MEDICATIONS

Hello

How many of us have now began to negotiate their pain medications, and are trusted in varying dose. and when they can take them, and control all there own treatments on a need it now situation

All the best

BOB.

[teadrinker]

Initially I was prescribed amitriptilyne and nortriptilyne and warned that I must NOT stop taking it or I'd be very ill indeed. Despite repeated pleas that neither drug was doing anything for the pain and was causing some alarming side-effects it was over a year before I was told to stop taking it, and I was then given a quick chat about how to do this and left to it. (For the record, I was fine)

Since then I've been prescribed a range of pain meds and for the most part told to get on with it, including tramadol. I was once given a sheet of instructions about how to increase my gabapentin to a therapeutic dose, but at an appointment with a specialist pharmacist he was quite shocked and said I should never have been increasing the dose at the rate I'd been advised to. Local pharmacists are often more helpful than the doctors prescribing the drugs if you want a bit of information.

Every medication I was put on always came with a suggestion from the prescriber that I'd get better on it. There was never instruction on how long to take something for before deciding if it had started working or wasn't working, and no advice on what to do if the side efffects were awful. This was what I would have liked, rather than the "take two of these and come back if it's no better" approach.

I was once told to cut my gabapentin right down, and at a follow up appointment it was, "Hm, you're not on a very high dose are you, who told you to do that?" And when I went back to the GP to get my prescription altered the trainnee rewrote my prescription becuase he thought he was being helpful but he was just making things more complicated but I felt like I was some sort of junkie trying to explain so I gave up trying.

Earlier this year I considered trying medication again but following a sensible discussion in the pain clinic I decided not to bother. I have also given up on prescribed migraine medication as none of them seem to do what they promise. The hassle of having to go back to the doctor for something else is time I don't wish to waste.

The only prescribed stuff I take now is the occasional codeine-based thing. I always have a little speech prepared about how I am not a drug addict, and the GPs always nod and say, "I've been reading your records, poor you. Have you tried something more suited to chronic pain?" There's a pause as they look at the screen and then they go, "Oh. You've had just about everything," and the magic green script comes flying out of the printer. I haven't had to go through that for months now.

[missrat]

I'm lucky in that, right from the start, I've been allowed to control my medication for pain and depression, and also to slowly reduce my steroids by 1mg every 1-2 weeks. I have a great GP (and consultants) and my distant nursing background and interest in pharmacology helps.

Ann