My problems started in the mid 80's after a bad horseback riding accident where the horse threw me headfirst into a fence post then stomped on my forehead. Six weeks later I was driving through an intersection and got T-boned, and hit my head in the same place as the horse. I was in a coma for a week. In the early 2000's I was thrown off a horse who then stepped on the back of my head. I am having real issues with pain control. Meds just don't work anymore unless I take really massive doses. I've tried PT 4-5 times and each time has only made things worse. I also tried chiropractic and that really made things worse. Over the years I've been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome on the left, pinched nerves at C2-3, C4-6, and C7, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis. When the pain gets bad enough or has lasted long enough, I get seizures. All the doctors I've seen won't prescribe the massive doses it takes to keep the pain under control. Every one thinks that if he's the one who prescribes PT only then it will work. I've been buying meds overseas without a prescription but, since my salary isn't enough to cover that cost, I've had to cash in all my savings and retirement accounts. I've only got enough left to buy 3-4 months' worth of meds. Daily I take around 2400 mg of Neurontin, 600-750 mg of tramadol, and 2800 mg of Soma - and this is just enough to take the edge off, not actually stop the pain. I know these massive doses I've been taking will kill me but if I can't get any relief, I'll kill myself a lot faster than the drugs will. Any suggestions of what I can do that doesn't cost anything? I'm literally broke now.
Need Suggestions for Pain Control
- Thread starter mom5cats
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Zolt
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Hello there mom5cats. Geez, you have been through hell, I sure hope you don't ride horses anymore.
I did a check on the normal dosages of those meds and you are rather on the high side. I'm sure you know that we all can get used to drug and over a long time period they just may not work anymore. How about switching to some type of other drug? But you have been dealing with this since the 80's, so you have probably been through a lot of different meds already. When i was in the hospital, the docs gave me viacodin. I personally didn't like it, after taking it the next day my back would always hurt. I also take Neurontin, (Gabapentin) and find it to really help me, not by stopping my seizures, but by causing them to happen in the mornings. Before this drug, they would happen at anytime of the day, and of course at the most inopportune time. Another plus is that it doesn't seem to have much side effects, at least for me.
I hear Medical Marijana is a good form of pain relief. Since it's illegal in most states, that may not be an option.
Zolt
I did a check on the normal dosages of those meds and you are rather on the high side. I'm sure you know that we all can get used to drug and over a long time period they just may not work anymore. How about switching to some type of other drug? But you have been dealing with this since the 80's, so you have probably been through a lot of different meds already. When i was in the hospital, the docs gave me viacodin. I personally didn't like it, after taking it the next day my back would always hurt. I also take Neurontin, (Gabapentin) and find it to really help me, not by stopping my seizures, but by causing them to happen in the mornings. Before this drug, they would happen at anytime of the day, and of course at the most inopportune time. Another plus is that it doesn't seem to have much side effects, at least for me.
I hear Medical Marijana is a good form of pain relief. Since it's illegal in most states, that may not be an option.
Zolt
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mom5cats,
Ditto Zolt on building up a tolerance to meds.
I understand pain. I have headaches almost every day of the week, some so severe I feel like I can't take it any more. General pain relief I haven't found a cure for. But for headaches I have a few tricks that take it down that half a notch that makes me be able to handle the pain.
The first one is ice. Ice on my neck and surrounding my head. At the same time I have a heating pad on my stomach, and very warm socks on my feet. The second is to restrict the use of pain meds to two days a week so my body doesn't become tolerant, and higher doses aren't needed. I save my two days for not horrible days, I save them for the unbearable ones. Massage helps, too, but it's expensive.
Pain management doctors are not all created equal. Some are pretty worthless, others are great. A really great one will offer you things other than pain meds. They'll offer biofeedback, meditation classes, etc., all tailored to pain sufferers. Nerve blocks are something else that are effective for some people. A pain mgmt. doc would be the one to see about that. I had a few nerve blocks. They helped in the beginning but not at the end.
Support groups help, too. This is as much a mind game as it is a physical body game. If the mind can actively work towards managing the pain, that's a good thing.
I imagine my pain gathering up into a little ball that "plinks!" right out of my head. I compartmentalize the pain a lot, kind of disassociate from the pain and I lock it in it's own little compartment. I try to live in the part of life that is everything else outside of that compartment. I'm having mixed results with that but I keep trying. Meditation is wonderful. Even if I am in pain it brings me peace. It takes lots of practice to be able to get to meditate through pain, but it's worth it.
