Really messed over by a pain clinic cause I can't pee in their cup!

[MsTRiver]

I was on & off hydrocodone - actually on & off for years with NEVER A PROBLEM! WTH is with Tramadol.  The reason I went years & years  with or without it was #1. no insurance. And #2. all of a sudden you had to go to a pain clinic to get it!

I have Brain tumors and a serious strokes and to top it off a car crash that not only messed up my hips but my ribs. I went the natural route for over a year - declared by a Chiro & PT as permanent.  Went on hydro when I could afford the MD visit and the cost of hydro.  I had NO PROBLEM WHAT SO EVER AT ALL when I didn't have hydrocodone.

So I go to the pain center & remember that in the ER after the crash they gave me Tramadol IV.  I asked if they could give that to me in a pill form.  

I am 67 years old & quite frankly, really resent having to go pee in a cup! And since the last serious stroke - I cannot pee on command & it can take hours to try to pee for me even when I feel like I have to go.

I was on tramadol for about 5 months.  3 times a day. 50 miligram - so 150 a day total.  Since there is absolutely no high I thought it was safe!

Well my last visit to the pain clinic I was on steroids and roid raging like a Bass ****!  I have never in my life mis-used my medication.  I resented having to sign a document stating that I did NOT sell or give my pills to anybody else. Why?  Because I felt the entire experience was treating me like I was in Jail - like I was a criminal.

Meanwhile, they refused to give me the prescription because I couldn't pee in a cup no bigger than a shot glass.  The serious stroke has effected my entire right side, including half my ureter, so even when I do pee I do not know what direction the pee from the right side will go - the damage is my complete right side.  I need pain killer from the permanent damage and pain from the car crash - We were hit head on, push thru a guard rail and down a cliff - we bounce many times.

I left the Pain clinic with no prescrition.  I wrote a horrible review on them on Yelp! and the manager called me - it was agreed that I would go back the next morning. And got the same result. I loaded up on coffee & water.  When they gave me the tiny cup - I nicely asked for a bigger cup - they told me they didn't have one but I could pee in a hat and pour pee into the tiny bottle.  Since the stroke I am unable to do tasks like that and use a funnel at home.  When the Nurse Practitioner finally came to see me, I told her that there were saliva test that were instant and that the Pain Clinic should have them.She told me they did have them but they were only for dialysis patients.  

I DID NOT know the consequences that there could even be withdrawal,we nicely parted ways without me getting my prescription.  I was NOT told about what could happen to me. I still had 3 pills left so I wasn't even close to detoxing.

So here I lay, with all these things wrong with me, detoxing Cold Turkey from Tramadol.  This is the most awful experience of my life.  Explosive diarrhea & projectile vomiting at the same time along with the most forceful sneezing you could ever imagine - every 2nd day until I have now just stopped eating at all.  Cleaning up that mess is more than I can stand & I now have the cleanest bathroom anybody could have because I had to wash the walls, doors cabinets & disinfect the entire room.  It went everywhere.  I tried to catch the vomit in my skirt but it just forcefully bounced off my skirt it was so forceful.  When that was finished, about half an hour, all I could do was get in the shower with my clothes on to get that mess off of me!  And let's not even talk about the pain while that was going on.  I am so weak that I cannot even use my cane to get around right now.  The pain & the weakness is totally absurd!  

I am now on day 4 with no Tramadol - I get terrible migraines,so I am taking some of my migraine meds to help me & since the stroke left me with neuropathy, I do have gabapentin that I take 4 times a day.My blood pressure & pulse are all over the place and that is frightening.

I called a different pain clinic and have an appointment for the end of July - that feels like a long time to me.  I just want to go back on the hydrocodone & valium as I was before.  I will sell my possessions to pay for it if necessary.I do NOT want to live in constant pain!

I have a few questions that maybe somebody can answer for me.  How long will this last?  How long does anybody recommend not eating to prevent the fn nightmare that I have been through already with the bathroom nightmare from hell?  I feel that Tramadol should be taken off the market & only available in the hospital.  Why is Tramadol on the market at all?  Quite frankly, I feel lucky I didn't die during the bathroom nightmares!

As I have read through some of the post here - I see a lot of people writing about restless leg syndrome, what period of time during the withdrawal does that commonly start?  I cannot go out & buy anything because I only have $30 left until the 3rd when my Social Security comes.  I do have different kinds of teas that I am using, Sleepytime Tea, Blueberry tea, and lots of other kinds.  Will I be able to eat cereal,pasta, egg, toast - what can anybody recommend - I have no strength.  I have a nagging headache for days, body aches that are so weird & those electric shock pains all through my head.  I would take a hot bath & will do that tomorrow when my home health nurse is here - I have avoided the tub because I am so weak & HATE to ask my nurse for help - but I will do it!  I really wish I lived in a state where Marijuana was legal so I could try it - but it is extremely illegal in North Carolina.  It really makes me totally crazy to think that TRAMADOL, a drug that could have killed me or cause another stroke is LEGAL & Marijuana is NOT!  It totally angers me that the Pain Center, knowing my complete medical history, my age & the fact that I would never sell my pills has absolutely no "common sense" and treats everybody like a criminal in Jail.

My son, in NYC wants to sue them.  My daughter who is a Social Worker in a Psych Ward in San Francisco has been told by the doctors to report them.  But I moved from NYC to this little place in North Carolina for retirement & I don't want to make any enemies.