Each person has to choose their own

[Guest guest]

What works for me may not work for someone else. I have extreme

pain with my RA probably do to all the other things that I have with

it but what works for me to do may not work for someone else but but

but

I am always reading what helps someone else and what their opinions

are because it gives me some different options to think about.

I have a rotten doctor but she is good all the same - she is

treating my RA aggressively. She never has had a problem dispensing

a medication to me. I don't know if it is because she thinks I am

responsible or not but I do not take my pain meds unless I

absolutely need them.

The military doctors gave me prescriptions 6 years ago for Ultram

and Flexeril, Ultram, Vioxx, Zanaflex, Neurontin, Lortab, Zoloft,

another anti-depressant can't think of the name at the moment;

methotrexate, and Folic Acid.

One drug was supposed to help me sleep at night...one was to get rid

of my headaches, one was supposed to help my muscles untense during

the day, one was for pain and the list went on and on and on...

I developed a stutter and had severe memory loss. I would sit for

hours and stare and not have any idea what I was supposed to be

doing.

I took control of my own destiny then and said WAIT A MINUTE...

I quit the flexeril and the Ultram and Vioxx...the pain from the

arthritis wasn't any better and it wasn't helping the pain in my

arms from the ruptured disc in my neck or the ripped rotator cuff in

my shoulder that they didn't even look for.

I quit stuttering and got my life back. I had to have 3 operation;

2 on my neck to repair ruptured discs from degenerative disc disease

made worse by my RA and 1 on my shoulder.

I had quit the anti-depressants 3-6 months into taking them. The

doctors were so upset with me but I told them that they didn't help

my pain and I wasn't sure what else they were doing for me but I

didn't want to chance it. One doctor at the base refused to see me

because I wouldn't take anti-depressants but all that I read on them

said that they were for people who were chemically depressed not for

someone who was in long term pain because of a disease. I had books

about FMS and RA that I marked the chapters in for the doctor and

would give them to him - showing that anti-depressants do not treat

RA or FMS but treat the depression. I wasn't depressed just in a

lot of PAIN.

I quit the Neurontin 3-6 months after taking it. The headaches it

was supposed to be helping were helped when the disc in my neck was

repaired plus hours of massage from my physical therapist. This

drug still scares me and there is a class action suit against the

company now but 6 years ago it was another of the drugs widely

dispensed for what it wasn't approved for. It was approved for

severe epileptic seizures...made me wonder.

The only drugs that I take now are a very mild muscle relaxer -

Skellaxin - when my muscles start aching so bad I want to bury my

head in the sand I take it. I take Foltx - a multiple vitamin to

build up my immune system and I will triple the dose if it is flu

season and I have to go out. I will double it if I am going to the

grocery store and on Sunday when I go to church. I take my MTX -

when I have stopped it I get the burning pains back in my left arm

and ankles so I know it is working. I take Lortab for all the rest

of my pain.

I am allergic to Percoset and Darvoset and when they tried Vicodin I

asked them when it was going to start working. I don't have any

reaction to prednisone except the 10 pounds I gained in weight when

they would write the prescription that never left but another 10 was

gained on each subsequent prescription. I have asked my doctor not

to prescribe it anymore as I don't see any good results from it and

am again scared of steroids.

They tried a bunch of other different pain meds on me...I was even

given shots at different times but unless it was the anesthetic that

they gave me it didn't work...I love the anesthetic though - I think

it was Lidocaine but several nurses tell me no but I looked it up on

the internet and it could have been...some doctors and nurses don't

know what is up...lol

I am also on Remicade - I get the injection once every 8 weeks. I

have to say it doesn't help with the pain as much as it used to but

my bones haven't further regressed at this time so it must be doing

something good. I have thought about Humira just so I didn't have

to drive to the doctor's office for the injections but am scared to

change.

I know this was long but I wanted to say that all the advice

everyone gives on here is good but in the long run what works for me

may and probably won't work for you. I have a low threshold for

pain and a low tolerance level. Pain that I feel may not be what

you feel. I went to the pain management doctors and they couldn't

believe how much pain I sustain every day and don't complain or take

medications for but I do take pain pills just not all the time.

I wish you all the best of luck and pray for all of you. I hope

that something I said about meds or my dumb stubborness will help

someone else.

God bless,

Althea