Ditto Zolt on building up a tolerance to meds.
I understand pain. I have headaches almost every day of the week, some so severe I feel like I can't take it any more. General pain relief I haven't found a cure for. But for headaches I have a few tricks that take it down that half a notch that makes me be able to handle the pain.
The first one is ice. Ice on my neck and surrounding my head. At the same time I have a heating pad on my stomach, and very warm socks on my feet. The second is to restrict the use of pain meds to two days a week so my body doesn't become tolerant, and higher doses aren't needed. I save my two days for not horrible days, I save them for the unbearable ones. Massage helps, too, but it's expensive.
Pain management doctors are not all created equal. Some are pretty worthless, others are great. A really great one will offer you things other than pain meds. They'll offer biofeedback, meditation classes, etc., all tailored to pain sufferers. Nerve blocks are something else that are effective for some people. A pain mgmt. doc would be the one to see about that. I had a few nerve blocks. They helped in the beginning but not at the end.
Support groups help, too. This is as much a mind game as it is a physical body game. If the mind can actively work towards managing the pain, that's a good thing.
I imagine my pain gathering up into a little ball that "plinks!" right out of my head. I compartmentalize the pain a lot, kind of disassociate from the pain and I lock it in it's own little compartment. I try to live in the part of life that is everything else outside of that compartment. I'm having mixed results with that but I keep trying. Meditation is wonderful. Even if I am in pain it brings me peace. It takes lots of practice to be able to get to meditate through pain, but it's worth it.
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Yes your body can build up a tolerance to pain meds.
Your dr may prescribe you a certain dose but after awhile your body will become used to that dose so you will need a higher dose for it to work. After that your body will become used to that dose then your body will need a stronger dose and so on. I know someone how became addicted to pain meds because he had been taking them for years needing a stronger and stronger dose just to make a little bit of the pain go away.
I had severe back pain for years. I went to several different drs and all they would do was give me pain meds. I would take them but they didn't do anything to relieve even a bit of the pain so I just stopped taking them. One dr suggested steroid shots in my back but the steroids seemed to make me have seizures so I stopped getting them. They didn't help any way. I was given muscle relaxers but they just made me fall asleep, no help with the pain.
For some reason pain meds just don't work on me in general. I've tried several different types but none of them did anything. I have very bad headaches after some seizures and I asked the neuro for something that might help. He gave me a few different kinds, one was a shot too, but none of them helped.
As far as my back I don't know what caused the problem. There were times that I ended up in the ER by ambulance because I couldn't move. I went to a ton of different drs for that. They did several different tests - CAT scans, MRIs, x-rays but told me there was nothing wrong with it. All they did was give me pain meds but nothing they gave me even helped.
I did go to a chiropractor and that did help some. I saw him twice a week but when it came closer to the appointment the pain started to get worse again. You could maybe try going to a different one and see if he could do something different (all drs don't work in the same way) but if you don't want to try that because you think the chiropractic's in general is causing seizures then don't.
I found a new younger dr in the area and went to him for my back pain. He took an x-ray in the office and told me that I had a herniated disc in L5 S1. He said that the problem had been there for years (at least 5 but probably longer) because I was almost bone on bone. I had surgery in January of this year and haven't had even a little bit of pain since then.
I think that all of the other drs that I had gone to were afraid to do anything with me because of my epilepsy. I don't know if they were scared that I might have a seizure while I was on the table then they wouldn't know what to do.
The dr that did the surgery sat down and explained what was done during the surgery. He even told me that if I were to have a seizure during the surgery there might be a chance that I could be paralyzed. He told me that people very rarely have seizures while they are under anesthesia but there was still that chance. He said that he wasn't afraid to do the surgery as long as I wasn't afraid to have it done.
I'm so glad that I did because it's so nice now to be able to bend over, sit up and down, pick something up on the heavy side etc... without having pain shooting down my leg and cramping up my back!
Your dr may prescribe you a certain dose but after awhile your body will become used to that dose so you will need a higher dose for it to work. After that your body will become used to that dose then your body will need a stronger dose and so on. I know someone how became addicted to pain meds because he had been taking them for years needing a stronger and stronger dose just to make a little bit of the pain go away.
I had severe back pain for years. I went to several different drs and all they would do was give me pain meds. I would take them but they didn't do anything to relieve even a bit of the pain so I just stopped taking them. One dr suggested steroid shots in my back but the steroids seemed to make me have seizures so I stopped getting them. They didn't help any way. I was given muscle relaxers but they just made me fall asleep, no help with the pain.
