Re: Help-I need support ((((( CarolM))))) warning long ....

[Guest guest]

Hi Carol:

I can truly relate to your frustration and basically

just being so sick and tired of this whole RA thing -

the pain, the meds, the doctors, all of it. We have

all gone through this in our battle with this disease.

Don't stop all your medications - that would

definately not be a very good option. Especially not

when they are Effexor and neurontin - that could cause

a lot of problems if you stop them quickly. He really

should have decreased the meds slowly too, I think.

As for the new Rxs, I take Tramadol and, while it does

not take away the pain, it does take the edge off so

that I can cope better, and I hope that it works for

you. How many has he told you to take per day? I

don't take mine for just breakthrough pain, I did that

when I first started taking it for RA which was

moderate in nature, but since it has increased, and I

have also had FM added to the mix, I take 2 tabs 3

times a day faithfully to control the pain. The Motrin

will be hard on your stomach at that doseage - that

dose is what I was on for 4 years and it basically ate

up my stomach and started causing a lot of heartburn,

etc. so make sure you have something in your stomach

before taking it. I have heard good about Cymbalta,

so hope that this helps you.

When your leg was healing, and then healed up shorter

than your other leg, you no doubt began to place more

weight and more stress on the good leg, and also

started walking differently so that your back was also

placed under more stress. Anytime we change our

motion, either by injury or disability, it affects

more areas of our body than just that limb or joint.

It can really snowball into a lot more pain. It seems

that this is what has happened to you. Has he started

you on any physical therapy to help you learn to walk

more balanced and learn to adapt to the leg length

discrepancy? That might be a good idea. Maybe bring

this up to him?

I am so sorry that you are feeling so lost and

confused. You should not feel foolish - we learn to

trust doctors as children, and then that continues as

adults, and sometimes those doctors do things that are

confusing to us, like when he put you on Lortab, said

you needed it, and now is taking it away, and in no

way was this your fault. He's changing up his

treatment of you, and while it does seem kind of

backwards, you are not foolish for not understand why

he is doing this - let me make a guess -

I think he just knows that your RA is aggressive, and

wants to scale back a bit on the heavier pain med, try

the lesser pain med, and I am sure if the Tramadol

does not work, he will help you find something else.

I think that the doctors don't want to move us up too

quickly to the heavier pain meds because that takes

away their options to help us when our pain increases.

Start as low as possible and then work up to the

bigger ones, but he started you on a bigger one, and

now wants you back on the lesser, which is confusing,

but what can we do?

Rheumatoid neuropathy would be like peripheral

neuropathy - maybe you feel a stocking glove like

tingling, numbness, burning kind of sensation in your

hands and feet? Maybe even up to your elbows or

knees?

I have had peripheral neuropathy which was med

induced, but got over that, and now just have some

tingling and numbness in my hands and feet when I have

more swelling or pain in my wrists or ankles. The

neurontin should help with that. I take Lyrica for

it.

Anyway, Carol, if you made it through my novela here

lol, I hope that you take away from it that I wish you

were not going through this, it does not seem fair to

take away something that was helping, and I hope that

you are able to cope with the meds he has now given

you. My prayers are with you, kiddo.

Kathe in CA

--- Dandcmayer@... wrote:

> Dear Family,

> I feel like you are my family because I can always

> run to you and you know

> how I feel. Since I broke my leg and it healed

> shorter than the " good " leg I

> have had a tremendous amount of pain. I did not

> realize that I was taking

> more pain meds - Lortabs - 5 per day than I normally

> did. I have been

> unconsciously doing this for about 1 year and my Dr.

