To answer your question about the insurance not approving the meds. Your doctor can write a letter to the insurance company explaining why he wants you to take those meds in particular. Usually that does it and they allow you to use them and not pay full price.
See if your doc will do that for you. I am sure he has run into this before. As for the pill phobia, as someone said, if you need to have one, that is a good one to have. But on the other side, sometimes it is just necessary for those of us who are in the same situation you are.
At one time I was taking 12 meds a day, now I am down to 6 and Lidoderm patches. Basically I had enough and with my doc's okay I weeded out what I needed and didn't need.
Right now I am in a steriod shot phase...so I guess that could count as a med. I get them every two weeks like clockwork or else my shoulder and back are in tons of pain.
Anyway, enough rambling, call your doc and explain the situation and ask him to write a letter to the insurance co. I would call the insurance co. first and see what info he needs to put in the letter. Good luck.

Liza Jane
Thanks for the info on the P450. Great article. I am anxious to get the blood work for the enzyme. I have fibromyalgia and RSD and thus far (since 1984) NO drugs have worked to even take the edge off the pain. I have taken over 30 pain meds(maybe more). It is so frustrating as the dr. will not go above the dose recommended as the highest dosage. The pain meds just don't seem to be absorbed in my body. However, sleep meds are effective. At least they are effective for a few months/weeks. I must keep increasing the dose and then eventually change to another one. I am on wellbutrin (300mg) for depression, xanex - 6mg and seroquel (1-3 for sleep). Nothing for pain. I keep bringing suggestions to my dr. such as mirapex - but he says no to most of them. At this point he is out of drug options. I really have taken every possible drug for pain. My dr. is really good and has really ordered a lot of drugs. Just didn't work.
That P450 concept is probably my problem. I just need higher doses of the drugs. Of course - then I guess you have to worry about higher risk of side effects.
Thanks again

Liza,

I agree with Sydney...Terrific piece on pain meds and you have addressed and answered many of my questions...I really do not know much about drugs. I have tried to avoid them, but after this surgery found I needed pain meds on a regular basis and am very ignorant about most of them.

I do want to clarify...It was not my PM doc that prescribed the four drugs....I went to my gastroenterologist and they changed my meds after I complained that the Miralax did not seem to be working any more....So two of the drugs came from him and two from the pain doc.

I did start the Neurontin because after stopping the Topamax I found all of the old nerve pain reared its head again. I thought the Topamax was not helping me very much, but once I stopped it I found that it was indeed getting rid of a lot of nerve pain....I find I am not able to walk very far at all before the feet start to burn and hurt and then it just goes up into the legs and makes my legs feel heavy and ache...so if the Neurontin does not work for me, then I will ask to go back to the Topamax. I was on a very low dose of the Topamax, but it did not get rid of all of the pain. I probably should have upped the dosage, but here again I did not want to take a lot of it. I knew it was interfering with my short term memory.

The biggest problem I have with all of my docs is that they use PA's. I think PA's have their place in the medical community, but I do have a problem with the PA doing most of the diagnosing and prescribing. This is happening with my gastroenterologist. I rarely see him, so I have scheduled an appt with a new doc at my husband's urging. He had a customer that just told him a story of having diverticulitis and while operating the bowel burst and almost killed him. He has been on three very strong antibiotics for about four months now and is just miserable. My husband is not comfortable with me never seeing the actual gastro and probably rightly so believes him to be the most important of my docs and wants me to see someone else. The PA for my Pain Doc on the other hand always checks meds with him before prescribing...I see my PM doc the next visit and am going to tell him that he is to always start with the lowest doseage of any drug and we will work our way up as needed, but to start on the highest doseage just seems silly, for me anyway...I will also ask about the blood test...I am surprised no one has offered it to me...

I am going to print out your explanation of drugs and read up on the different drugs. I was prescribed Paxil, but it is too sedating as well...so I need to read up on these things and be better prepared for my next appt.

Thanks for an excellent explanation....

Hi, I understand your frustration with your prescriptions. I could not take some of them also. I hate new meds like you do because of the side effects. Neurontin, I reacted like a wild woman raving all over the place. Cymbalta, was a disaster to. If my doctor still insisted on me taking a med, over what I though I could tolerate, I would seek another opinion. This medication stuff is really complicated, and each person reacts different. The side effects can be serious and frightening. I liked the other responce you got too. Do you like your doctor.? I tend to co-operate much more, when there is that trust there. If that trust is broken and I am not listened to, I move on. Good luck to you with your medications. Ginnie

That was almost 4 years ago and those posters aren't still active here.

I do hope your doctor will go to bat for you. My insurance didn't want to pay for the exact same meds either, but my doctor contacted them to make it very clear that it wasn't being used for "depression". It's a proven scientific fact that one of the benefits of Cymbalta is that is does help with neuropathy. There are countless articles available online and in medical journals to support this. Buying it on your own is an option, but you may find as I did, that these meds are VERY expensive and over time could rob you of substantial amounts of money. If I could suggest, talk to your doctor and explain what's going on. See if they're willing to take up your cause. I've been on both meds for some time now. My insurance company pays for both, and both seem to help with symptoms of the neuropathy. I wish you great luck with this. Don't give up or let them bowl you over. These meds help.