I took tramadol for many, many years with good results, but I had to go up to 100mg three times a day.....
but then I developed migraines that the neurologist said was secondary to the tramadol, so I stopped it all together.

I was taking 50mg/3x a day again for about 6months, but my pm doc stopped it because I am also taking NuCynta, and the combination might be causing some of the insomnia I'm having. The two together cause "hyper awareness". You learn something new every day!

See if your doc would let you try the higher dose of tramadol. But just watch out for those nasty side effects you might have not seen at 50mg.

Do you see a pain mgt. doc? He/she might have some better ideas to control your pain.
Best of luck!
Sandy

Please be very careful taking Tramadol. What many folks don't know about Tramadol is that it has an anti-depressant in it, so if you take high doses of it while taking additional anti-depressants and other psych meds you can get Seratonin Syndrome and Seratonin Storm which can be deadly. Tramadol also can cause Grand Mal Seizures when taken in large amounts. It's a very dangerous drug, it's very addicting and very hard to detox off of. I have Tramadol to think for the Seizure disorder that I now have and have met many people in my internet travels who have been caused much danger from Tramadol.

I'm not sure what kind of pain you have, but your taking short acting pain meds for a few years now, you might want to talk to your Dr. about switching to a low dose of a Long acting med. Long acting meds like morphine or oxy build up in your blood plasma level so that your not playing catch up with your pain all day when it peaks and lowers from the short acting meds peaking and wearing down.

Generally if you've had Chronic Pain for this long it's time to move into Pain Management if your not already there and work on a more stable plan for controlling your pain. Short acting meds like Tramadol, Hydrocodone, Vicodin, Percocet, etc. were just not made to effectively control Chronic Pain 24/7, they don't have the half life for it and you end up having to take unsafe amounts of them to keep your pain in check. Plus most of them are going to have APAP in them and with the safe daily max having been lowered to 2000mgs....it's hard to stay in that range and control the pain. And even 2000mgs of acetaminophen a day is not good.

I hope you can get a better plan worked out soon.

Kat

I don't have any advice, but I'm in the same boat as you. Tramadol definitely does take my pain level down, although it doesn't eliminate it, but not for nearly as long as I need. I also have convulsions of various body parts while on tramadol, but if I'm able to take a few days off, those seem to go away.

I do get better pain management from taking two, and have my doctors approval for this when necessary, but it makes the convulsions much worse, so it's not worth it. I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, because as much as I'd like something that worked better, tramadol is the only thing I've found that has left me in control of all my faculties and not feeling mentally out of it.

I love tramadol, for me it's a great antidepressant and I've tried them all. I don't find them addictive, maybe the body is addicted, but that happens with an drug.
I take 2 in the AM along with Tylenol or Ibprophen and it really works o much better and for a longer period of time.

Kat- I don't know where you live, but in the US you can't just walk into PM and say I need something stronger like Oxy, unless you want to be labeled a drug seeker! It seems tramadol is standard of care for many CP patients.

Forgot to add, I also take 2 tramadol in the PM

Iggy, I've been in PM for 26 years in 4 different states, i didn't suggest that anyone walk in and ask for a specific med. But you can, as a patient who has rights refuse to take a dangerous drug, and request a different treatment. Tramadol has not been on the market very long, it's pretty new and was thought to be the new "super drug" in chronic pain care, until people started dieing from Overdoses, Seratonin Syndrome/Storm and having Grand Mal Seizures because the max daily dosage was set 200mgs too high. In the last 2 years it has been lowered, Tramadol which is also called Ultram, is not prescribed nearly as much and Dr.'s who have paid attention to the research don't keep patients on it longterm at high dosages. It's used now more for acute pain, as opposed to chronic pain.

Megan: those "body convulsions" you have at higher dosages can be pre-cursors to seizures, its the drug and you brain battling over chemical control of your muscles. You might want to take that seriously and think about a new med.

I talk about Tramadol so passionately because I was one of the first users in the U.S., I was one of the ones put on a 600 mg a day dose, with my BiPolar meds, I had Seratonin Storm and laid in an ICU for 3 weeks damn near dead, had Grand Mal Seizures and now have a permanent Seizure Disorder to thank for it, and having been on over 20 different pain meds/med combos in my PM career, it was one of 2 that I've ever had to detox off of like a drug addict, not fun and not something I'd wish on my worst enemy. I don' t just spout this stuff to be a knowitall.....I don't want others to have to go through these hells, and some Dr.'s still don't treat Tramadol like the dangerous med it is. And I've met, many, many folks on support board PM, Chronic Pain and Addiction alike that have had hell detoxing and withdrawing from Tramadol.

Hope y'all have a painfree day!

Kat

Speaking from the point of view from someone recovering from serotonin syndrome........I think Katlyn40 is spot on. Educate yourselves, be your own best advocate. This ain't fun....

I find it very disturbing that drs are Rxing tramadol along with antidepressants and flexeril. I always tell them no, but so many people don't know about SS.
For me it just so happens to help with depression, so I don't bother with anything else.

4solace- what happened? Tramadol and what else?...,if you don't mind me asking.
I'm so sorry your going thru this

My story happened over time and therefore the meds were built up in my system. I am working on it little by little saving to my email until I have it done to post it here. Unfortunately my SS was not caught early in the mild stage, it was missed and therefore progressed for a long time.

As Kat, I D*@#$ near died. Still recovering. I hope to have my story out soon. To much right now, but I will get it out. So much that I just did not know, so much my doctor's did not know, or did not tell me.

Iggy: At the time I was RX'd Tramadol at 600mgs a day my BiPolar cocktail was Lithium 1200mgs, Zoloft 150mgs, Wellbutrin, Clonodine, 1mg, Klonopin 5mgs along with 10 other meds for pain control, cluster migraines, allergies, hrt, low blood pressure, vit. deficiencies and anemia.

and I forgot to say I am and always have been in the U.S. I've been in pain management in Texas, California, Virginia, and North Carolina where I've lived for the last 13 years.

4solace I'm glad we've become friends, I look forward to reading your whole story.

Peace and rest to you my friend.

Kat

I gave that to my dog for arthritic joints. I was cheap. So it was better for us all.