> called me into his office today

> to say he needed to help me stop???? I asked him

> what would happen with the

> pain??? He just had to take away Celebrex due to

> Insurance regulations and

> Mobic didn't work, Lodine worked for about 1 hour

> after I took it????So now he

> is putting me on Cymbalta, 60mg per day; Motrin 600

> mg 4 times per day;

> Tramadol for break thru pain. I am stopping the

> Lodine, but forgot to ask if I

> should stop taking Effexor or Neurontin...he Rx'd

> them for me so he knows what

> I am taking. He says he realizes I have pain and

> says that I have advanced

> RA and MCTD but he says my body is conditioned to

> this high level of pain meds

> and I need to come down so they will work in the

> future when I will need

> them more? He says I have severe rheumatoid

> neuropathy? I trust my Dr, but I

> am upset because in the beginning I didn't want to

> take the Lortab because I

> didn't want to be where I am today! He told me I

> had to?? The only comfort

> is that I know I can call him and he will help meif

> I need anything. I just

> feel very, very frustrated, sometime I feel like

> stopping EVERYTHING. No

> pills, no shots, no nothing! It really sucks. My

> husband was with me and he

> said that the Dr. was very considerate and caring,

> I said that I felt foolish.

> And also, I changed one Rx for $10.00 for 4 Rx's

> for a total of $65.00??? I

> am tired, cranky and feel ripped off. It just

> isn't fair. Is it!

> Gentle Hugs & Prayers,

> Carol M. in CA

>

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been

> removed]

>

>

Kathe

" To ride a horse is to borrow freedom. "

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Hi Carol,

I'm a newbie here but I did want to tell you a couple of things

before you get into trouble. First, regardless of how good your Dr.

is or how much you trust him, he cannot remember and rarely reviews

every med that you are on. Cymbalta is a cousin of Neurontin so I

don't think they should be taken together. Also, check with your

pharmacist, but I heard that you aren't supposed to take Tramadol or

Ultram while you are taking Cymbalta. I was told that so I have

stopped the Ultram and am getting ready to call my doc about that.

I've been on Cymbalta for about 6 months for nerve pain that didn't

go away after a disk fusion in my lower back. It has helped me so

much with arthritis pain too! My girlfriend that has Fybromialgia

is on it also and it has worked well for her. Neurontin had done

nothing for either of us.

Anyway, I know what you are going through and I did quit taking

everything for about 3 mos. - believe be, I was glad I got back on

the RX track!

Take care and hope you find peace with whatever decisions you make.

e from OK

>

> > Dear Family,

> > I feel like you are my family because I can always

> > run to you and you know

> > how I feel. Since I broke my leg and it healed

> > shorter than the " good " leg I

> > have had a tremendous amount of pain. I did not

> > realize that I was taking

> > more pain meds - Lortabs - 5 per day than I normally

> > did. I have been

> > unconsciously doing this for about 1 year and my Dr.

> > called me into his office today

> > to say he needed to help me stop???? I asked him

> > what would happen with the

> > pain??? He just had to take away Celebrex due to

> > Insurance regulations and

> > Mobic didn't work, Lodine worked for about 1 hour

> > after I took it????So now he

> > is putting me on Cymbalta, 60mg per day; Motrin 600

> > mg 4 times per day;

> > Tramadol for break thru pain. I am stopping the

> > Lodine, but forgot to ask if I

> > should stop taking Effexor or Neurontin...he Rx'd

> > them for me so he knows what

> > I am taking. He says he realizes I have pain and

> > says that I have advanced

> > RA and MCTD but he says my body is conditioned to

> > this high level of pain meds

> > and I need to come down so they will work in the

> > future when I will need

> > them more? He says I have severe rheumatoid

> > neuropathy? I trust my Dr, but I

> > am upset because in the beginning I didn't want to

> > take the Lortab because I

> > didn't want to be where I am today! He told me I

> > had to?? The only comfort

> > is that I know I can call him and he will help meif

> > I need anything. I just

> > feel very, very frustrated, sometime I feel like

> > stopping EVERYTHING. No

> > pills, no shots, no nothing! It really sucks. My

> > husband was with me and he

> > said that the Dr. was very considerate and caring,

> > I said that I felt foolish.

> > And also, I changed one Rx for $10.00 for 4 Rx's

> > for a total of $65.00??? I

> > am tired, cranky and feel ripped off. It just

> > isn't fair. Is it!

