Fibromyalgia Support Group

I didn't have success on this, just floating dreams. I hope it works for you though.

I take 50mg 4 times a day. I love it. It knocks back the pain nicely. BUT dont be late on a pill. My pain returns like clockwork. Now it doesnt help with the flares since I cant take extra, or Id run out.

Thanks for the reply's!


Dragonfly..... did the doctor start you off at a full 4 pills a day? Any side affects that you have noticed?

back in the day when I started the pill it was 1-3 times daily as needed for pain. of cource that was over 12 years ago.

Now I take it as I need it. At the first sign of the type of pain I know it works for I take it. Hard to really explain. See I had to grow this relationship with the drug to make it work right for me.

I am hesitant the way your doc wants you to take it. Let me explain why. Having taken this drug for so long I understands how it works for me. I also know that once my body becomes reliant on it the break through pain can be painful to say the least. Also if I try to stay to a schedule and my pain disagrees with the schedule then the med doesnt work right...

example. I wake at 3 am cause I hurt. Its past the point of help so I take my tramadol and go crawl in the bath. This relaxe my muscels enough and calms the nerves enough that the med startes to work. Lets say that about 5 hours later the pain starts to break through. If I was to push it to the 6 hour mark like the script says it would again be unaffective and I would be back in the bath. Now lets say I take that dose at the 5 hour mark... and 6 hours later when my next dose is 'due' I dont have any sign of the pain yet... well to avoid pain I could take it again. But then my body gets use to a schedule and will start demanding the med. So I wait... I wait until my body is starting to hurt. Then I take it.. it maybe 7 hours or 9 or not at all the rest of the day. I didnt have to put that drug in my body just cause the clock said so. Sometimes I go a month or more with out needing the tramadol and other times I need it A LOT more then the ideal amount. I do take vicoden as well for pain so I am not med free, but I try to listen to my body and pay attentiuon to what it actually needs not just what the lable says.

For a while I tried to take it like clock work. I put it in my med minder along with my other meds. I found I as taking it a lot more then I probally needed to AND I didnt have it when I really needed it.

He maybe wanting to get your body slowly ue to it. When I take it and I havent taken it in a long time it does give me a sort of weird feeling. not many drugs give me that loopy feeling but tramadol can if its been a while.

You definantly have to learn HOW to take it to be most effective. The other problem I have with taking tramadol on a clock schedule is that tolerance to the med grows a lot faster imo. the more tolerance you get the more you end up needing. So over time you end up needing more and more jsut to stay off the pain.

When I take my vicoden and my ultram (tramadol) I take it to ease the pain enough to survive. I cant rememb er the last time I was truely pain free. Does such a thing even exsist?

I dont know that the way I take my meds is the most benificial. BUt I do know that I have my monthly amount and I never seem to truely run out much. Sure I maybe a day or 2 off from the refill date bt then other months I refill my meds and still have a bunch. SO in the end I think it all works out. and I must be doing something right.

GL....

ps. If you are finding that it doesnt seem to STOP the pain try taking a hot bath when you take the med. Hopefully by the time the bath is done yourmeds will ahve kicked in. I find it eases my stress and nerves and relaxes me enough to allow the med to work...

bugbite.

thank you much that reply! You have me doing some extra thinking about the scheduled med times. Again, THANK YOU!!!

Hi,
This is exactly the same way my doctor started me on Tramadol. He said it's because starting with a full dose right off the bat gives many people unbearable side effects like nausea, dizziness, etc. and make them give up the drug before seeing if it will work for them. Building up slowly, in theory at least, the body has a chance to adjust gradually and the side effects are minimized. I know a couple of people who did the full dose immediately and were sorry they did. Also Tramadol has been known to cause seizures in some people so maybe the doctor thinks it will be safer to see how you respond to it. I don't tolerate meds well at all and always have to start with a tiny dose so this was the best way for me. Good luck and I hope you have good results with it.

also cw, he probably wants to start you out small in case you have an allergic reaction.

Thank you all for your reply's!! As I am sure all of you can relate, I just want to get rid of the pain!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ok, I am back with another question....

Why did the doctor give me the Tramadol? What is it suppose to do for me?

If it is for pain, why do some of you take it with vicoden?

Tramadol is to help your pain. A lot of doctors don't like to prescribe Vicodin as they think it is too addictive, however I was warned by my dr. that tramadol has the potential for addiction too and that sometimes a person will find that they have to take more and more of it to get the same pain relieving effects. My dr. told me that ideally I should only take it when I'm in pain but since that's most every day, I take it most every day. There is a lot of information by other people about their experiences (and the addiction potential) at www.askapatient.com. Hope you can soon be out of pain :-)