Feel free to ignore this, it is written out of frustration and exhaustion. I love my doctor. He is great. He takes good care of me and doesnt gouge me on prices (it helps that he is a client of both mine and my mothers, she does all his insurance billing and accts. receivables.). The problem is, he is just too damned conservative. In the past 3 weeks, in one foot I have a stress fracture, level 2 sprain, and a torn ligament. This in and of itself is painful. Add to that the subsequent pain in the opposing shoulder/neck region, likely caused by the impairment of the left leg and the immobilizer I have to wear messing up my gait. I appreciate his wanting to not contribute to the creation of a chemical dependency in his patients, but sometimes, ya just need a damn pain pill. I have asked for them once before (after hurting my back) and he obliged. But again, being so conservative, he only gave me 2.5mg/650mg tablets. Now, Im a big guy, and 2.5mg of vicodin isnt going to do much to me (nothing noticeable in fact). The only pain killers that have ever worked for me (I guess I have a body constitution that just has a high tolerance as well as being big) were given to me by a dentist I will NEVER return to. A small 15mg tablet, all hydrocodone. I took one, the pain went away, and I didnt get sick from all the damn analgesics. OK, sorry, but I have been unable to sleep for 5 days now because of the neck/shoulder pain, so Im rambling. How 'bout the weather?
lol, I knew someone was going to say that. I had some drinks Xmas even and at an xmas party on the 11th, and I didnt even catch a buzz. It sucks sometimes being as big as I am when I want to drink. Regardless, Im not going to drink to numb pain, especially not alone. That, and I dont really care for the taste of alcohol. But the eggnog I made with some rather nice brandy (I know people that would shoot me for using it in egg nog) tasted rather good though. Anyone want my recipe?
Brandy egg nog sorry mate not my taste, now a bottle of brandy that is a different story, it is better drinking on your own as there is no chance of arguing with anyone
Gentry, tough stuff, no doubt. Any one of the 3 types of pain you describe would be enough; you have all 3. Not good. But... as bad a chronic pain is, it really is better than chronic pain and habituation to narcotics. that my sound cruel, but the saddest people I see are the poor souls that have chronic pain and fall into the "care" of a pain specialist that progressively prescribes hydrocodone (BTW that's the narcotic in Vicodin), then oxycodone followed by Oxycontin (long acting oxycodone) or Dilaudid. That defines their lives. Forever. FOREVER. That is what they spend the rest of their lives searching for, more narcotics. Well meaning (or otherwise) MDs has caused more misery than all the herion pushers put together, especially with the advent of Oxycontin. I see these poor souls all the time. Regular people. Old and young. Pitiful. What's the solution? No easy answer, but good physical therapy, massage therapy, relaxation instruction, etc, but not narcotics!
I completely understand his motivation and have no problem with it. Ive known people with dependencies upon Oxy (a particularly addictive substance) and it isnt pretty. I wont bother with the "I wont get addicted" line. Ive taken vicodin before, its worked, and when the pain was gone, I didnt need the meds anymore. I dont have, never have had, and with luck, never will have any compulsion for any substance that I have sampled or taken regularly. Perhaps I am lucky that I have not yet become dependent upon something. I hope it stays that way. In the mean time, being unable to sleep and subsequently unable to function is a bigger problem for me now. I have a high tolerance for pain, but this is too much. I am not looking for narcotics as a solution. But I am unable to drive. The injuries are too fresh for physical therapy (and that wouldnt help with my sleep problem now anyway), and massage would just make the pain worse at this point. If he were to prescribe me 2 10mg tablets of vicodin, I would be asleep in 45 minutes and I could sleep the following night as well. I have xanex and lithium available to me, and it has been offered, but I declined. PS: Thanks for your concern. It is appreciated.
From my experience - The MOMENT a patient asks for pain relievers by name (Vicodin/percocett/"oxy- something"), your antenna goes up and you are NOT likely to give them anything, unless obvious abnormal physical findings are present... Folks get addicted VERY easily. You start with vicodin for a sprain, then take it for bad back pain, then you start taking it for colds (I am not kidding here). I know you don't believe it, but you doctor was doing you a favor. The goal is to take the EDGE off the pain, not to totally alleviate it. If you totally knock the pain out, you will overuse the injured limb, and make it worse. PS. We give vicodin to cover pain 2 days post-op. So if its good enough for an appy patient or knee replacement, its good enough for your pains... Given your limited complaints, I don't know any docs that would have given you anything stronger (at least initially).... Good luck!
Im aware of the risks of pain medications and opiates. The only reason I know them by name is because of my limited medical training for EMS, and the fact that Ive been around doctors my entire life. My limited complaints are keeping me from sleeping. At this point even a sleep aid would be welcome, even though I cant stand the after effects. I am now going on better than 50 hours of no sleep because the pain is keeping me awake. With luck I will just become so exhausted that I pass out and I can sleep for a few hours. The rant in general was an acknowledgment of why he is conservative and a statement that I understand why, but that right now, it is something that would be REALLY helpful to me. That is all. But come on doc, I know you got a prescription for some ankleligamentashouldneckorex back there.
Have you approached him about a sleep aid? I'm no doctor, but fifty+ hours of no sleep won't help the body heal.
When in the last five months of her life my mother was in pain from cancer, my surgeon father went crazy trying to keep her comfortable. We went through everything up there and a few more you did not list. In the last three weeks she started to decline the pain meds so as to "die in her right mind." I can even imagine what that felt like, but I saw the effect and my current view is if you ABSOLUTELY can bear the pain, suck it up!!!
Key word is cancer. As in terminal illness: pharmacy is open. Chronic non-malignant illness: Dr. "Strange in the love department" is right: suck it up.
I was given a small drum of Vicodin by my dentist, along with some ibuprofin. I took 2 ibu and skipped the Vicodin completely. I did try the Vicodin when I mortar-and-pesteled my right knuckles and it did numb the pain somewhat, but the sharp edge of pain was still there. I popped two ibu the next morning and the pain was nearly completely gone within the hour. Also, vico doesn't even alter my mental state; no high whatsoever. Also, ibu does one hell of a job dulling the **** feeling that comes with getting the flu. I wonder what I am missing with this vicodin crap.
Ibuprophen works great for tissue damage, just take a ton of them. Your Doc is doing you a favor, you can always as a last resort find a street dealer I hear Heroin does wonders for pain.
What you need are solutions to your problem, not something to mask or fool your bodies defense system. The real problem with pain killers beside the tax on the liver is that they allow you to continue with your day and do more than you should. Your body is trying to heal and it is telling you not to exert yourself. Taking pain killers for injuries is analagous to a fire raging and thefirman runs over and just turns off the alarm and ignores the fire. Well, we can't hear the alarm anymore. That must mean everything is ok, business as usual. I only recommend them if my patients need to sleep, because you can't heal if you dont sleep. Anti inflammatories are more useful because they are actually affecting the stucture that is injured in a positive way instead of just masking it. But there is growing evidence that this class of drugs impedes the healing of soft tissue whichkind of defeats the purpose. We have many forms of alternative and traditional healthcare in our office and their effectiveness for treating musculoskeletal injuries is as follows. Goo luck. This is based on the observation of years and thousands of patients interactions. 1. Physical Therapy/Chiropractic- a tie for first 2. Massage therapy 3. Accupuncture 4. injections-local corticosteroid 5. medication 6. nutrition
