no pain meds working- WHY??

I'm 19, and I have Aspergers, I also have all 4 wisdom teeth coming in at once.

One of my wisdom teeth is coming up the slightest bit crooked, not enough to effect it once it's fully erupted, but just enough to irritate the gum and cause it to swell and thus cause me to be in a rather lot of pain

I also have random other pain, sometimes my ankle, sometimes my hip, sometimes my elbow(slipped in the kitchen one time and bashed it really hard into the fridge) to name a few.
I also have a pinky finger that one day just decided it wouldn't straighten anymore(unless I use my other hand or something to straiten it) and it often hurts along with some other fingers. and sometimes I get headaches.

now the reason I told you all, all of this, is because I've tried all of the over the counter pain medications, NONE of them have worked, may as well be taking sugar pills

right now I'm in a heck of a lot of pain for my dang wisdom tooth, I've tried all the over the counters, and lidocane, and Tylonal 3. My dentist even prescribed me Vicodin, which also doesn't do ANYTHING.

not a single thing I listed about does anything, not even the slightest amount of pain reduction.

Now my question is why, why doesn't anything work for me?

I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, and I rarely ever take medication**(because they've never worked) I've only recently been trying different ones because I'm in so much pain



**(Except for what's been recently prescribed- my doctor put me on wellbutrin to try and manage my depression, though it's only been a week and a half so it's too early to tell if it's working or not, we tried Celexa but that didn't do anything)

[femmy29]

Hi and welcome to the pain management community.

You have a condition that is easily fixable by just getting your wisdom teeth extracted.  I had mines extracted before they started causing me pain.

Have you scheduled oral surgery yet?

femmy

[Trinket_]

it's not that simple, I'm not good around needles and terrified about one being in my mouth. I would have to be restrained to be knocked out, because that's the only way a needle is ever going near my mouth

once the tooth comes up fully(it's halfway there) there will be no problems


and what I'm mainly asking, is why no pain medications have worked for me? no matter the pain or where it's located, meds never work.

[femmy29]

Getting your wisdom teeth extracted does not hurt as they put you under mild general anesthesia.  It is the post-op pain that hurts the most but only for about a week.

Long term use of pain medication to manage a easily fixable condition is not recommended as a tolerance builds to the medication and you will need more and more to control the pain.  Vicodin alone will typically not rid you of the oral pain as a lot of it is also caused by inflammation, in which case, adding an OTC anti-inflammatory can help.  

Also it is important to note that medications like Vicodin only dull the pain...not take it completely away.  Your search for complete pain relief will come up empty.  That is why if the pain is easily fixable, you should get it fixed.  You are way too young to start long term narcotics especially for wisdom teeth pain.  Long term narcotics are more appropriately used for chronic pain that has no cure or the solution involves many risks...and also for short term post surgical pain.

femmy

[Trinket_]

Forget the tooth, I'm mainly talking about in general, why nothing does anything for me? no matter if I have a headache, or my ankle hurts or if my fingers are causing me pain, nothing does anything.

[femmy29]

I don't know what you are talking about when you say, "nothing works for you".  It sounds to me you have only tried Vicodin as far as opioid pain relievers go.  

How long have you been taking the Vicodin and what is your current daily dose?  Depending on the duration in which you have been taking the Vicodin, you may have become tolerant to it, which means it won't work well for your pain anymore unless you taper off for a period of time and then restart it or begin a stronger opioid medication such as Oxycodone.  Vicodin is low on the opioid strength table...it isn't much stronger than Codeine.  

As far as OTC meds go...they don't work for the majority of folks out there over the long term so you are alone.

