Doc: "What brings you in today?"
Me: "Pain."
Doc: "Where does it hurt?"
Me: "Everywhere."
Doc: "What's causing the pain?"
Me: "Dislocated shoulders, spine, hips, ribs, knees, ankles, etc."
Doc: "There's no way you can dislocate all those things."
Me: "I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a couple months back I dislocated my larynx and forgot how to breathe for a while."
Doc: "Oh, right, you're the one with Ehlers. How bad has the pain been lately?"
Me: "Mostly around a five or six, but when I fall, or twitch, and dislocate something it spikes really bad, and I'm just looking for pain meds for breakthrough pain, because I'm pretty used to the all day, every day pain."
Doc: "So what were you thinking for medication?"
Me: "All of the other doctors I've seen have refused to prescribe anything stronger than Tylenol 3, but that stopped working for me years ago."
Doc: "True enough. I'll give you something quite a bit stronger, but you have to be careful not to take it too often."
Then he printed me a prescription for Tramacet, which is a combination of Tramadol and Acetaminophen. I'm hoping it'll work for me, and maybe help me to sleep.
But YAY! I didn't get the "Ehlers Danlos doesn't cause pain" that a lot of doctors spew out, or the "You're too young to hurt that much" or "We don't want to promote drug-seeking behaviour" that a lot of doctors seem to be afraid of these days. It was a simple thing, I told him what I needed, he agreed wholeheartedly, and I was out of there in five minutes. It's no wonder he was my favorite doctor all those years ago before he moved away. 2011 is looking promising.
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19 hours ago
3 comments:
I hope you have good results with the Tramacet! I myself take Tramadol and have been happy with it for most of my pain, especially since it does not affect me with as many side-effects as most meds; I am one of those sensitive people who always experiences the "rare 1%-5%" side effects, and I hate any med that makes me feel dizzy, sleepy, woozy or confused.
I've heard some people say that Tramadol gives them a bit of drowsiness but I have no problem taking 100mg 2 times a day and occasionally an afternoon dose if I am being active. There are still bad days that it just can't touch my pain, but it has been a great maintenance med, and increasing the dose to the "every 4-6 hours for severe pain" written on my prescription keeps even some of my flares, subluxations, and minor injuries tolerable.
I have yet to find something I think does really well for intense breakthrough pain (my experiences with most narcotics have been unpleasant), particularly joint related pain. I'm trying to learn to adjust my lifestyle to help prevent injuries, which have always been a problem for my clumsy self! Even being mostly on bedrest I manage to cover myself in bruises just going to the bathroom and kitchen, so adding any activity to my day increases the odds exponentially, LOL!
I hope the Tramacet works well. I'm glad the doctor listened to you, too. That seems to be rare for us EDSers and it's always great to hear of a doctor who cares.
I hope the Tramacet helps you! I was on Darvocet and was pretty bummed they took it off the market. I'm on Tramadol now since I can't take Vicodin or Percocet. Like Jette says, I haven't noticed any side effects at all.
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