> > Gentle Hugs & Prayers,

> > Carol M. in CA

> >

> >

> > [Non-text portions of this message have been

> > removed]

> >

> >

>

>

> Kathe

>

> " To ride a horse is to borrow freedom. "

>

>

>

> __________________________________________________

>

[Guest guest]

One of the things I learned was that you can delay pain by taking something

like Xanax when you do start noticing it. I would start hurting and wouldn't

gain control of it by popping a pain pill, it was too late. But, taking the

Xanax would stop the tension from building so fast, and my body would relax

more. It works as a pain relief for me when I have the 'tension' type of

pain, tightening muscles will cause pain, that would cause tension, that

would tighten muscles, etc...

Dennis

Re: [ ] Help-I need support ((((( CarolM))))) warning long

.....

> Hi Carol:

>

> I can truly relate to your frustration and basically

> just being so sick and tired of this whole RA thing -

> the pain, the meds, the doctors, all of it. We have

> all gone through this in our battle with this disease.

> Don't stop all your medications - that would

> definately not be a very good option. Especially not

> when they are Effexor and neurontin - that could cause

> a lot of problems if you stop them quickly. He really

> should have decreased the meds slowly too, I think.

>

> As for the new Rxs, I take Tramadol and, while it does

> not take away the pain, it does take the edge off so

> that I can cope better, and I hope that it works for

> you. How many has he told you to take per day? I

> don't take mine for just breakthrough pain, I did that

> when I first started taking it for RA which was

> moderate in nature, but since it has increased, and I

> have also had FM added to the mix, I take 2 tabs 3

> times a day faithfully to control the pain. The Motrin

> will be hard on your stomach at that doseage - that

> dose is what I was on for 4 years and it basically ate

> up my stomach and started causing a lot of heartburn,

> etc. so make sure you have something in your stomach

> before taking it. I have heard good about Cymbalta,

> so hope that this helps you.

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Dennis:

I take Skelaxin for the same purpose. I take it 3

times a day, with 2 tramadol, and it keeps the pain

under control, not gone, but bearable. I take

Xanaflex at bedtime to help with sleep and it's very

effective.

Kathe in CA

--- betnden@... wrote:

> One of the things I learned was that you can delay

> pain by taking something

> like Xanax when you do start noticing it. I would

> start hurting and wouldn't

> gain control of it by popping a pain pill, it was

> too late. But, taking the

> Xanax would stop the tension from building so fast,

> and my body would relax

> more. It works as a pain relief for me when I have

> the 'tension' type of

> pain, tightening muscles will cause pain, that would

> cause tension, that

> would tighten muscles, etc...

>

> Dennis

>

> Re: [ ] Help-I need support (((((

> CarolM))))) warning long

> ....

>

>

> > Hi Carol:

> >

> > I can truly relate to your frustration and

> basically

> > just being so sick and tired of this whole RA

> thing -

> > the pain, the meds, the doctors, all of it. We

> have

> > all gone through this in our battle with this

> disease.

> > Don't stop all your medications - that would

> > definately not be a very good option. Especially

> not

> > when they are Effexor and neurontin - that could

> cause

> > a lot of problems if you stop them quickly. He

> really

> > should have decreased the meds slowly too, I

> think.

> >

> > As for the new Rxs, I take Tramadol and, while it

> does

> > not take away the pain, it does take the edge off

> so

> > that I can cope better, and I hope that it works

> for

> > you. How many has he told you to take per day? I

> > don't take mine for just breakthrough pain, I did

> that

> > when I first started taking it for RA which was

> > moderate in nature, but since it has increased,

> and I

> > have also had FM added to the mix, I take 2 tabs 3

> > times a day faithfully to control the pain. The

> Motrin

> > will be hard on your stomach at that doseage -

> that

> > dose is what I was on for 4 years and it basically

> ate

> > up my stomach and started causing a lot of

> heartburn,

> > etc. so make sure you have something in your

> stomach

> > before taking it. I have heard good about

> Cymbalta,

> > so hope that this helps you.

> >

>

>

Kathe

" To ride a horse is to borrow freedom. "

__________________________________________________