Doctors and Medication

On first attending my Doctor I was prescribed anti-inflammatories, Arcoxia (Etoricoxib) 90mg along with a stomach tablet as they can cause indigestion (which they did together with a lot of, how shall I say it... FARTING!) These did nothing for the pain.

Besides the tablets the doctor prescribed me, he found a hollow inbetween my shoulderblades that was not normal. This hollow puzzled him as he had seen nothing like it before. I was referred to my local hospital for an MRI scan of my back.

Six months later I was still waiting for the MRI scan appointment and then out of the blue I was involved in a car accident (not my fault, some numpty pulled out in front of me and I t-boned him). This of course did not help my pains at all.

I started to get shooting pains down my arms and pain around my ribs, particularly around the nipple area together with chest pain.

I finally received my MRI scan followed by an appointment with a consultant to explain the results. The scan showed (I am going to keep this simple and non-technical for us ordinary folk!) disc degeneration mainly in the thoracic and some lumbar areas. Two of my discs were bulging to the right, one of them was touching my spinal cord which was causing the shooting pains as it was touching the nerves. I was told that I had to give up the work that I was doing immediately or I would end up in a wheelchair. The consultant told me that they do not operate in the thoracic area as it is extremely high risk and not as easy as the lumbar area to operate on.  So finally I knew what was wrong with me.  Disc degeneration in the T4 T5 thoracic region. 

With this in mind I then decided to see what I could do to try and alleviate the pain in any way I could. I attended Chiropractors and Pysiotherapists many, many times but although I may have felt some extra flexibility, the pain still remained the same.

At the same time I had been prescribed Lyrica Pregabalin which are for nerve pain. These are supposed to block nerve signals, which they didn't. I was taking these along with the Arcoxia. What the Lyrica did do was space me out, it was as if I was on some drug induced high (which I never have been!). I had no concentration, always felt very sleepy and out of it. I couldn't drive because of the effect they had on me.

I was referred to a Pain Clinic in our local hospital. I was told that Lyrica and Arcoxia were not for me and I was moved onto Tramadol 100mg, two every night. These were even worse than Lyrica, although I slept really well, better than I had in a long time. Again, I was a total zombie until around noon the next day following taking the tablets the night before!

On a follow up appointment at the Pain Clinic I saw a different Consultant and he told me I shouldn't have been on Tramadol!! Surprise, surprise! He then told me about BuTrans (buprenorphine) 5mg patches. He told me to try these for a while.

Before I could use the BuTrans patches, I had to come off the Tramadol. I bit the bullet and instead of lowering the dose slowly, I went cold turkey and just stopped them altogether. Worst decision ever!!! I was like a cat on a hot tin roof when I went to bed. I just couldn't sleep. My muscles would go into spasm and I would be leaping about the bed (not in the way my wife would have liked!). I was hot all the time as well as being cold at the same time. It drove me mad. It also drove my wife mad.

This was one week of pure hell with no sleep. I would advise anyone coming off Tramadol to take it very slowly and decrease the dosage gradually. I wouldn't wish what I went through on my worst enemy!

I have been on BuTrans patches ever since, which is about five months now.

I have to say, so far so good! The patches were very easy to get used to and at least I didn't have to remember to take a tablet every so often, all I had to do was change the patch once a week. I am not a zombie any longer, my concentration is up and my pain has been slightly reduced.

I still have flare ups now and again and I am considering moving up to the 10mg patch. I have an appointment later this week with my doctor, so I will let you know what happens...

You are probably wondering why I don't just take more painkillers, but you must understand that I am not one for filling myself full of pills. I would rather feel some pain and know that I am maybe doing more than I should be, rather than mask the pain totally and be able to do heavy work again. I feel it is important to feel some of the pain some of the time.

UPDATE:

So, I increased my BuTrans patches to the 10mg ones to help with my flareup.  I have to say that this was a great idea.  I was in an awful lot of pain during this flareup and once I changed to the higher dose of patch, my pain level was back to being manageable.  I only used the 10mg patch for one week and then went down to my 5mg patch again. 

This has been very successful for me and I will definitely do this again, should the need arise.

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