Worried about rationing my Vicodin.

See a bone doctor and a rheumatologist. Mention the dosage of hydrocodone. Google spinal fractures from Vicodin.
Be a detective. You need to know what you’re dealing with. Put yourself first as much as you need to. Your fellow medical advocate. Hugs!

I've been reading about opioids and bone fractures. I never, ever before knew about opioids putting bone at risk. They reduce androgen. They impair the function of osteoblasts (which create bone.) This is very serious information.

I did agree to see a bone doctor in the past. I was told it would be an orthopedic specialist. This doctor struck me as awfully odd when I met him. He said there was nothing wrong with my neck that couldn't be reversed. I thought that was crazy. You can't "reverse" arthritis. Turned out he was not an MD. He was a D.O. - doctor of osteopathy. He was supposed to be a pain specialist. Seemed like a quack to me. He said I had "myofascial pain with trigger points." That's a diagnosis that D.O.s give to everyone with back pain. Regular MDs don't even recognize this diagnosis. I like to stick to mainstream medicine, not this alternative stuff.

I do agree that a real orthopedist or rheumatologist would be the proper consults to get.

Oh, don't even get me started...

Hi Rose,

I completely understand what you are going through. I became permanently disabled a few years ago with a very painful progressive illness. There's not much to be done about the condition..it's just going to continue to get worse.

My quality of life was bumping along OK until the US cracked down on pain medication. My dose of hydro codone keeps getting reduced and I'm sure the physicians will eventually stop prescribing it at at all. This past year has been hard.

I had quit drinking alcohol about 10 years ago, but just very recently started again sometimes just for pain relief.

No answers for you my friend, but you are not alone.

i count my benzos almost every other day...it sucks this feeling I don't understand it is not like we live in Russia...If I am 55 years old and want to take medication for my anxiety....than its my right...but apparently we have no rights as to what we take here in the US.....I hate it.

Alternatives to existing pain medications are so badly needed.
BPcyclist, you have so much experience with this issue and with the medical field. How can people organize to help speed the research along?
I’m imagining something more focused than writing our Congressperson and voting. Is there a pain association people can join and contribute to?
As I have mentioned on the forum, Vicodin addiction is destroying my high functioning, pillar of the community 78year old friend.

Yeah, I mean, just listen to this thread. We have various people regularly counting pills because they are so freaked out they won't be able to get a refill and they need it. The opioid crisis has swung the pendulum so far the other way, that people who really need them can't get them. It's a classic shotgun approach to something that really needed a sharpshooter. Typical AMericasn political response. Kind of like invading Iraq when Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia were the real problem. Stupid.

You might look into something like the American Chronic Pain Association. They've been around for quite awhile and seem to have a pretty good reputation. They are definitely an advocacy group.

I agree that the pendulum has swung too far. The real culprits have been unethical doctors who turned prescribing opioids onto a cottage industry. Legislators then gave up on holding doctors to reasonable standards, so they are now babysitting the medical profession by micromanaging the medical treatment of pain.

I am in the midst of having a probable G.I. bleeding ulcer. My bloodwork shows serious anemia necessitating I/V iron infusions. So I shouldn't be taking NSAIDs. Yet, I am taking Indocin to treat Achilles tendonitis and back pain. Indocin is a prescription drug that can be fairly dangerous. But I have a big vial of that stuff, with refills available. For me, Indocin is probably more dangerous than Vicodin. But I can get that more easily, so I'm using it.

i am sorry to hear about the possible ulcer. Have they scheduled an endoscopy, by chance?

I am waiting to hear from the GI clinic about when they will do the endoscopy. Three years ago this happened, and they found a bleeding eroded area in my stomach near my esophagus. Pantoprazole seemed to have fixed the problem. I still take it, but I had cut down on the dosage to what I thought was an adequate amount. I guess it wasn't. I lately had some episodes of heartburn that felt like a knife in my chest.

If it isn't one thing, it's another.

Hey @Rose76 have they ever checked for Barretts esophagus? It is something that can happen due to chronic reflux, a hiatal hernia and acid from the stomach "pooling" around the esophogus.

Quote:

What is Barrett's esophagus Barrett's esophagus is a serious complication of GERD, which stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease. In Barrett's esophagus, normal tissue lining the esophagus -- the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach -- changes to tissue that resembles the lining of the intestine. About 10% of people with chronic symptoms of GERD develop Barrett's esophagus. Barrett's esophagus does not have any specific symptoms, although patients with Barrett's esophagus may have symptoms related to GERD. It does, though, increase the risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is a serious, potentially fatal cancer of the esophagus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rose76 I am waiting to hear from the GI clinic about when they will do the endoscopy. Three years ago this happened, and they found a bleeding eroded area in my stomach near my esophagus. Pantoprazole seemed to have fixed the problem. I still take it, but I had cut down on the dosage to what I thought was an adequate amount. I guess it wasn't. I lately had some episodes of heartburn that felt like a knife in my chest. If it isn't one thing, it's another.

Thanks for your post, Sarah. In my case the damage is not in the esophagus. What I have is a "Cameron lesion." It is an eroded area in that part of the upper stomach that herniates, or pops up above the diaphragm. Pressure, friction and acid cause this erosion/ulceration. Then it can bleed. Controlling acid with PPI drugs, like Prevacid, can heal the area that bleeds. I did that with good results. But I gradually cut back on the acid inhibiting medication because I knew that reducing stomach acid can have longterm negative consequences - like C. diff infection, osteopenia, nutritional deficits and pneumonia. (Nature put that acid in the stomach for lots of good reasons. When we suppress it, some bad things can happen over the long haul.) It seems I went too far in cutting back on the pantoprazole that was prescribed for me. I was trying to gradually replace it with Pepcid, which is safer in the longterm, though not as effective at reducing acid. So my little experiment failed.

Sometimes, the same surgery done for Barrett's esophagus - a "fundiplication" - is done for my condition also. (If drugs like pantoprazole done control the acid, or cause unacceptable problems.)