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Sunday, October 25, 2009

I've recently been referred to a Pain Management Clinic, any suggestions..?

on how to deal with the powerful meds that i have been put on.
I am chronic and will be on them the rest of my life. I have degenerative disc disease and have already had to have 2 removed (i'm 43), chronic osteoarthritis,nueroapathy and sciatica. I take methadone,tramadol,lyrica, and zoloft. Also prednisone once in a while for 2 wks at a time. Not handling all of this mentally. Does it get better?? Thank you in advance for your time.
Answer:
These medications will change your life. This time last year I couldn't even get out of bed, but once I started pain management things made a 180 degree change. I was very worried and upset about having to be on powerful narcotics at first but once I saw what a difference they made I realized I had no other choice. You may never be able to overcome the attitiudes of some people who will judge you because if what you take, but you are not an addict. You are merely a patient with a medical condition that takes medication to control it, just like a diabetic or someone with high blood pressure. Never let anyone make you feel like an addict because you aren't. Things will get so much better once you aren't in pain all the time, you'll see. It makes a complete difference in how things look, I promise.
hard to deal with ...i have liver cancer and got a transplant. then the liver and my kidney failed...i got a new liver and lidney...during a biopse they hit my lung and i was in intensive care for a month..10 weeks in hospital.i take perc.and wellbutrin...good luk i feel 4 you.
I haven't gone through anything as severe as what you've mentioned, but I have SOME of the conditions you mentioned and I know others who suffer with some of them. Talk to the prescriber of your meds. They need to know how you're coping because they may be able to adjust the miligram dosage to make everything more tollerable. Good luck!
A pain management clinic is great. Besides controlling the amt. of meds you need they also teach you natural ways of controlling the pain.My mom broke her hip before discovering she had osteo. While she was healing I decided to give her a can of ENSURE everyday to see if it'd help. To my %26 the dr.'s amazement it did. In less than a month except for where the screw was you would have never known it was broken. His main hope was that the bone around it wouldn't chip off. She had osteo so severe he never dreamed it would heal.But those clinics also have physical therapists that help you build up the muscles around the injury so there is less stress on it.It can get better. My friend had almost all the same problems before she went %26 it made a world of difference. She was even able to cut back on her meds.I know it's depressing at your age. But you need to focus on the positive. Find something you love to do but never had the time before, even if you have to do in 10 min. increments.You're alive %26 as long as you're alive there is always hope. Look at Gloria Estavan. I'll remember you in my prayers.
Pain is both a physical experience and a subjective emotional response. Pain motivates withdrawal from painful stimuli, and immobilization of damaged body part. Although pain is primarily associated with body damage, sometimes a painful location is not damaged (e.g. sciatica and phantom pains).If your pain is primarily a response to a physical stimulus, then suffering is primarily an emotional state of enduring loss or damage. Pain usually indicates a damaged body. Suffering usually indicates the consequences of damaged relationships - abandonment, abuse, betrayal and guilt.Some people feel physical pain, while other people with the same stimulus feel comfortable. Pain responses seem to be mostly learned in early childhood as a part of family and cultural responses. Many children learn to suppress and hide difficult feelings such sadness, fear and anger and may also learned to hide pain, for example when parents react angrily about their crying. Other children find that by expressing pain, they gain more attention or love.Pain is difficult to measure, and may be affected by stress, fear and anxiety. Pain responses often include raised blood pressure and increased heart rate. Differences in pain response are mostly due to social, cultural, psychological and genetic factors.Pain often follows stress and emotional suffering. Pain may be delayed or lessened in severity if a person better controls external stress and his or her internal reactions to stress.Acute pain includes immediate, usually short-term, intense body responses, often connected with depressed feelings, followed by a dull, throbbing sensations.Chronic pain includes long-term (often defined as having persisted for at least 6 months), intense, often throbbing sensation. Chronic pain is often associated with medical diagnoses of cancer, multiple sclerosis or arthritis. It is more difficult to locate and treat. Chronic pain can significantly alter the life of a person, sometimes leading to secondary complications such as hypochondria, depression, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite and feelings of helplessness.Pain control can be achieved using chemicals that interfere with the transmission of painful signals, with the reception of painful signals, or with the interpretation of painful signals. The most powerful pain control medications are opiates (e.g. morphine and heroin) and the most common are salicylates (e.g. aspirin and acetaminophen). Other medications commonly used during pain control include antidepressants and tranquilizers. Many pain medications may only be prescribed by licensed physicians.Some herbal remedies contain medications similar