Medications?

[talaine]

Hi all,

It's me - one of the newbies again! I am very curious to know what pain meds some of you are using with success? I have become very frustrated in the past few weeks because my meds don't seem to be working well anymore. I guess that's no big surprise considering I've been taking them for almost 2 years now. I take either Loratab 10/500, Loratab 10/325 or Percocet 10/325. While they used to control my pain, I've gone up and up in dosage and now seem to not get much relief at all.

I'll be seeing my neurosurgeon this Wednesday but he's already told me that he doesn't prescribe anything other than Loratab at all to anyone. Period. He says that's because he's had "too many problems." I'm not sure what that means other than maybe he's had some addiction problems with patients. I'm seeing a new spine physician next week for a second opinion.

Anyway, I was just wondering what other meds you guys are on and what, if anything is working for you?

Teressa
diagnosed with DDD/herniation at L5-S1
current neurosurgeon wants to do TLIF fusion
have had around 12 epidural, facet joint injections, 2 nerve burnings (RF lesioning?), accupuncture, TENS unit, chiropractor, PT all to no avail, or very little help

[Terry]

I was on Methadone prior to and post surgery. It can be a good pain medication but needs to be prescribed by a knowledgeable physician. The problem is the medication builds up in the system after the pain relief is gone. It is easy to build to a toxic level causing accidental overdose and death. Your surgeon is wise as there is a lot of potential for abuse from some of the stuff they are prescribing such as oxycontin.

Terry Newton

[KBear]

I see a surgeon, as well as a pain management dr (who does all my medication). I never even knew a surgeon would do long term pain management. I am on Kadian 20mg twice a day (time release morphine), Vicodin 10/325 four times a day, Lyrica 150mg twice a day, Cymbalta 60mg twice a day (anti-depressant; but has a pain indicator) and Zanaflex 3mg (muscle relaxer) one nightly for sleep. I would check around your area for a pain management dr, be careful when calling b/c alot of them are anesthiologist who want to do injections and what not and will only do medication if you are doing their injections, etc. I specifically asked for a long term pain management dr, who did not require me to be doing injections, PT, etc., in order to be treated (at the time I was searching, my previous dr. had told me there was nothing else that could be done for me and that I needed chronic pain management; but like so many others, they would not do that since there were no treatments left for me) Hope this helps, Kathy