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8317359 tn?1397621339

Pain Medications Don't Work!

Three years ago I was diagnosed with a severe case of osteoarthritis of the spine and I'm told there is NO cure for this medical condition.  The doctors have claimed all they can do is treat me for the pain and as of today's date, I have yet to be pain free with this problem.  My PCP claims in the 30+ years he has been practicing medicine, he has never seen such a severe case of osteoarthritis as my case?  I find that somewhat difficult to believe!

They have experimented with just about every pain medication and/or combination of pain medications and I have yet to enjoy one single 24 hour day without pain.  I'm currently taking 120mg of Opana ER per day and I still suffer with severe pain 75% of the time.  My PCP is now thinking about trying Fentanyl but, that may become an RX insurance problem because Fentanyl is so expensive.  Does anyone have any suggestions and is osteoarthritis truly this painful?  I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't another underlying issue they're not catching???

Thanks for your time in advance.  This seems like a very informative & helpful website.
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Avatar universal
After being diagnosed with a tumor at the base of my spine, I went through 2 years of the doctors trying everything for my pain.  Eventually I was up to large doses of whatever they were trying at the time.  I ended ip with opana er  80 mg 3 times a day along with 130 mg oxycodone every 2 hours.  The opana didn't seem to make a difference so I stopped taking it and now the only thing that allows me to function daily is 130 mg of oxycodone every 2 hours.  Like me, I don't think anything will make you pain free, but to function, you may have to really talk to your doctor and explain what you're going through.
I realize it's an extremely high dose and not everyone can talk their Dr. into it because most would simply think you're a drug seeker.  I'm very lucky to have the PM doctor I have.
Helpful - 0
144586 tn?1284666164
Dr. Jerome Groopman wrote several books, including the famous one "How doctors think". He wrote an article on spinal pain for the New Yorker available on Google search. You need to read his stuff and contact a p[ain spdcialist who knows what they are doing. Such pain is often due to glial cell stimulation which does not respond to opiates. Ablating the nerves if only one answer. Groopman determined that pain is conditionable, and subject to alteration, and may be significantly diminished or eliminated. I had nerve pain resulting in arm and hand paralysis, which was not treatable by drugs, and after following treatments and protocols such as those recommended by Groopman, ended up with no pain.
Helpful - 0
7721494 tn?1431627964
Preacher, unfortunately, with chronic spine pain, opiate-based analgesics only reduce pain by a few points at most.

I too have advanced arthrosis of the cervical and lumbar facet joints. I've found some relief through integrative pain management techniques, specifically neurotomy (nerve destruction) of the medial branch nerves that innervate the diseased facet joints.

This is an outpatient procedure where the doc uses a probe to ablate the nerves supplying the joints at specific levels using radio frequency energy. The procedure is done under conscious sedation and is over in 30 minutes. After a week of so of recovery, it can reduce my facet syndrome related pain by half. Alas, the nerves grow back, and the procedure has to be repeated every year or so.

RF ablation works better than any other modality I've tried in over 30 years of neck and back pain.
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