There are many different opioid medications out there and most patients require a trial period where different meds are tried as not everyone's pain responds well to Vicodin.  Everyone is different and because of that, Vicodin doesn't work for everyone.

femmy

[Trinket_]

I've tried all the over the counter stuff, and tylonal 3, my dentist just prescribed Vicodin Friday, I took 2 that day, and I've taken 3 today(1 every 6 hours) hoping that maybe it just needs to "build up" in my system, but no such luck. and I don't really know the dose, bottle say's 5-500 tablet, is that the dose??

and what I'm saying about OTC, at least one of them should work for something right? but none of them do(with the exception of NyQuil which puts me to sleep if I'm really sick, it doesn't do anything besides that)

I shouldn't need a prescription to help with pain is what I'm saying(not that ether of the prescriptions I've tried have helped in any way with anything)

if I have a headache I should just be able to take a OTC, but it doesn't work that way

[femmy29]

If the Vicodin bottle says 5-500 that means it contains 5 mg of hydrocodone (the opioid) and 500 mg of acetaminophen (tylenol) per tablet. Taking more than two at a time will be an overdose of tylenol, in which repeated overdoses can cause liver damage and possibly liver failure.  So the max safe pharmaceutical dose from the manufacturer is two tablets every 4 hours not to exceed 8 tablets in 24 hours.

I forgot to respond to your concerns about your anti-depressant.  Anti-depressants take a LONG time to really start working.  You may feel the depression lifting slightly after 6 weeks but people notice improvement after 6 months, a year, and even after 2 years improvement has even been reported.  Additionally, many people require a trial of anti-depressants (just like a trial of opioids is needed) to find the medicine that works best for them as everyone is different.  So with anti-depressants, you're just going to have to be patient and let it work over 6-8 weeks, assess how you feel, and determine if it is an effective anti-depressant for you.  If it is not, then you will need to try something different.  There are also medications that are add-ons to anti-depressants to increase the effectiveness such as Abilify.

If you have migraine type headaches, OTC meds rarely help.  Most people require triptans which are only available by prescription like Maxalt or Imitrex.  And in the most severe cases, many require opioids to manage their migraines.

Repeat dosing of Vicodin probably isn't helping because it is a short acting medication meaning its duration of action is 4-6 hours so taking it on schedule isn't causing it to build up much in your system.

I am sorry nothing is working for you.  You should definitely speak with your doctors and voice your concerns to them.  There are many possible reasons for the ineffectiveness of the medications: the type of medication could possibly not be strong enough meaning you need a stronger dose and/or more doses of the medication throughout the day; also the medication just may not be a right fit for you and you need to try something different.

I have personally found OTC Aleve to be very helpful for my headaches and pain caused by inflammation.  I take two in the morning and 1 or 2 about 8-12 hours later if needed.

femmy

[Totie]

For me taking anything does not help for any type of pain. I just figure I have a fast metabolism & body burns it off quickly.

I take 20mg for sleep & can only manage to stay asleep for 3-4hrs straight.

Some people are just that way. However, I burn food fast as well so NOT just medication.

Have you had your liver tested ?

[femmy29]

Hi Totie,

I honestly don't believe you have tried enough variants of medications in the categories that you are struggling with to truly say that no medication works for you.  Doctors are also extremely cautious with patients around your age, no matter how much you tell them something doesn't work, they are reluctant to increase the dose and if they do, it is only by a small amount...not enough for you to notice a significant difference.  You may need to change doctors until you find one that is willing to begin a trial of medicines with reasonable dosages so that you can truly find what works for you.

I have had 2-3 liver enzyme panel tests since I began taking opioids for chronic pain almost 7 years ago.  2 out of the 3 were completely normal and the 3rd one showed an ALT score 6 points higher than the upper limit.  My doctor at the time told me not to worry about it and that it was no big deal.  I didn't take his word for it and got additional testing done and found out that it was gallstones causing my liver problems and ended up having laparoscopic surgery 7 months ago to get my gallbladder removed.

Tylenol is noctorious for raising ALT liver enzymes, which is a precurser to liver problems down the road so even though the score wasn't off the map, I still wanted to make sure that all was OK with my liver.  I am completely off of the opioid/tylenol combo products like Vicodin and Percocet.  I have taken both for pain in the past.  I now take Oxycodone IR, which is the opioid in Percocet, but without the toxic tylenol.  

Be careful with your dosages of those opioid/tylenol (acetaminophen) combo products: vicodin, norco, lortab, percocet, ultracet, tylenol #3 and #4 - no more than 1,000 mg of tylenol per dose every 4-6 hours and no more than 4,000 mg of tylenol per a 24 hour period.  Be sure to count the mgs of tylenol with every dose that you take to make sure you are staying under the safe daily tylenol intake limit.

femmy