What is everyone doing for your pain???? I have been on humira 3 for wks now and I feel no different than when I was on Enbrel. I take vicoden for pain every 6-8 hours and it seems to be wearing off around 5 hours. Im taking 5 mgs of prednisone and Daypro 2 times a day Im sick of taking this medicine!!!! Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and my right arm was numb and tingling and stiff and painful. Kinda reminded me like when I had the carpal tunnel. I had that surgery and it seems like it didnt do any good either. What is pain management???? Where do you go for that???? And what do they do???? Does accupuncture work?? My pain is out of control not in control. I wake up in the middle of the night almost every night in pain!!!! Does anyone else go through this???????
I wish I could help you! I don't have anywhere near that level of pain,
I have terrible pain and take 7.5 Norco Hydrocodone. I am allergic to Morphine so cannot use the patches. My pain meds only cut the edge so I have a TENS machine and a Sonic Sound Machine along with heating pads/rice bags.
I also sometimes eat ice cream while waiting for that last hour to pass to take a pain pill. I buy the little cups as I cannot dish out ice cream and tell the grocery clerks that they are my secondary pain meds. I eat them real slowly and it does take my mind off the pain some.
Could you increase the prednisone? Get some of those 1 mgs, and add a little at a time? We have to 'get off of it' but not with stiffness and swelling, etc. Sarah(((mom))), I'm so sorry you're having such a difficult time. I'm on Vicodin ES every 6 hours, and have been for quite a few months now. I usually have 1 really good hour out of the 6, so I plan around that. Since I work FT also, I wake up at 4:30 to take my first pill, go back to sleep until 6:00, so I feel relatively good when I need to get up and get ready (the hardest part of my day).
And Bonny's right...food definitely helps the pain (but not the weight)...and I never thought of getting those little cups...great idea!
I tried acupuncture and it didn't help me...but I know it's helped many people, so give it a try if you can.
Has your dr given you anything for sleep? Maybe that would help bridge over the pain. Even a muscle relaxant might work. And if you start getting tingling on a regular basis, let your dr know in case you're getting nerve pain (Lyrica works wonders on that).
The only other thing I can suggest is distraction or meditation. I'm not so good with meditation, so I distract myself with a really interesting book, or a video game if my arm's not too bad. If you don't have too much concentration, there's a great book called Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen. She is a doctor who also has chronic illness (Crohn's) and she writes inspiring stories about her life and her patients that are good to meditate on. It's only a couple of pages per story, so you don't have to remember the plot!
I know how difficult it is to lose sleep from the pain and then have to work in the morning. Disability seems to be a long and painful process from what I read, so I try to take it just one day at a time, and rest up on the weekends.
Are you going to see your dr again soon? If not, maybe you should call...
momofthree, I have been under the care of a pain management specialist for 5 years. She is also my neurologist. I see her every 2 months, more if necessary.
She prescribes all of my pain medicine, also sleeping med and anti-depressant. Most people in a lot of pain will benefit from a good pain specialist. I do not go to a clinic. My specialist is in practice alone, and I prefer it that way.
She will do whatever is necesary to control my pain. It doesn't go away completely, but it is "manageable"
Hope you fnd what you are looking for!
Feel better,
Nini
Pain is so tricky. The hardest part is that it is so subjective. That wholeI have severe RA but I don't seem to have pain at the same level as some of you do. I don't know why. I have the damage to my joints, including my chest and back. I've walked around with bilateral pneumonia, a blown disk in lower back and sciatica so bad that my legs were numb from the knees to the tips of my toes. I've come to the conclusion that I have something wrong with my pain receptors. I'm serious about this. Deep pain doesn't bother me but don't let me step on something sharp. Then I have pain. Probably wouldn't bother someone else but to me it's soooo painful. My RD keeps asking me if I need other pain meds or need to take more of the Tramadol and I tell him no. He looks at my joints and just sort of shakes his head.
Just give me a Tramadol and let me go shopping and I'm fine for about 4 hours. My art is really the greatest pain relief for me. I read, do silversmithing when my fingers cooperate with one another, and volunteer. I guess I'm lucky that my pain receptors are on the fritz. Everyone's pain level is different and I think that different areas of our bodies hurt diffently. Your damaged wrist and my damaged wrist may have the same amount of damage but we'll feel the pain differently. My knee may have less damage than yours but I may feel more pain in my knee. Pain is subjective. I'll let you know about my pain level in June when I have a total knee replacement. I'm sure that my little morphine pump will be newest best friend.
