Re: pain meds

From: Marilyn Vaughan (mavaughan@iastate.edu)
Wed Nov 6 13:17:40 2002


Like many others with ARD, I've found that doctors prefer using the step ladder approach with pain meds. That is, they prescribe the least powerful drugs first to see if those will stop the pain, then go on to the next drug and so forth.

I've been on Neurontin (ant-seizure drug that scrambles pain signals), Ultracet (non-narcotic pain killer) and Celebrax (anti-inflammatory) for about two years. I recently went to my pain clinic doctor and told him the Ultracet wasn't strong enough to lessen the pain. He then gave me Vicodin and said he would change it to Percocet next month if it doesn't work. Fortunately, I've been pretty painfree this month after starting a course of acupuncture. I'm hoping it might last, but then I'm relieved to have a stronger pain killer available if I need it.

It took me a long time to tell the doctor the Ultracet wasn't working as I was afraid he would say no or think I just wanted drugs, which is so incredibly far from the truth. I suggest you go to a pain clinic doctor if you have one available to you. These doctors are typically anesthesiologists and know a lot about relieving pain. (My doctor did his residency in pain medicine.) Make sure you supply the doctor with all surgery/medical records pertaining to your condition.

If there's no pain clinic in your area, you have to become your own advocate and be the squeaky wheel. Supply your doctor with some materials from this site. There's a recent article on WebMDHealth about women's pelvic pain that you might want to include. The article summarizes a new survey of 968 women with chronic pelvic pain. The survey revealed that 40 percent of women were told by their doctors that they exaggerate pain. Two-thirds of the women were told their pain was normal even though half perceived it as severe and debilitating. The survey was presented at the October annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. You can find it at http://www.webmd.com/content/article/1810.51399

I think the medical community is waking up when it comes to treating women in pain. Don't get discouraged, Linda, there are compassionate doctors, you just sometimes have to search a little to find them. The people who post on this site, particularly Helen Dynda, have a wealth of information and can point you in the right direction to get the help you need. I don't know where you live but you might ask if anybody on this site can recommend a doctor in your area. David Wiseman, who was pivotal in starting this site, keeps a list of doctors. You might want to e-mail him through the Doctor Database link on this site.

Wishing you the best and painfree days,

Marilyn

At Wed, 6 Nov 2002, linda garcia wrote: >
>These Doctors are amazing in their own way ha ha he he!!! They see all
>of sitting here, or lying here in so much pain and suffering, and we
>almost have to be dying to get anything for the pain. We ask for
>narcotics and we are automatically addicts. It is crazy. I thought
>people wanted to be doctors to help others. I guess I was wrong. Can
>any of you tell me of some of the meds that work for you? I take 800
>mils of ibuprofen, that is all they will give me.
>My prayers and thoughts are with you all. I pray today that everyone is
>suffereing a little bit less than yesterday.
>
>--
>Linda Garcia
>


Enter keywords:
Returns per screen: Require all keywords: