Tramadol Cold Turkey

[barq2]

I'm very glad.  You dealt with a difficult situation very adroitly Barq however i'm mystified as to the pressure to quit or reduce tr@m@0l - are there side effects you don't want to put up with?  If it was me and I was taking the two pain medicines you're currently prescribed the medicine I'd look into first would be L#&c@:  it has side effects that are potentially irreversible.

I may be reading this incorrectly - do you feel people are judging you?  It would be a harsh judgment to make about someone with a bona fide pain condition that they are abusing tr@-@d0l prescription.    

 I can see why you would prefer to be free of taking painkillers - question is at the minute do you know if you can be cured in the future?  Of the pain?  Sending warm wishes,

No, I don't feel judged, and you are right to be mystified - I certainly am! :-)

I don't have any problems with the tram side effects. I get a dry mouth, but just chew gum or drink water. This doctor insists that tram has no effect on neural pain and so we should cut it out. I don't agree because a) it is also treating my non-neural neck/back pain (she says paracetamol will cover that, but I may as well take a sugar pill!), b) subjectively I think tram does help neural pain, and c) since it is serotonagenic that is a pathway that possibly helps neural pain, but also gives me a definite antidepressant effect. Since I have a long history of depression and anxiety, the latter is very welcome. For me, tramadol does several helpful things so I'm very happy with it (I'm probably too happy for this doctor's liking). I'm young enough to expect physical improvement in my condition so hope tram isn't forever, just medium term. (There is a surgical option if time doesn't heal things.)

Gabapentin is a problem for me. I'm amazed people take it recreationally because it seems horrible to me! I need my brain for work and having my memory impaired is very unhelpful. Because this doctor is only looking at the neural pain part of the situation, I suspect she'd say that if I don't need gabapentin, then I don't need tramadol.

Anyway, I've reduced my gabapentin dose myself (don't worry, I did it slowly!). 2700 down to 900mg was fine. I suspect that the last bit to zero might be a PITA, so I've kept the spares in case I need a much longer taper than this doctor will agree to. There is no temptation to (ab)use these "spares". I assume gaba withdrawal works rather like benzo withdrawal, but if anyone knows more, or timescales, then it would be useful.

Selazzie311 - Do you mind me asking what sort of dose of tram you were weaning down from? I'm on the max dose, so what seems like a reasonable period of time to you? How long would you have liked to have had to detox? Interesting that muscle relaxers helped - presumably diazepam would help? Thanks for sharing your experience with me. Congratulations on managing it!

[barq2]

Barq you went in to see the senior doctor at the practice who issued your tr@3@d0l and there was a brief discussion about the pain medicine to the effect that she doesn't think this pain medicine is helping with your neural pain?  She would rather you take paracetamol for you pain condition?  "We should cut this out". Are you sure that was exactly what she said?  Either the other one has said something to her Colleague or written something about cutting this out on your file and the 2nd doctor echoed this.  

Do you think she may have been discussing the possibility of cutting tr@390l? and you were not quite getting all the Part of the sentences?  Paracetamol wouldn't work for a chronic pain issue,  you'd get a few weeks and then it would not work any longer except not more than dosages 2 days of the week.

You're reducing g@b@p3n - the medicine I reduced was l#r#c@ and marked different levels of reduced amounts in Calendar.  

Something has caused a very strong reaction at a previous appointment there.  Sounds like there's been a volcanic level of rage?  It has got spiteful?  OK Take care Barq

I've not been clear enough about who said what. The senior doctor issued tramadol without any problem. We mostly talked about other things. The doctor who suggested paracetamol was the original doctor (let's call her the evil doc!). She's the one who talked about cutting it out. No other staff have approached that topic. No reason to think she has put anything awkward on my medical record.

But evil doc seriously seems to think that paracetamol is an adequate replacement, which makes no logical sense. If she is only focusing on the neural pain, then paracetamol will do nothing. And if we are talking about my back pain (separate to neural), then I'm hardly going to waste a doctor's time if paracetamol worked! I suppose codeine would cover the back pain, but in the early days of sorting out which meds worked, it emerged that it blocked me up far more than tram and was more sedating. So I've got quite concrete reasons for wanting tram over the other meds. I also think pointing out that we spent three months sorting out an acceptable cocktail of medication, and then I went back to work. Messing with what works at a time when I'm super busy at work isn't helpful.

Anyway, I see evil doc in a couple of days. The good news is that thanks to her senior colleague writing the tram script I am not in there begging for a repeat. I'll be honest and say that cutting down caused the pain to break through (interfering with my job). If it is still treating pain, then I'm on safer ground than if she thinks I'm simply addicted. Also I don't think she is at all sympathetic to the off-label antidepressant effects, so I don't see any point in mentioning it. I'll keep it simple... cause and effect... I took less tram, so I was in pain. If necessary I might remind her that I chose to go back to work as early as possible, and we accomplished that because I had sufficient pain control.

If necessary I'll tie up the rest of the appointment with something innocuous. You might question why I'm seeing her at all! It is mostly so that medical practice can see I've kept monthly contact with them. It was just unfortunate she was the only person available. Luckily my October appointment is with a nicer doctor.

If it all goes horribly wrong then I have a hospital appointment in a couple of weeks. They think I'm on the right medication, so if I tell them she's been screwing me around and it caused unnecessary pain and disruption at work then I don't think they'll be impressed. I'm on good terms with the hospital since they found me an interesting case.

[yellowdog]

I have done WD from Trams by using dhc/codeine with some diaz and Z pills, then I reduced the opiates.
then I had to use the immodium and diaz, thankfully I did not get addicted to the diaz.

I ran out of trams so had no choice.

[barq2]

Good advice from Fire on doing other stuff. Being seen to be active rather than "just" the recipient of pain meds certainly won't do any harm.

Yellowdog - thanks for the report on coming off tramadol. It really helps to know what I might be dealing with - as much as anything there are times in the year where I might be better able to cope with that, etc. All the other medications you have mentioned make sense in that context.

Thanks,
barq

[bwitherite]

Doctors that leave patients to fend for themselves are evil. I have had very strong conversations with doctors I have known for many years, being honest and sometimes the doctor is just not knowledgeable. Or they are afraid of certain drugs and what it might mean to their practice. Always stick up for yourself no matter what position you are in.

[ram74]

I'd look for another doctor, if I were you. I was straight up with my PCP when he asked me about pain management. I told him I was ordering the tramadol online and he wrote me a prescription. Of course, I only told him 100 mg/day, but even that was very nice of him. I've never heard of any doctor tearing up a prescription.....this is just odd....unreal.

Anyway, going from 400 mg to nothing is dangerous! Do a slow taper, yes 10% reduction per week is a good rate. Take Tylenol for breakthrough pain....I take the one with little codeine....if it become unmanageable simply go to the ER or call PlushCare and say you ran out of PK and need a week's worth. Good luck!

[Charon]

Plush care? looked it up. From what i read, if u have a written script for PK or benzo, u may get a script for emergency. it is mostly antibiotics and blood pressure meds, and they are big on STD testing.

They must do a video call after getting all ur info, in certain states. Each state and area i imagine has differing policies.

But, video calling was not held to be sufficient to constitute a face to face in prior years. Interesting.