Hey Folks, I haven't contributed in awhile, but this topic is important to me. I was one of the few souls lucky enough to find an answer to my pain long after the doctors had written it off. I have 1% of the pain I used to have, and most of that was from NOT having the cause treated 12 years before!!

Pain and the damage it does to your body vary, there are lots of different kinds of pain. The medical system never seem to recognize how much duration and enduring pain over time affect a patient. And they are in the business of treating symptoms, often not really looking for the cause - when it doesn't show on an x-ray.

I was in pain 12 years, on opioids (vicondin, oxycontin, morphine) a total of 9 of those years. The first 3 years i slept barely 2 hours a night, struggling between short bursts of sleep to seek comfort, and, became more exhausted over time. The 9 years on pain meds were merciful becuase being unable to sleep to that degree is just an exhausting way to live.
After all those years, i was cut off and had to undergo withdrawal over 2 hellish months.

Getting off long term meds is hard. Sleeping was worse, now it was 2 hours every 3rd night. That was when I found the procedure that cured me in 3 days. thats all on my profile.

I took my meds as prescribed for all those years. At first, it was hard to get credibility for the need. When I finally did get meds, It was far better than living that way without, but they do take a toll as I've found now over 2 1/2 years since i took my last dose.

Sorry so long, this is hard to tell, i digress. I think slower in some ways, there were brain effects as my injury was head and neck, and there are still lingering effects. Some I think could be from the meds, though over the last 2 1/2 years that's mostly waned.

One last point. I do support your taking whatever pain meds you need to support quality of life, and not just a struggling quality of life, but as active as possible. (my meds were too low for most of that time leaving plenty of pain to struggle with)

I can tell you from experience, that I was NEVER addicted. I took pain meds for pain. The pain 'soaked up' the meds and I only got buzzed when starting a new regiment for a day to two. When i was finally off the meds AND my source of pain was resolved a month later. I had no further desire for pain meds of any kind. My remaining pain is just a discomfort. I am here every day though, for chronic pain is an experience that only you guys know about.

Please keep an open mind and take a second look for things to treat your pain at the source. New stuff comes along often.

Gabi, I am so glad you have got your pain treated!!!! You are right, the DEA makes our lives, as pain patients unlivable. These "Just Say No" nut cases are worse than religious fanatics, wanting everyone to live life as they do, without knowing HOW much we are in pain, nor caring.

As for the poster who told you: " Your appetite is not going to come back and your bowels will have trouble moving. These drugs also can increase the amount of pain you feel over time- making you hypersensitive to pain." BULLSHIT!!!!

I have been on pain meds for over 10 years. When I start a new med (like I did at the beginning of this year) I also lose my appetite, become MILDLY constipated, but within a few weeks, the pain subsides again, and the side effects go away. I have my appetite back within less than a month, and my bowels are ALWAYS fine in a week or two. I am NOT "hypersensitive" to pain, and take NO Over the Counter pain meds for daily "aches and pains" nor do I feel MORE pain because of the meds I HAVE TO TAKE. I take my meds as you do, because they keep me alive.

Blessings to you. I am glad you found Peace and something for your pain and a doctor you can trust. I thank God for my doctor, my nurse and my good, understanding pharmacist daily. I know I most likely wouldn't be here if my pain was not treated in the way it is. (Meaning Opiates. As someone else said Opiates DO NOT damage organs, (as NSAIDS and even Tylenol do) but UNTREATED CHRONIC PAIN DOES damage everything in our lives.

I am so glad you are getting good treatment. Just Say No to the "Just Say No" nuts.

Hugs,
P'Gell

Pam your so welcome!
That article as I said changed my life!
and while I do agree that pain medications can have and do cause some problems the point still remains that frying your internal organs by not taking pain meds to control it can and is often much more damaging than the pain medicatons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also there are pain medications that do less damage than others.....for instance I now use fentanyl patches which get into my system via blood stream and not directly through my tummy etc.....

at least Iam trying to use meds that in the long term are not "AS" harshly damaging as say something with tons of tylenol in it!

The pharmacist actually told me that tylenol is one of the harshest things on the physical body and very hard on the liver!!!!!!!

So I also changed my oral medication from regualr vicodin to vicoprofen which has motrin in it and no tylenol

Iam no expert and Iam not claiming to be :) but you can and should ask a pharmacist which medications will be less harmful for the long haul and then try to get your dr to prescribe accordingly!:)

After learning just how damaging NOT controlling my pain is on my body I choose to use adequate pain medication and control it the best I can....my blood pressure has even gone to normal now that I have a pain medication regimine that helps so much more ( MOST DAYS but not always)

However everyone is different thats what makes the world go round for whatever it is worth Iam happy the site I posted was able to help you :) :) :)

JBfromCA,
Is there published research I can look at about the trigger points and IC? Thank you for the info; I'll look into it.
I came across a term- intractable pain. Is that us on this site or are we chronic pain? Do people with intractable pain have a decreased life span?
Can't sleep in Brooklyn,
Gloria

Reply to Gabitol - yes there are a number of published references. There is a website called Pubmed where you can search all the medical and scientific journals: You can find it at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
Just put in what you want to search for and it will give you a list of articles, which you can click on to get an abstract and where to get the article (if available). some are & but many are free. Here are links to a couple:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/nhdawr7wjchlgp28/
http://www.jurology.com/article/S0022-5347(05)65539-5/abstract
You should be able to access the full article by clicking on the "pdf" or "full text pdf" option.
[This is a great resource for anyone wanting to keep up on the research on their disease]

Intractable means "Difficult to manage or govern" so I think that would include any moderate to severe chronic pain. Catastrophic intractable pain is "severe, uninterrupted stress state that results in intermittent hypertension, tachycardia, alterations of pituitary and adrenal hormones, depression, fatigue, and a bed-bound state." I would think the more your pain is not controlled, the more damaging it is to your body. . .

JBfromCA,
I recognize those links from my grad school days. I was so close to finishing- just 3 more classes! But I failed biostatistics.
How do if you have the Adrenal syndrome? I wish there was some test that could tell you how much damage was done to the body.
What is your chronic pain, if you don't mind me asking?
-Gloria

Thank God for your Doctor. It takes a wise one to step up and tell the truth and give yooou the help yoooou have needed for so long. So many Doc are hiding behind the door because they are afraid to give you medicine.

I live with constant, chronic pain, caused by spondylolisthesis.

The condition was diagnosed twelve years ago, but it's only in the last eighteen months that it has deteriorated to the point at which I can't walk more than a hundred yards because of the pain.
For anything further, I rely on a wheelchair.

I have a brilliant GP, ewho's done his very best to find me a drug that will bring me some relief.

Nothing has any effect for very long, though.

I'm currrently taking 600mg of Gabapentin every day, in conjunction with three doses of Co-codamol 30/500mg.
Sometimes it helps, but, mostly, it doesn't.

I get very little sleep because it's so difficult to get into a position in bed that doesn't hurt.

I can't keep up with the housework because there are days when it's all I can do to drag myself out of bed!

It's really depressing at times, but I've had to accept that this is the rest of my life......