Mom, Have you called your Dr about the Humira not helping yet? When I tried Humira I may as well have injected air ,it did absolutely nothing for me. I didnt stay on it long once we saw it wasnt helping at all,if anything I was worse.
I have had pain like you describe but when I am in a flare.
Well,
I pretty much regulate my pain with prednisone. I adjust my prednisone as needed with my Doctor's blessing. He says that i know my pain better than anyone and he is soooooo very right.
LEV
Yeah I have tried the pred thing and on real bad days I have upped my maintenance dose a little bit. But then I have to wean back down ugh. So more times than not I will do a non drug pain therapy instead.
If I wasn't on pred tho, I would be much worse off than I currently am and that would just plain suck.
My PT told me people have radically different tolerances to pain. I guessWhat type of pain?
As far as I could remember there were many types of pain at different time and at different part of the body.
Pain at joints usually swollen joints the skin could be tense, red intitially then turned to bluish black. Pain stayed at joints in the day if not purturbed but once in the night and early hours in the morning the pain might be continuous with excruciating pain.
Pain at soft tissue hind of knee cap. This type of pain was unbearable as it touched the heart and sent to the brain.
Pain when tendons were pulling/muscle spasm that was the time held on the leg to prevent any movement with mouth openned, eyes closed and murmured ow............... for minutes.
Pain at shoulder's joints that radiated to the neck or chest that radiated to the heart.
Pain at any part of the body with slight movement that radiated. It just tensed up and needed to stayed still completely.
When bedridden slight movement of any part of body by turning right or left might trigger pain.
What type of pain have you got?
Hi Mom, I am a mom of 3 also and am juggling work and kids and RA symptoms. Its hard there are some days I can hardly move due to pain, The doctor is still trying new meds. I take Vicodin 5 2 every 6 hrs( or 1 every 3) I agree with the people who say keep a constant supply in your system because when the pain is bad it takes a longer time and more of the pain killer to help. Good Luck to you and all who read this, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy! Correct herbs can effectively stop pain and 'coax' the disease to go 'gentle'. In fact it is the most friendly approach to 'tame' the furious and aggressive flare. i take tramadol for the pain and i found they work really well with no side effectsI was going to post this same question. However I take ibuprofen or naproxen sodium for the pain. I too am on once a week Humira and it doesn't seem to be doing anything for me as I have daily pain. Now I'm havin trouble with my knees, so it's difficult climbing stairs and walking when getting up from a sitting position. I'm due back at the rheumy's next month and I think I will ask for something for the pain. If I don't take ibuprofen daily, I have problems walking, getting up, stair climbing and general achiness. I really thought Humira would help all this, but it hasn't yet. I can sympathize with you....I have these wild lingzhi formula herbs for pain and treatment of arthritis. I have not taken any drug for almost 2 decades. No other symptoms nor side effects and completely overcome the disease.Hello,
My pain is generally all over. My muscles are weak and painful too. I do have pain in my knees and hips but I overall feel bad when Im like this. I wish an herb would help my problem but I've tried with no luck. I might ask my dr about tramadol. She currently has me on vicoden and I dont like taking it all the time. It's been a month since ive started the Humira and really havent seen any improvement. I guess I will wait for a few more months. Thanks! mom
I take tramadol, 2 tablets morning and bedtime. Sometimes I need a vicodin. For regular old breakthrough pain, I will try to get involved in something on line, do some scrapbooking, take a bath.
when it is really bad I ask Mark to stroke me. It's far lighter than a massage, he just barely runs his hands over the surface of my body, concentrating on my arms, scalp and chest, just above the breasts.. He has a very natural theraputic touch.. I've never seen anything like it. after about 10 minutes my whole body is very gently tingling, and I fall asleep into a deep deep sleep. He can remove migraine headaches doing this as well. its just amazing.
ummm no... you can't borrow my husband.. sorry.
[QUOTE=allycat]i take 2 x 200mg sustained release tramadol a day but i am seriously thinking of getting something stronger. the tramadol barely touches the pain. i am worried though of getting hooked on stronger meds can anyone suggest something else i could take.[/QUOTE]
I have read several times that people who have chronic pain do not get "hooked" on pain killers. I doesnt work on us the same way as someone who is an addict. For me Im able to function better. Im able to walk better, do housework, cook etc.