Pain Management Clinic

[Hangin' Tough]

Hello all,
It has been awhile since I posted, but I have had an opportunity to read your posts. I will apologize up, sorry, this will be a long post, but I hope will be helpful maybe give some a glimmer of hope.
I was diagnosed in May '03. I have had numerous cystoscopies for diagnosic purposes. I am going to schedule my first hydrodistension in May sometime. I have been seeing a Pain Management doctor since about September or October of last year. He has been trying to find something that will control my pain yet still allow me to work. Between the pain and frequency, work has become something of a challenge. Even with 30 mg of Ditropan XL I still urinate about every 30 to 45 minutes. If the hydro doesn't work, the Pain Doc is going to try me on Neurontin and Methodone.
At my last appointment on Thursday, we had a long discussion about pain medication. I broached the subject of addiction, since some in my family have reservations about my use of narcotics daily. I explained that some days I did not take my medication at all despite being in pain. He stated that that was just idiotic. If you are in pain, being followed closely by a pain management Dr. and followed his instructions explicitly, 99 times out of 100 there would never be a problem. In that 1 in 100, it can be dealt with. But the bottom line was, all of those people who are concerned about your possible addiction 1) are not doctors 2) do not feel the consequences when you forgo taking your medication to prove to them you are not addicted. So.....there are execellent doctors out there, you just have to keep looking. My prognosis has not improved but my outlook has. I know that I have a Pain Doc, a urologist and wife and daughter that are all going to hang in there with me no matter what, and that is a big deal. If anyone is in the San Antonio area, I would be glad to share the Docs information with you. They are not IC specialist, but they are familiar and are not afraid to learn if necessary. Hope all of you have a bright road with few bumps. God bless.

Tough

[Katrina]

You got some great advise on how to deal with pain...you have some great docs!!!

I am happy that you are getting help and have a plan on what to try next...sounds good.

I hope things go well for you...remember we are here for you.

:kiss: Best Wishes

[Morgan Stone]

Im very happy you have a good pain doctor. so many people are suffereing because they dont. I am very fortunate too that I finally found a really good one.

I wanted to ask a question or two if you don't mind. Is methadone the only thing the doctor wants to give you for pain? Have you talked about the Fentanyl Patch? What about oxycontin or morphine?

The Patch is one of the best pain treatments out there and it works for 72 hours, delivering the same amount of meds the whole time, no down time between pills, etc and several women on the boards are singing it praises. I tried it first and it was wonderful but I had an allergic reaction to the material it was made of and had to switch to something else.

Which leads to oxycontin, which is what I take. I take 30 mgs twice a day and it seems to work well.. although it does wear off after about 8 hours but I will get that adjusted at next appt. I, too, was worried about getting addicted and my pain doctor and psycologist both explained to me that a Chronic Pain Patient is less likely to get addicted anyways... which cleared up my worries.

About the Methadone, I wanted to share a few things with you. My boyfriend took it for back pain and while he said it worked pretty good for pain, it does have lots of side effects that you may want to consider.. he had bad nightmares, and was grumpy all the time, extrmemly drowsy, along with other things like constipation, etc. and he felt the side effects out-weighed the goodness of the methadone. . Same as with the morphine, it made him grumpy and agitated all the time. I also had another friend who took methadone for pain and experienced more or less the same thing so please consider this before you take it. I know you didnt ask for advice, lol, but I cant help myself.. I just wanted to bring this to your attention in case you didnt know alot about methadone.

I also tried the neurontin but it gave me migraines. There are lots of women on here that use it with great success tho. Good Luck with it :)

My hydrodistention did help with my frequency for about a month but Im back to going about 15-20 times a day... it did cause me to flare right afterwards too. I wish you luck with yours and whatever pain meds you decide to try. Please keep us posted.

[Hangin' Tough]

Since this post I have returned to the pain doc and we are continuing with the current reginmen, which is Baclofen (muscle relaxant) Percocet 5/500 (increased from 3 to 4 per day) ditropan XL 10mg. He only talked about the Methodone and Neurontin as a cheaper way to approach pain control. May go to it yet, but not now.
My hydro did nothing for my pain, maybe made it worse, my frequency has definitely gone down which is great. Maybe we will beat this one symptom at a time. It is now 10:30 am and I have only gone to the restroom 2 times since arriving at work at 8:00. That is super for me.

Steve