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

[Guest guest]

i am sorry to hear that marie. can you get a new doc/ a new rheumy? i

am fortunate that my doc listens and gives me painkillers. though

recently even off mtx i don;t need them if i stick to my GAPS diet. if

you look up DR. McBride- she has written a book on this.

originally she used the diet to treat autism and other psych.

disorders but now they are using it for autoimmune disease and having

success. i hope you get some relief soon.

monique

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

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> 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.

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> 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!

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> 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?

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> 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?

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> ~Marie

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