Fibromyalgia pain medication?
i have a dr appt may 10. i had to go to the er cause the pain got so bad. the er dr asked what i was doing for my break through pain??? i didnt know how to respond. my dr has only given me vicodin 7.5 for PAIN. the vicodin only works on my regular pain, but when it gets really bad it doesnt touch it, is that what he means? anyway he also asked if i had tried pain patches, i have never heard of these. he suggested i make an appt with my reg dr and ask these questions.
1. am i being treated for chronic fatigue syndrome- he believes i have this and it is related to my fibro
2. getting something for breakthrough pain or being put on a pain patch.
3. what is my fibro treatment plan
do these sound like normal questions to ask my doctor? i dont want her to think i am just wanting more drugs, but i have been on the same pain meds for 3 years and they are not working. so i guess my quesiton is, how do i go about asking these questions without looking like a junkie, drug seeker? also, for those with fibro, are you on any pain patches, higher pain meds like the er dr mentioned to me? he mentioned that for paients like me where cymbalta, lyrica and other meds didnt work pain meds are really the only other then to help with "quality of life". please give me your experiences. I already get nervous every appointment that she will not want to continue my viccodin, and now he wants me to ask for something new..... not sure what to do, and very nervous to say a pain pill is not working, i mean i think she will think i am a crazy druggy
Public Comments
1. Breakthrough pain is pain that is felt even while taking medication for pain.If the pain is psychogenic, pain medications may not work.
In the case of fibromyalgia, the diagnostic criteria and pathology are so vague that it is impossible to know whether pain has a purely physiological origin or a psychological component.
The best pain relievers are opioids. Unfortunately, they also can produce psychological addiction in a minority of the population, and they have undesirable side effects such as dependence, tolerance, and problems like sedation and constipation. The tolerance aspect of opioids may require increasing doses over time to achieve the same therapeutic effects.
Doctors are in a difficult position with respect to potentially addictive pain medications such as opioids. They are the best pain relievers around, but their addictive potential is very high. Additionally, the only way to measure pain is by questioning the patient—there is no objective way to determine what level of pain the patient is experiencing. This means that a doctor never knows whether a patient is lying or telling the truth. Denying pain meds to someone who is truly in pain is unethical, but giving pain meds without hesitation to someone who may be lying to obtain them could be destructive to the patient or illegal.
Look carefully at your own situation. Make sure that you take those meds only when you actually feel pain. If you take them at any other time, for any other reason, you may have a developing addiction. If you take them exclusively for pain, and they aren't working, you'll need something stronger (but the risk of dependence, tolerance, and addiction may go up as well). It's something you'll have to work out with your doctor(s).
2. er docs usually don't have the skill to assess fms or cfids good..
the symptoms overlap..they could be variations of the same condition..
one thing I consider is that in FMS there is immune dysfunction...but the body does not attack it self...
if the body starts attacking itself--it has progressed to autoimmune and CFIDS sets in
its impossible to completely accurately diagnose if its one or the other or both..
in fact most people diagnosed with FMS don't even have that--most have something else...the people I know of really had a vitamin dficiency, autoimmune liver condition, lymes, depression, hypochondria, thryroid disorder..and one even faked it to get disability...
I most likely have both--but i can't be sure...the pain used to be worse, but now the fatigue is...the red flag for me is that I get fevers, soar throats and other flu like symptoms as the fatigue worsens...
you can have severe fatigue and still only have FMS, not CFIDS.
CFIDS is also a very imprecise diagnosis and some docs will just use it as a general label for fatigue just as docs use fms as a label for any pain.
for the most part, i got minimal relief from pain meds...i was in so much pain i fantasized about amputating my legs..but didn't take anything until I absolutely couldn't function...even then--it only took the edge off.