For some reason pain meds just don't work on me in general. I've tried several different types but none of them did anything. I have very bad headaches after some seizures and I asked the neuro for something that might help. He gave me a few different kinds, one was a shot too, but none of them helped.
As far as my back I don't know what caused the problem. There were times that I ended up in the ER by ambulance because I couldn't move. I went to a ton of different drs for that. They did several different tests - CAT scans, MRIs, x-rays but told me there was nothing wrong with it. All they did was give me pain meds but nothing they gave me even helped.
I did go to a chiropractor and that did help some. I saw him twice a week but when it came closer to the appointment the pain started to get worse again. You could maybe try going to a different one and see if he could do something different (all drs don't work in the same way) but if you don't want to try that because you think the chiropractic's in general is causing seizures then don't.
I found a new younger dr in the area and went to him for my back pain. He took an x-ray in the office and told me that I had a herniated disc in L5 S1. He said that the problem had been there for years (at least 5 but probably longer) because I was almost bone on bone. I had surgery in January of this year and haven't had even a little bit of pain since then.
I think that all of the other drs that I had gone to were afraid to do anything with me because of my epilepsy. I don't know if they were scared that I might have a seizure while I was on the table then they wouldn't know what to do.
The dr that did the surgery sat down and explained what was done during the surgery. He even told me that if I were to have a seizure during the surgery there might be a chance that I could be paralyzed. He told me that people very rarely have seizures while they are under anesthesia but there was still that chance. He said that he wasn't afraid to do the surgery as long as I wasn't afraid to have it done.
I'm so glad that I did because it's so nice now to be able to bend over, sit up and down, pick something up on the heavy side etc... without having pain shooting down my leg and cramping up my back!
How wonderful!
:dontknow: That's so great you don't have trouble any more! My problem is that I was born way too premature (and in 1961 I shouldn't even have lived) and because of that, I have very poor eyesight. Even with glasses, I 've had to hunch over in order to see what I was doing - in school, at work, etc. I've literally spent my life hunched over. To add to that, my pelvic bone is tilted so that it is out of line with my spine. Now, at age 52, I am physically not able to sit or stand straight. This has led to pinch nerves, both in my neck and at the sciatic region. Because I can't alter the cause of the pain, nothing will help enough. I even tried psychiatry but that was a real joke. Every shrink and therapist I've ever seen just lets me rant but offers no feedback. I get better feedback from my cat - at least he meows back at me.
:dontknow: That's so great you don't have trouble any more! My problem is that I was born way too premature (and in 1961 I shouldn't even have lived) and because of that, I have very poor eyesight. Even with glasses, I 've had to hunch over in order to see what I was doing - in school, at work, etc. I've literally spent my life hunched over. To add to that, my pelvic bone is tilted so that it is out of line with my spine. Now, at age 52, I am physically not able to sit or stand straight. This has led to pinch nerves, both in my neck and at the sciatic region. Because I can't alter the cause of the pain, nothing will help enough. I even tried psychiatry but that was a real joke. Every shrink and therapist I've ever seen just lets me rant but offers no feedback. I get better feedback from my cat - at least he meows back at me.
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Hi mom5cats, welcome!
Your pain seems monstrous, and I'm sorry you've been suffering for so long. I don't know if the brain docs have suggested this, but antidepressants can sometimes help with chronic pain. (They helped my father's chronic back pain -- he had very bad osteoporosis, was hunched over, and and unable to stand or sit without pain). I'm not ordinarily a big fan of adding on meds but if you haven't tried them, might be worth a shot.
Some people have also benefitted from acupuncture (my dad wasn't one of them), and there are also a lot of newer techniques like "pain pacemakers" and spinal drug pumps. I hope you can find a way to hook up with a pain specialist who is aware of these newer techniques and can help you get relief.
Your pain seems monstrous, and I'm sorry you've been suffering for so long. I don't know if the brain docs have suggested this, but antidepressants can sometimes help with chronic pain. (They helped my father's chronic back pain -- he had very bad osteoporosis, was hunched over, and and unable to stand or sit without pain). I'm not ordinarily a big fan of adding on meds but if you haven't tried them, might be worth a shot.
Some people have also benefitted from acupuncture (my dad wasn't one of them), and there are also a lot of newer techniques like "pain pacemakers" and spinal drug pumps. I hope you can find a way to hook up with a pain specialist who is aware of these newer techniques and can help you get relief.