have.
Also, hay fever tablets: if it's like benadryl or something you are talking about--just know that while they aren't addictive, they most certainly DO eventually cause tolerance. Yeah, I know, no one thinks they do. But they do. Eventually they will stop working (on the plus side, it doesn't take long before they don't really make you drowsy anymore, I suppose).
