I have taken methadone for pain for seven years. I started 30mg day and now take 50mg. I have also taken Zonegran for 4 years; was told I would be fortunate if it was effective for two. Started 200mg day now take 400mg. We are adding Cymbalta this month hoping it will boost because the Zonegran is not as effective as it once was and the manufacturer can not reccomend increasing doseage due to liver, kidney damage. I do not want to increase methadone if I don't have too but if pain/relief ratio to hours/days becomes too much to handle I will. I have to be very conscientious of my digestive tract, BMs, urinary tract infections so I take a regimen of herbals, natural laxatives, Sustenex (Activa in pill form) to ensure a healthy system. I don't think that's an unreasonable increase over that period of time. Neither does my doctor.
I have had adhesions and complications due to cysts on ovaries since I was 16. That's forty years. I have had no surgeries since my hyst/ooph in 1999 and the "second look" I allowed which did no good whatsoever. I have been hospitalized once in all that time for an obstruction. I now live with the pain of adhesions, Fibromyalgia and Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy caused by not getting good pain relief following the surgery because I was told it was a bowel problem, I was being hysterical, I should go back and see my shrink, get back to work and suck it up. Pain is your bodies way of telling you something is drastically wrong. Relieve the pain until the problem is resolved or you get RSD. It is now not only in my belly making me in labor like pain every 3rd or 4th day since Apr 1999, it is in my hands, feet, face and knees and is trying to creep into the fleshy part of my back where in 2001 a diagnostic epidural was done and the student missed; another spot for the RSD to migrate. Such flesh as is left.
Opiods do not cause a high when pain is present and are not dangerous to people who are in real pain and real pain cannot be faked I don't care how good an actor a person might think they are. Smash your hand in the car door and tell me you can fake that. Get kicked between the legs or go in labor and tell me that can be faked. That's what I live with day and day out and so do most of us here. After the false labor pains subside I'm left with the ache; remember the muscle ache? I take enough medication to take the edge off and yet be able to continue functioning on this planet ... most days. Each person has to work out for themselves what that level of tolerance is, what medication combination is right for them, what tools available (western and eastern regimens of healing) they are comfortable with. I have explored ... too many to list here today. From magnets to Reiki, acupuncture to TENS units. I can't say I've done it all but I've done a lot. Only limited by my pocketbook.
I support everyone's right to do for themselves as little or as much as they desire to do. Offering my experience, the tools I've tried, my choices for me, are not an indication they would or should work for you. They are offerings. Each person can then choose to pick them up or leave them lay. Of course our bodies build up tolerance to pain meds. They build up tolerance to penicillin and you become allergic after using it effectively for years; to Echinacea and you have to take a break for a while and then can pick it up again and use it for colds, flu, UTIs. We have a complicated chemistry inside and every time we add something whether it's food or medicine or the air we breathe our brain has to figure it out and try to set up a compensatory package deciding whether to defend or accept what it's been given. What a miracle it doesn't break down more often.
There's a lot that goes on here that I cannot relate to anymore and so I've stayed silent, watching and listening. Pain, medications and the body's response mechanism I've researched and thought about quite a bit these past nine years. One more thing, I cannot agree with the statement someone made that everyone should use what works best for them. If I agreed with that it would open the world of the original pain suppresants {whispering} alcohol and marijauna and I don't know about everyone else but my doctor made me sign a contract and those "drugs" are a breech of contract. So no can't necessarily use what works best even if you use it sensibly. Gotta use what you and your doctor agree upon. And stick to it. My personal favorite; floating in the pool--weightless, painfree, no worries, no phones, no internet. But then I'm so pruny I'm not sure my skin will stay on. It all has it's price. Didn't mean to write a book.
Stay healthy y'all Body, mind, spirit, Marla Brownfield Rantoul, IL