QUESTION ABOUT INCREASING PAIN MEDS.

[Guest guest]

Question.....

I have been trying to get up enough nerve to ask my Doctor about prescribing a little bit stronger pain medication. All I have ever taken is Vicodin, and I just feel that I need something a little stronger now. ......I am in constant pain, and although the Vicodin takes the edge off..... (and that is only if I lie down after taking it).....I never feel that I am getting any real relief.

I know that when I go to the Doctor on Monday, he is going to decrease the amount of Prednisone I am on, now that My rash is cleared up. I am on 20 mg. of prednisone a day, and I really do want to eventually get off the cursed stuff. .......But everytime I decrease the prednisone, the pain gets worse, and I am tempted to bump it back up just to get more pain relief......you've all been there, right?

I would just like to be able to move around a little easier, and do more things without being in excruciating pain. I have always had a high pain tolerance.....but it has gotten past the point that I can tolerate most of the time......My Lupus is in remission now .....but the Fibromyalgia and Sjogren's Syndrome is causing plenty of pain without The Wolf .

I know that many of you have much more severe pain than I do.....and I feel like a big baby to complain......but I think our pain is a personal thing.....when we own it , it's ours to deal with as best we can, and sometimes I am just in tears when I try do any housework or shopping or any of the things that I CAN still do for myself , but not without suffering.........How do you convince a Doctor that your Pain is just a little bit more than you can take most of the time? I 'm not so naive that I expect to ever be complelely pain free again.....but how do you convince a doctor that you need more relief than you are getting without having to argue the point.?

[Guest guest]

Hi Debbie,

Thanks for replying to my question about pain meds. I have already posted about my experience with my PCP yesterday, and he is willing to work with me on it .....I 'm just having problems with my insurance Co. giving me that many Pills untill My Doctor talks to them about what we are doing......I had forgotten that he is off on Tuesdays, so I haven't heard yet if He will be able to get the Soma preauthorized. I spoke to my pharmacist and she said that she will contact him tomorrow morning to let him know what is going on with my Ins. Co......and that he will have to call them about the Soma.

I took a Flexoril today with my Vicodin......but they give me horrible dry mouth, and they make me drowsy, yet restless......Does that make any sense?.....Anyway My pharmacist does't think there will be a prob.

C.

Re: QUESTION ABOUT INCREASING PAIN MEDS.

The question of pain management was the hardest for me to deal with. In order to get any relief with aspirin or tylenol I had to take so much, and really got very little relief while causing irreparable damage to my kidneys and liver. So I talked to my rheumy about it and she said she wasn't comfortable prescribing anything stronger. I went to the urgent care center because there was a really good doc there and he gave me pain meds, but advised me that I would need to get a regular family doc to handle "chronic" problems as opposed to "acute". He said to avoid being typed as a drug seeker to ALWAYS use the same pharmacy, and ALWAYS get your narcotics from the same doctor. He advised me to bring a copy of my rx list to the doctor with me, and to have an idea of how much medicine I would need to take to be more comfortable, without feeling "high". He said to discuss it rationally, not emotionally, because crying can be seen as depression or drug "neediness" rather than justifiable upset over a long existing problem. Using the Percocet 7.5 mg he prescribed I determined that if I broke the tablets in half I could get by on just 2 tabs a day. (I didn't tell the doc I ALWAYS broke them in half, just that sometimes 1/2 was enough) When I went to the doc that was to be my family doc I told her just like Dr D had advised me. She said she had never had a good experience with narcotics, but was willing to give it a chance, as long as I understood that we would NOT increase the dose- she would prescribe exactly 30 tabs every two weeks. Then we worked it out to 60 tabs every month because every two weeks was harder to tell if I was "increasing" because of holidays and vacations, etc. We went on that way for 6 months until I accidentally found a neurologist who is a pain management specialist. I did cry in his office after they handed me prescriptions to take care of the pain... I was so overwhelmed with relief to have finally found a doctor's office who understood and did not judge me! They told me that the avg person with chronic pain is not going to become addicted because pain makes us appreciate the medication and be more likely to use it appropriately. They said they can tell a "functional" patient from a "dysfunctional abuser" very easily. I'm glad I was so easy for them to read!Maybe with all this rambling I'm just trying to say that the right pain management doc is much more of a relief than an ordeal --- and I wish you the best of luck finding one!Deb > Blank> Question.....> > I have been trying to get up enough nerve to ask my Doctor about prescribing a little bit stronger pain medication. All I have ever taken is Vicodin, and I just feel that I need something a little stronger now. ......I am in constant pain, and although the Vicodin takes the edge off..... (and that is only if I lie down after taking it).....I never feel that I am getting any real relief. > > I know that when I go to the Doctor on Monday, he is going to decrease the amount of Prednisone I am on, now that My rash is cleared up. I am on 20 mg. of prednisone a day, and I really do want to eventually get off the cursed stuff. .......But everytime I decrease the prednisone, the pain gets worse, and I am tempted to bump it back up just to get more pain relief......you've all been there, right?> > I would just like to be able to move around a little easier, and do more things without being in excruciating pain. I have always had a high pain tolerance.....but it has gotten past the point that I can tolerate most of the time......My Lupus is in remission now .....but the Fibromyalgia and Sjogren's Syndrome is causing plenty of pain without The Wolf . > > I know that many of you have much more severe pain than I do.....and I feel like a big baby to complain......but I think our pain is a personal thing.....when we own it , it's ours to deal with as best we can, and sometimes I am just in tears when I try do any housework or shopping or any of the things that I CAN still do for myself , but not without suffering.........How do you convince a Doctor that your Pain is just a little bit more than you can take most of the time? I 'm not so naive that I expect to ever be complelely pain free again.....but how do you convince a doctor that you need more relief than you are getting without having to argue the point.?"The LUPIES Store" Come check out our store...http://www.cafepress.com/thelupies"The LUPIES Web Page"http://www.itzarion.com/lupusgroup.html"The LUPIES online photo albums!" Check out what your fellow Lupies look like...http://www.picturetrail.com/lupies