Can't find a pain med, that is not addictive?

[sueduva]

Hi, I have chronic back pain from spondylolisthesis, L4,L5, S1
I've had rod and fusion surgery, 16 years ago.
6 years ago the chronic back pain was making me so depressed that my dr referred me to a chronic pain clinic.
I have been on every drug, and the only ones that touch the pain are morphine, fentanyl, tramadol etc.
I was on morphine for a number of years and couldn't handle living in a brain fog and spent this past june and july detoxing off of it.  I suffered all of August, taking tylenol 3 and medical marijuana. The marijuana really helps but I don't like feeling stoned, and it is really hard to dose.  In September I agreed to try tramadol, ultram 50mg 3 times a day, and gradually went to 100 mg 3 times a day and used marijuana as needed.  Well my body can't handle the tramadol, I start going into sweats a few hours before the next dose and I don't want to increase the drug.  I have just weaned myself to 2 50mg of tramadol a  day and think I am ready to stop taking it. I am not looking forward to the withdrawal, esp since last summer was spent being sick coming off the morphine.  Do you think I will have a lot of problems coming off the tramadol??  So now all I have is the marijuana, which means no travelling to other countries,
and I like to travel.  And I don't know if there are any other drugs I can try that wont make me dependent??
I can't take nsaids, since I lived on them for many years when I had my back fusion surgery, and now my stomach is ruined!  If you could give me any advice of how to live with this chronic pain and if there are any drugs that wont make me sick.  Thanks so much, Sue

[femmy29]

I have read your post hun and I will respond likely tomorrow morning.  Too sick right now.  So sick of these attacks!! grrrrrrr....  >:-\

Feel free to post any questions you have about MMJ or anything else and I will answer them when I am able.

femmy

[Not_again_mom]

I am so interested in what you have written here. I'm nervous about starting my own topic even tho my name isn't anywhere on this site. MMJ is illegal in my state and I asked my pm dr if he knew anything about it being used for my condition, Intracranial Hypertension aka Pseudotumor Cerebri. I've had 4 brain surgeieries in just about 1 year, I had surgery on my optic nerves to save my vision. I basically have to much csf fluid that normally surrounds the brain and supports it and the spinal cord. Since there is constantly too much, it's like someone with a head injury. Too much pressure inside my head on my brain and on my eyes and on my ears. I've taken so many meds and built up tolerance to them, I've worn a Fentanyl patch. My distant family members freaked out, my husband and I believe, after my sister talked to me several times after I took my Ambien. I had Zero memory of our conversations. She felt like I was strung out bc I wouldn't remember them or I'd fall sleep while I was talking. I took Ambien and I was in therapy every day for depression! At a hospital every night and no one noticed that I was strung out? I took my kids to school and volunteered as room mom, I was in and out of drs offices, etc and my family was one thousand miles away. At any rate, I decided to stop taking any oral pain meds and went into the hospital to go cold turkey off the fentanyl bc I was afraid that I was going to die. A separate dr from my regular drs told me that my prescribed meds, and the pain relieving procedures I had undergone were basically crazy and life threatening. I was scared to death and agreed to go into a hospital because he promised once I got the pain meds out of my system, my pain would get better. It didn't. My surgeries came in the years following the "detox". My family came to my home from literally around the world and cared for my children and cleaned my house. Cleaned my house! And now I'm a mess again. I'm in soooo much pain and I am taking pain medicine again and nothing is helping. My dr has suggested a neuro stimulator or a drug pump implant. I don't believe either of these will work. I have a very high tolerance to pain meds and I can't imagine how strong of a dose they'd have to give me to get any relief. I know people with my condition with a stim that has malfunctioned and can't get it removed. I've had the outside muscle stimulators malfunction and I can't even imagine having one inside my body. My sister said if she ever even suspected I was taking pain meds again she would call CPS.  She has no idea what my life is like. I don't know what to do. I thought I might be having WD symptoms from trying to stop taking pain meds bc they don't work. I don't crave them. I just want relief where none exists. Why isn't there any non addictive pain medicine with all the advancements out there?! I'm not afraid of MMJ. I assume I know what that is. But my dr won't even discuss it and says that if I ever test positive for it he will have to dismiss me. I've heard of people having success in other states with my condition. I just don't know where to turn without losing my drs or what little help I do have now.  I'll try to watch this for any feedback. Sorry I'm jumping on your post. I'm just nervous about posting my own.

[femmy29]

Hi Sue,

I think that all opioid medications come with dependancy.  Some come with dependancy worse than others.  Have you tried other non-opioid medications like gabapentin or lyrica? Valium? Flexeril? Soma? Any anti-depressants?  Adding these together can add up to more pain relief than tried separately one at a time.  There is also lidocaine ointment and the patches (lidoderm).  The lidocaine ointment requires tegaderm to sustain its effectiveness.  Otherwise, it wears off in a couple of hours when rubbed directly on the skin.

I had a gall bladder attack Thursday and projectile vomited up all my liquids (too sick to eat anything) and my morphine pill came up and went down the sink.  I was too sick to even try to ingest more pain medication just to have it come back up so while I was waiting for the nausea symptoms to subside and I went into HORRIBLE withdrawals, just like what you described in your post.  I have never experienced that before.  The Tramadol withdrawal I suffered a year ago was NOTHING compared to the withdrawal from the morphine.  My legs were so stiff and achy and irritated, I could do nothing to get them or me as a whole, comfortable.  I had trouble walking my legs were so stiff!  I was finally able to take my meds in the evening and amazingly all that went away!!  So I know what you are talking about.  I have been cleared for surgery to get my gall bladder taken out but I am still struggling to get it scheduled for this month.

I have a MMJ license as well.  And you are right that it does help!  I have found that it helps even more when taken in conjunction with opioids.  I have gotten clearance from a board certified MMJ doctor to mix the two types of medicines.  The dispensary that I go to has MMJ in pill form and as small chews with equivalent potency to edibles or smoking or vaporizing but are easy to pack for discrete travelling.  

I wish I had more options to provide to you.  There are a lot of clinical trials going on for new opioid medications slated for release in 2013.  You could also try a google search on "opioid medications without dependancy" to see what pops up.

femmy