Rant about pain control, was: Re: why is noone answering my posts?

[Guest guest]

<<what do you take now for your RA marie?>>

I am currently taking Enbrel weekly, depo medrol injections monthly, and

tramadol, though the doctor will only give me about half as much tramadol as I

really need. She thinks I am currently doing " wonderfully " . I suppose if you

define spending most of your days alternating between the couch and the hot tub

as wonderful, she's right.

The Enbrel worked better for the joint pain and stiffness than anything else I

have tried- outside of Vioxx- for a while. In my own personal experience, RA is

like the Borg from Star Trek- you can slow it down for a bit with something new,

but it learns and adapts. Lately, it seems to have spread out to every muscle in

my body- for the past three weeks I have felt as though I had a terrible flu-

exhausted and hurting absolutely everywhere. Some days it's all I can do to make

it upstairs to go to bed. Nothing more than my own hardheadedness keeps me from

giving up and sleeping all night on the couch. My husband and I have decided to

sell our two story house and move into a ranch with a first floor laundry when

the housing market recovers, but for now I am going to sleep in my own bed even

if I have to be half carried up the stairs each night to do so!

I see the rheumy tomorrow and I plan to have a serious discussion about pain

control with her. For all the talk about how no one has to live in pain these

days, in my experience actually getting pain medication is a challenge. Took me

5 and a half years to get the tramadol- and then, only half as much as I need to

dampen the pain enough to function somewhere close to normally. When I asked for

the slow-release tramadol, the doctor told me that it is only for people who

have pain every day. I told her I did, and she replied " no you don't " . And she's

better than my primary doctor- he told me that " tramadol is a very bad drug " and

he doesn't like to prescribe it. End of discussion. Yet I know of people getting

ridiculous amounts of very potent painkillers on a regular basis. How does this

happen?

No one wants me snowed on painkillers less than I do- I just want something so I

can remain productive. What in the world do I need to say to these doctors?

~Marie