to medical drugs, usually obtained from natural sources rather than artificially constructed.The first goal of long-term pain relief is often to coach you to deal with current crisis. Further pain control steps may be useless until you end or control any crisis. A crisis may include the shock of an accident, a medical test, an emergency, or suffering about a relationship.How does your pain makes sense? Explore the causes and benefits of your pain, and ways to preserve any benefits while relieving the symptoms. Resolve any relationship chaos, especially relationships in which you feel guilt.Resolve any conflicts about pain and its relief, while becoming specific about what you want instead of pain - and for what purpose.Resolve relationship bonds that require pain. This is particularly important if you have a family history of chronic or recurring pain.Deal with emotional trauma. Anger, fear and sadness inhibit concentration and relaxation, and may increase pain. We can coach you to explore any emotions associated with your pain. Some common issues are: anger about some person or event, sadness about lost opportunities, fear of unending pain and fear of death.Find appropriate mentors. Some of the better mentors for pain control are people with similar, but worse, situations to you, who generally have a positive attitude.
To answer such chronic problems without patient exam is almost incorrect.
You have confirmed that there is no medicine for your rescue. I don't like still you are relying upon meds only. My sincere advice is "FIND YOUR OWN WAY" and if it is not possible at least think whether you can follow me. 20 years ago i was wandering for my lumbago; nothing helped me. Now i can treat it within 10 mins also! BELIEVE?
If you have not tried acupuncture pl try first.
Your other bone problems might be from weak kidney energy. Meds will further weaken it. Hence think visiting us. We treat sciatica, OA and N'probs too.
I am SO SORRY to hear of all your pain!! I, myself, am a chronic pain patient but unfortunately I CANT go to a pain managment clinic b/c I dont have insurance (uninsurable) and the cost at those places is UNBELIEVEABLE!! Luckily I have found a compassionate doctor whose WIFE suffers from the same problems that I do, so he is understanding and takes care of me pretty well (although I still have to pay for my doctors visits every 10-20 days which sucks!!One thing that you should be aware of (if you arent already) is that Tramadol is an opiate antagonist!! What this means is that it works AGAINST your methadone! If you take them within 4-6 hours of each other then they will basically cancel each other out and you wont get relief from EITHER of them.. so make sure NOT to take them at the same time!! The Lyrica should help w/ depression AND some of the pain but in my case, it really didnt help with EITHER so my doctor switched me to Depakote which is a mood stabilizer and it has actually helped a LOT with my pain level!!As far as handling it all MENTALLY... are you seeing a therapist at all?? I understand that you may not have any MAJOR issues w/ depression or anything but it is HARD dealing w/ pain on a regular, day to day basis and sometimes just having someone to talk to really DOES help! I have found that it really doesnt matter WHAT doctor (or pain clinic) you go to... MOST of the people who work there dont suffer from chronic pain themselves and dont have a CLUE what you are going through. The tend to treat us like addicts or "pill poppers" and even though YOU KNOW in your heart that you are NOT an addict (although maybe physically dependant on them) and it is really HARD to deal w/ the people who treat you w/ such distain!! It really helps to go to a therapist.. someone that you can talk to that may not UNDERSTAND what you are dealing w/ but they CAN and WILL be on YOUR side and make you feel like you are not doing anything wrong b/c you ARENT!! Its nice to just have someone reassuring you and supporting your pain AND your decisions!!There are also MANY online support groups for chronic pain where you can talk to others that DO understand... and believe it or not it DOES help!! You can also call your local "mental facility" and see if they have any chronic pain support groups that you can attend (most of them DO have those kind of programs!)Just keep focused and remember that YOU ARE NOT AN ADDICT!! Life has thrown you a TON of lemons and you are just trying to make the most of it w/ what you have been dealt! You have EVERY RIGHT to seek ANY kind of treatment that helps you lead as normal of a life that you can and that helps you FEEL better physically! If that is with narcotics..then it sucks.. but its better then the alternative (a life consumed by pain!!) DONT FEEL LIKE YOU ARE WEAK or a bad person because of it!!I hope that helps and I hope that you will be in less pain tomorrow and in the days to come!!
I have Crohn's Disease, so I understand more than you know, about all of these things.You must not live in Canada, because I have never heard of tramadol, or lyrica for pain.I'm 38, and have been on pain meds. for close to 18 yrs.
I have taken percocet, fentanyl patches, dilaudid and morphine syrups and pills, demerol, Oxycontin, and oxycodone.I went to a detox to get off of all of it, except for the oxycodone, and my tolerance isn't as high any more, so that's all I need most days, some days I need to take demerol pills if I am in a real mess, or an ejection.Go see the doctor, and I'm sure he will find something that you haven't tried that will work.I know it sucks, but I swear it will get better.Just find the lowest dose of something that you can handle and stick to that, and something for break through pain.Good Luck, and God Bless!!

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