I am stubborn lol. I sit in horrible pain day after day, month after month because I tried Ultram for a year and got horribly addicted and kept taking more and more.
What i need is a pain killer that isn't an over the counter type that might be able to help me.
Since i have chemical sensitivity and asthma, i can't take nsaids. I currently take Meloxicam since it is the only one that doesn't hurt me but it is nothing close to what i need for pain.
My problem besides chemical reaction making me sick is I am in need of a drug that i won't become horribly addicted too but don't know of any other drugs out there that would be ok to take pain killers daily without the addiction.
Any advice?
Bubba, addiction to pain killers would be the last thing on my mind if I was in horrible pain everyday. I would try to get the pain under control first then worry, but thats just me. I have seen posted here that if you have that much pain and use painkillers your not likely to become addicted.
I also have a lot of adverse reactions to strong narcotics, especially nausea and vomiting, but my Dr always gives me phenergan to help with that. Talk to your Dr and see if you both can came to an agreement on what is best to keep your pain as minimal as possible. Uncontrolled pain is more dibillatating to me than taking narcotics. A lot of folks here like a pain clinic but I can't help you with that, I've never used one.Whatever you do I hope you get the right thing going to ease your pain. So sorry that your going through this too.
pain, what a pain in the patooie, sorry you are going through this alone, but advise you to get help that is out there, you cannot do this alone...I have osteo, fibromy, cervical spondylitis...Do not worry about addiction at this stage of the game. What you need to focus on is pain control. there are many physiological changes that happen within the body when someone is in chronic pain that just are not good for us.
Addiction to narcotics happens when we either don't take our pain meds properly or they stop working. Not taking them properly is like when you wait til the absoloute last minute to take them and now you are in just excrutiating pain. The narcotic does not do it's job as well as it is supposed when you wait too long to take them. Also, if your pain level increases on the dose that had been helping you before you find yourself taking more and more pain pills and then you become addicted.
There are physiological addictions with some pain meds that can not be avoided. Like morphine is a physiological addiction. The nature of the medicine and the nature of the human body causes that. When I was feeling particularly good I didn't take my miantenance dose of morphine for almost 2 days. I sent myself into a really nasty physiological withdrawal. Mentally I didn't want and need the stuff...but my body was like..ummm HEY...ya wanna not do that again please!! LOL.
I really feel the key to helping ourselves with our pain is prevention. If you have to get up in the morning and the first thing you do is take your pain meds then so be it. If you know I am going to be and about with a busy day I take pain meds as a prevention. I just had a really busy couple of days of heavy housework and took my meds just prevent myself from being miserable. I also really feel combining natural pain relief with pain killers is essential also. Things like meditation...gentle yoga and stretching if you can do it..relaxation cd's...etc.
Don't be afraid of pain meds and addiction. when they are prescribed right (which means your doc really listening to you about your pain) and taken right they are very helpful.
I am pretty sure that all the prescription pain meds do carry a risk of addiction. I go to a pain clinic. Have had to sign a contract. I am currently on 40 mg of oxycodone twice a day, its a pretty serious drug. However, since I am also in terrible pain daily, I do not find that I get high from them. Maybe the first couple of days while my body adjusted but not now. It is a highly controlled substance and they only give you a 30 day supply at a time and you have to go in the office in person to pick up script refills so they monitor it very closely. Vicodin is usually what they start off with but its not as strong and I didn't find it to be monitored as closely so I would think the chance for abuse is higher if you look at it that way.Hi, I agree with the others that you need to talk to your doctor, get on something regularly, only take the amount prescribed, at the times he says. I had some serious pain and couldn't even think straight a couple of months ago. My husband kept the pills, as I would FORGET tht I'd taken them and when! He was worried that I'd get addicted to oxycodone (but I wasn't and I needed to be free of the stabbing, horrible pains , in my left arm, neck, heels, legs, knees. My hands wouldn't even hold a glass of water to take the PILLS! I did get past that, but looking back I would have been better off taking them consistantly. NO matter if I started to feel better or if I was in more pain. It would hopefully have caught up so I didn't hurt so badly. My husband wanted me NOT to take them! That was a mistake, as he had no idea how bad off I was (I'd try to keep it to myself....the pain, ugh!) It was the worst 3 months of my life.
After the heart operation, and the healing I was given Prednisone, methotrexate and Remicade. I have my good days and 'stiff' days. But I am trying to be patient and go with the flow.
I don't know your lifestyle, so I can't help with what you are taking, but I hope my experience will help you. I hate to hear of people in intense pain. Can you call and talk to your doctor today? take care, Lynda
In Australia we don't even get offered pain meds, at least that is my experience...they just don't see it as an option so I have endured without while I waited for meds to work. But I have been on a 60mg dose of diazepam, which are addictive like pain meds, at night to get to sleep through the pain. The doctors made a big fuss about them being addictive but when I no longer needed them a year ago I took myself off them, from two down to one and then from one to nothing. I have been off them a year and have only recently had to go back on them again as through a huge flare I could not sleep again with the pain. I have no doubt that when I don't need them again I will simply reduce myself off again.Right now i have been on mloxicam and it is only something that takes the edge off. I still hurt horribly but the tears have stopped.
I take prednisone but the damage i do have to my bones etc. hurts so much.
I find that when i wake up the pain is the worst. I never have different stiffness in the morning than night, but the pain is horrible, i think it's because the night meloxicam has stopped working.
My ultram usually works great but the last time i took 2 pills a day, one in morning and night i hurt more and more as time went on and I believe it to be because of the pill.
When i quit ultram before it was a week long process just to get past the shakes and sweats. I couldn't sleep either. I was very sick and it scares me to do that again and I also worry of what it might do to my body in the future like organs etc. by using it all the time.
I just don't know what type of pill along the lines of ultram to take.
I am sorry that you're in so much pain, and are having trouble with the pain meds. Studies show that for "most" people with chronic pain, addiction is unlikely unless they are predisposed to it. If any sort of addictions run in your family, you may want to see a counselor to help avoid any addictions to your meds.
I am currently on Vicodin ES or Ultracet (alternating a bit) every six hours. I have been doing this for months, on the advice of my dr, while trying to get the pain and the RA under control. I want to get off of them as soon as I can and just use them for breakthrough pain. So now that I feel the Imuran is starting to help, I am trying to gradually take the pain meds less often, but I am somewhat afraid because I know they work best as a preventative, and I have a busy/hard summer (busy at work, remodeling and moving to a new home). And I am also tapering off pred. I'll have to see how it goes.
For me the pain is definitely worse in the mornings, so what I've learned to do (on workdays) is to set my alarm for 4:30 am, get up and take the pain pills, and then go back to sleep until 6:00 am. By the time I get up, the medication is working and I am able to get myself together for work. Before doing this, I was absent or significantly late a lot more often. Without the pain meds, I'd be jobless and without insurance.
Besides the ultram and Vicodin, I'm not sure what to suggest to you. I know some people use morphine or methadone. What does your doctor say?
bubbagump---theres a thread around here somewhere about Ultram and those with RA where the Ultram actually makes them feel worse. I hope the drs are able to give you something that will ease the pain a bit. When I switched rheumys a couple of years ago, my new one saw that I was prescribed ultram and told me to stop it immediately and switched me over to vicoden. It didnt occur to me at the time to question why.