Ketorolac

[Sarsi]

Hi

I ended up in the ED again the other night. They gave me Ketorolac for my pain and it worked like a charm! Thank God....

But my question is.....I've had this a few times before and it has only worked as effectively as this once before....is there any reason that it would work some times and not others?????

Thanks Sarah

[Sarsi]

I would like to think everything will settle down.....but I somehow don't think so! It has been nearly 2 years! Im pretty much at my witts end.....and don't know what to do....I hate taking painkillers so often.....and hate ending up in hospital more!!!!

I have done so much research, and talked to lots of people, and there seems to be a lot of answers or cures for this kind of pain/problem......so I keep praying that I'll be one of the lucky ones.

I hope that you're feeling better :)

[agood43]

I had alot of issues after gallbladder surgery and was given ERCP.Take doctors advice dont do iy unless absolutely necessary I had pancreatitis and bowel infection following procedure and was extremely ill because of it do research on ERCP it is very common for complications to follow.I talked to other people who had gallbladder surgery too and they experienced some of the same problems.Sometimes you can have spasms for a while after the surgey.It took about 2 years before they stopped for me.I found that sometimes diet triggered these episodes,greasy or spicy foods and dairy, fatty meats etc. good luck

[jillbee7]

That actually sounds pretty reasonable I think... it makes sense that the ketorolac would help your non-nerve pain but wouldn't touch the nerve pain. Good luck with the surgeon in May! I hope they have some suggestions and maybe do the surgery to see if they can find anything. That would be great if you could get rid of one of the causes! Keep me posted!

[Sarsi]

Hiya!

I am now thinking that perhaps it works sometimes and not others is that I actually have more than one cause of pain. Both are in the same sort of area (epigastric and ruq)

I spoke to my gp this morning about that possibility....and she said I'd be pretty unlucky if it was the case - but it could be possible.

I am thinking that this is right though.....I think that perhaps scar tissue and/or trapped nerves causes my abdominal wall pain and inflammation, but I also get deep RUQ pain where my gallbladder used to be that is unexplained - it has been suggested that SOD could be this cause - and my gastro specialist basically said that none of the tests showed this at the time, but it could be possible.....and flatly refused to do an ERCP because of the risk of pancreatitis.

So I really don't know what to do - but I have a referral to go and talk to a general surgeon at my hospital in May.....and may organise a laproscopic exploratory surgery to see if any scar tissue or anything else is visible.......

Fingers crossed I can at least minimise one cause of my upper abdominal pain!

[el_em_en_oh]

Not sure if I'm too late to chime in, but I'm going to anyway...

I'd avoid taking Toradol (Ketorolac) long term. I've been getting it in the ER (IV administration) for kidney-stone pain, and it works moderately well.

HOWEVER, it's HE11 on the kidney's, and my doctors won't give me any more than 2 shots in a given 2-3 week period as it reduces kidney-function if taken long term (permanently I might add).

Just my 2 cents.

(I'm not a doctor, but I have a lot of experience in managing kidney-stone pain with both narcotic & non-narcotic pain-killers).

Take care.

LMNO

[Sarsi]

That's ok hun

thankyou for caring enough to answer my question at all!

God Bless xxx

[jillbee7]

Yeah, I'd want to know what was actually wrong if it was me too. That's got to be so frustrating hey? Hang in there. :( Sorry I wasn't more help.

Jill

[Sarsi]

funny you mention Gabapentin......that is the pain managements next suggestion if these injections don't work.

Im happy to take it if it's effective, but still would prefer to know what it is that's actually causing the pain of course.

I am also waiting to speak to the surgeons again to go in laparoscopically to see if they can see any scarring/adhesions or anything in the connective tissues.....other than that, there's nothing else that anyone has suggested.......sigh

[Sarsi]

Thanks for your reply. It was very helpful

I have been suffering upper abdominal pain after a gallbladder removal laparoscopically in Dec 09.
All tests have come back clear (ct, mri, endescope etc....)

I am in pain every day.....and now and then I get a flare-up where it is unbearable. (I take panadeine forte and tramadol every day normally, and endone when it gets really really bad) I go to the ED when none of these help.

I have been to the pain management unit and they are trialling local anaesthetic injections around the scar (which is keloid) at the epigastric site as they think I may have a trapped nerve or even a neuroma....but to date this hasn't been very succesful.
Or another thought is that I may have internal scarring/adhesions causing the pain......

Sometimes I do get inflammation and my abdominal wall muscle gets very tender to the touch.

I know, Im an enigma to medical science....and nobody really knows how to help me.....but I'm sick of band-aid treatments and would REALLY like to find the root of the problem and how to treat it.

Sarah

[jillbee7]

Hi,

What were you in the ED for? What kind of pain were you having? Depending on the severity of the pain and the quality of it, ketorolac might or might not help. Ketorolac is an NSAID, which means that it's in the same category of drug as ibuprofen, but it's much stronger. These types of drugs are especially useful if there's any swelling going on.

If you're in severe, severe pain, ketorolac might not be enough. It's also important to remember that you should only take it for 5 days at a time (max!) because it's very strong and irritating to the stomach.

Hope that helped!

Jill
Pharmacy student