Peter,

First I should clarify that before I had any fusions I was on all kinds of medications and that was all with a different pain management group that was NOT a SPINE group. Anyway, name the med and I have pretty much tried it; mostly anti-convulsant and anti-depressants at that time. Glad I finally found a GOOD spine group.

Anyway, the appointment the other day mainly had to do with my shoulder and coccyx troubles. I need to get an xray of my right shoulder tomorrow. And I could kick myself for telling him that I didn't need the coccyx shot. Sooo...in about two or three weeks I see him again and I am just going to have him shoot up the coccyx and the shoulder IF he will do both. I guess it just depends on what the xray shows. And, yes I know, this is mainly an ortho thing with the shoulder. But he says not to use an ortho for the shot for two reasons; one they normally don't use enough numbing medication (found that to be true) and two, they don't normally use flouroscopy either. So, he volunteered to take care of this for me thank goodness!

He DOES want me to try the 12mcg Fentanyl patch to avoid or bypass some GI issues. But he is also leaving that up to me. He knows I am a chicken about it since I have issues with so many medications. But he said to just try it for 24 hours. If I feel overly sedated, strange...whatever...just to take it off and clean the area. But I want to try it when my husband is going to be home all day for the whole weekend. And he did say it is an "old lady" dose LOL! So, we shall see.

So far all of the pain meds I've tried made me feel like I drank too much coffee, including tramadol. I can't sleep and it doesn't help my pain at all. plus it messes with my stomach, constipates me and makes me grumpy. I only wish I could find a pain med that helped the pain and helped me sleep.

jerry

I too am hyper from Tramadol/ Ultracet. I take anti-convulsants like Lyrica for to combat neural tension for my TOS. The combination makes me wide awake and dumb as a doornail. It usually doens't even occurs to me to get into bed!! Instead, I'lll be up until I can't keep my eyes open. And the Lyrica keeps me in bed. There's no way I could wake up with less than 9 hours sleep. .... and then I am groggy for at least 3 more hours!!

I was also curious to see how many people this affected on the boards so I made a poll here: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh....php?p=258408#
feel free to vote

I am very allergic to many medications so I am sitting here with tranadol to see if anyone has had any.I am terified and I am alone.

My pain dr just added this to my oxycontin. I take 20 mg of oxy every 8 hours and also tramadol 50 mg with it I also have zanaflex as needed. I have to say I was scared of the tramadol at first but I think it is helping some. Does anyone know what this med is? I mean is it a narcotic?

Sorry peoples.

Bad reaction here to Tramadol ....

Terrible hallucinations!

Hello, Peter.

My mother takes tramadol and I took it for awhile, until I started some anti-depressants. I can't take it anymore because the combination could cause serious, if not fatal, side-effects. It worked quite well for me and exceptionally well for my mother. It made me sleepy, at first, but after awhile, it kept me awake. My mother has always been kept wide awake from it. There are many days when I really miss it because it dulled the pain enough for me to be functional. I hope you can take it at night soon and that otherwise it is working well for you.

Hi mennayriu, it's one of those drugs that is really good if you can tolerate it. There's a trial in australia on pain medication from centipedes-a walking chemical laboratory. Said to have no side effects, so would be a winner. Fingers crossed.
i won't take Tramadol after 6pm. Trying valerian tablets, Vitamin B12 tabs too.
going to see a phsio today as my trapezius muscle causes me a lot of neck pain.

Peter,

I took Tramadol for quite a while and it was a huge blessing for me. It really helped control the pain. However, I started having some issues with depression and I needed to go back on my Wellbutrin. Well, Wellbutrin and Tramadol apparently don't mix due to the risk of seizures. So my doctor said I had to come off the Tramadol in order to take the Wellbutrin. Let me tell you, I had THE worst withdrawal symptoms of my life! I had withdrawn from narcotics before and it wasn't pleasant but this was 100X worse than anything I have ever withdrawn from before. I went into the worst depression I've ever experienced and even had thoughts of suicide. I've never felt like that before, or since, in my life. There was also significant physical pain, not just in the areas where I generally have pain.

Tramadol is touted as being a non-narcotic pain reliever. I have worked in family medicine for many years and I have seen it given out like candy because of that fact. But I am here to tell you that it is dangerous stuff...in some cases. I understand that some people can take it and stop it without any problems and I am very glad that it works well for some. But I just want to caution you about it. I never took more than the recommended dosage. In fact, I never took more than 50mg twice a day. I weaned off of it like my doctor instructed me to, but I still experienced significant w/d symptoms.

So, I just encourage you to be careful with how you take it and be prepared if you decide to stop it. Good luck to you.

That is very scary my dr has added it to my oxy three x aday 50 to 100 mg!! I have been taking it because i'm in so much pain and it has helped some with the oxy. Now I'm a little scared to keep taking it. Were you taking any other opiod with the ultram? I'm just wondering if you quit all of the pain meds when you had the w/d from the ultram.