Hi ksbierman24! I can’t believe it has taken this long to respond to your… ok, so I’m not a techy person. I’m not sure what these responses are called. I know they aren’t called emails. Anyway, I’m very proud of you for continuing to pursue getting the answer to why you were having chest pain and for pushing yourself just a little bit to do your dishes. When you have Fibro, that’s like conquering a mountain! I just saw my third Rheumatologist. The first one told me, after my third appointment, that she really doesn’t know very much about fibromyalgia. Great! The second Rheumatologist wrote incorrect information about me in his notes stating that he talked to me about stopping taking narcotics and that I agreed to this. I don’t take any narcotics! I never have for fibromyalgia. I don’t have them in my house! I took two Tylenol #3 over a year ago when I had oral surgery. So two weeks ago I saw a third Rheumatologist. She seems ok. I see her again at the end of May. She increased my Gabapentin to 600mg three times a day. My iPad is acting funny. Thank you ago for your inspiration. Jean
I have had fibro for 40 years. you will find my "stories"on other threads. My pain is out of control and my GP wont help any more. my ortho wont help. I’ve been sent to my 3rd pain clinic Dr. in November 2018 and had to sign a contract like a convict for random UA’s blood, etc. to get 4 Norco per day. This next paragraph is copied from one of my threads and posted by administration “The key word being RECOMMENDED. Yes, guidelines and recommendations have been made and should be made, doctors don’t get enough instruction on pain management in the first place. This is all good. The problem is like with clinic you’re going to, the doctors and clinics are taking it to extremes, making up their own rules, and lying to patients telling them the recommendations and up-training are government laws when they are not.” That thread is closed. I live 20 miles from our capitol in Nebraska. Population is over 260,000 people there are SEVERAL pain clinics. There is no getting around this random UA’s and pain contracts. Regular GP’s are adding a pain doc to their staff, even MY GP who sent me somewhere else. This is NOT “good”. This is NOT helping patients, its a medical money scam for doctors and there is going to be a time that medicare and medicaid are NOT going to pay these monthly $150 bills. I have to have my blood pressure taken, no doc anymore, I see the PA who relays the conversation to Dr. Then a 20 mile drive home and wait for the fax to hit the pharmacy. I have a friend who has MS and was taken completely off Tramadol because she might get Addicted. She is in her mid-80’s and they are afraid three Tramadols a day will make her addicted. So what? its the ONLY thing that gives her relief. I made several calls earlier this week to various doctors and clinics, but all 5 gave me the same answer. If you are going to a pain doctor NOW, we will not take you. I, like most of you, have chronic pain 24/7 and my only choice is random checking on me until they decide I am addicted and take my only help away, or leaving the doc right now. I have tried every med under the sun, and Norco is the Only med that helps. Admins post mentioned that CBD oil is not illegal in my state. Well, the pain contract does not allow it, and yes, it will show up in my blood test, so law or not, i can’t use it. Yes, I am angry. I am frustrated. This is a wonderful site, but even administration seems to be against me in this. Drug use is still going on at a high rate on the street, by addicts in the gutter, by mob sellers and dealers, but regular people like us are taking the brunt of getting rid of narcotics. I do not sell, crush & snort, inject or take 3 at a time… i take one pill 4 times a day, 6 hours apart. I AM angry. I hurt.
I’m pretty angry also. I just signed my opioid contract day before yesterday. I filled out the questionnaire honestly. When doc came in she very sheepishly told me that my score put me in the “high risk” category. High risk for what?! I asked. Addiction and overdose.
Now, I have been taking the same 1 Tramadol a day for 3.5 years, with a second one maybe 2 days a week. I get a script for 120, 50mg pills about every 3.5 months. I have been seeing the doc for 6 years. She knows me. She knows I’m not an addict and don’t have an addictive bone in my body. That did not keep her from writing my a script for Narcan. NARCAN! I had to go to my local pharmacist, who now believes my dr thinks I need meds to save me from an overdose. In my town of 2000 people there is 0 chance that it will stay private. I feel very violated by this.
Zananne - in November, i started on Naltrexone, same deal, to remove the opioids from my body. I have not heard of narcan so looked it up. " Narcan is the brand name for a drug called naloxone that block the effects of an opioid. … Opioids like heroin bind to opioid receptors to relax you and essentially slow you down." What is going on here?? if you are taking one tramadol a day, that is similar to someone taking 2 ibuprofen a day – i don’t know how old you are, but the main idea behind this is for the government to get the people 55 and over off all narcotics, even if the pain kills us. Are you still allowed the tramadol and use the narcan as a backup. Or like me, are they tapering you off and taking away your pain relief. High risk Category sounds very stupid to me, no wonder you are frustrated. All I can do i sympathize and empathize with you. Please keep us posted. or send me a note. Carolyn
Carolyn,
I’m 48. Narcan is used by EMS and other first responders to bring someone out of acute overdose. It is mostly used for heroin addicts, I think. I am mortified that my pharmacist may now think of my as an addict. I work in the local school system and am afraid that the small town gossip will cost me my job.
Mostly I guess I feel sad and frustrated by the system whose intent is to help people who NEED help, but whose design and implementation is so poor that those people don’t get help and chronic pain patients are labeled high risk users.
Zan - That is TERRIBLE. that is given to you to get you OFF the tramadol. This is all part of fighting the Opioid Crisis. You and I and millions of folks with chronic pain are going to lose the one med that helps us. Believe me, the cartels will continue sending narcotics across the border, gangs will buy and sell, all the criminals and also college age kids who think its cool, will still get the meds. They are not used correctly, so some die from it. Did your doctor tell you that she wants you to stop taking tramadol or that she is not going to refill? Its not even safe to take those two meds at the same time. I did call my orthopedic who MRI showed that I have pain coming from my collapsed vertabrae and herniateed discs and even HE said “I can’t see you again. You have a pain doctor”. Please tell us, are you no longer able to get the Tramadol?
Carolyn, My doctor did refill my Tramadol. And she said she will continue to. She knows that I am not actually at risk of an overdose, but the law says if you score a certain # on the questionnaire, they have to write the prescription for the Narcan. The Narcan is not to take with tramadol, it’s only to be used in the case of an overdose. So the questions I answered honestly apparently gave the very wrong impression that I might take too much tramadol, overdose and that my family might need the Narcan to save my life.
Oh, this just makes me nuts!! I have read numerous articles that are talking about the over correction doctors have done in an effort to try to reduce the opioid crisis. The articles are saying that people in real pain are being denied medication and that was never the intent. This pendulum must swing back some the other way.
I, too, was forced to go to a pain clinic, fills out gobs of paperwork, complete multiple questionnaires, sign contacts, submit to peeing in a cup… all so I could get 7 Norco for a month! Then, it got increased to 15. No matter, I’m not finding opiates (at least not narco) helpful for fibro pain. Not opiates, or NSAIDs, or Tylenol, or gabapentin or lyrica! Fibro is evil!! I just quit lyrica without telling my pain dr first so will probably get kicked out of the program.