[krisakira]

I just thought i'd share what's going on with my back lately. Last week I was moving some furniture around to have space to put the christmas tree up, and I think it's what caused my lower back to have a muscle strain, because when I was putting the tree together itself (its fake) I felt very bad low back pain and had to stop. It hurts too much to bend over and sit, and getting up and sitting down are quite a task. It started getting better, so I canceled my doctors appointment for earlier this afternoon. Then around 4pm, I stood up and had a horrible spasm in my lower back. I got myself over to the couch to sit down, but once I was down I could not move, the pain was too intense. So when my boyfriend came home, he took me to the urgent care clinic where the doctor told me it was probably a muscle strain. He put me on tramadol and a muscle relaxer (it has a long name). I have taken both but the pain is still as much as it was before. It hurts sooo much! Booooooo!

[racee]

i'm sorry the doctor gave you tramadol! Tramadol is a SNRI,5HTA2c antagonizer, NMDA antagonist, opioid agonist. i'm not going to say it doesn't work or anything like that because i'm sure theres a lot of people who it has helped that will love to correct me on it.(my partner gets relief from it, he is really sensitive to meds, but gave him horrible side effects) but for pain...ehhh give it a few days to kick in work up dosages then possibly. for immidiate pain relief (shaking head) the doctor should have given you something else. if you were in that much pain to go to an urgent care clinic then you are in that much pain to be on a narcotic at least for the initial onset. and if it is a muscle strain an anti-inflammatory would do some good too. but that's just me. 20mins of ice every hour is all i can tell ya. sorry for the pain i understand physical pain oh to well.

[krisakira]

So I looked up drug interactions with tramadol and citalopram (the antidepressant im on) and it said its a major interaction that increases my risk for serotonin syndrome. I'm wondering if i should be worried. also wondering why the darn tramadol is not working. I feel no difference in the level of pain. I don't have a regular doctor, and i saw the urgent care doctor. so i am wondering who i should call about the tramadol not working. should i call the urgent care place, or a general doctor ive never seen before?

[racee]

Lexapro decreases the analgesic effect of Tramadol because it reduces the breakdown of the active metabolite of Tramadol this is responsible for analgesia.. Yes/and no you should be worried about seitonin syndrome, personal expierence i in the past have taken severel meds with that contraindication and never developed S.S. but everyone is different. if you are worried stop taking it it's not helping anyways, go see a general doctor and tell him your meds you take, what going on with you and your concerns. when and if you get S.S. there is nothing the doctors can really do for you anyways you just have to ride it out till your body depletes the exsess seritonin.(depending on how sever it is)