... and asked my GP for pain medication.

I held back as long as I could. I was also feeling a lot better after starting the vit/supplement regimen (as reported here). Then, things went downhill fast, a sudden onset of arthritis was added, and I was in agony.

I just bit the pain for about 4 weeks. I became completely immobilized - unable to walk.

So despite wanting to be medication-free, I decided to ask her for something that could give me relief. That somehow felt as a defeat. Also, most of the pain I feel is the "deep pain", and not so much the burning that was so prominent a few years back. Which meant I didn't really believe the medication was going to work.

She decided to try Zaldiar - I think that's Ultracet in the US (?). I had been through most of the medication previously, and tramadol was the only thing that seemed to work.

Not expecting much, I can not tell you how much relief I'm feeling after taking 2 yesterday. I know it's not a high dose, but somehow it's not only working for the PN, but also for the arthritis. I did feel nausea at first, just like the first time I took tramadol, but I know that will go away in a couple of days.

I will of course continue with the vit/supplements. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them - they make perfect sense - and I still hope that in 6 months I can stop the pain medication. But given how much better I feel today (I could almost scream), I'm now thinking that it was rather silly to try to stay completely medication free. I feel good enough for a daily short walk, which makes more sense than staying in bed with a lot of pain.

I do know that the effect will become less over time, but I'm currently at 3 pills a day, so I have a buffer to up (max 8 a day) if needed, or switch to pure tramadol as there is a relatively high portion of paracetamol.

My GP also is going refer me to a "physical health" specialist. I'm not sure how they are called in English, but they work on both muscular as on a neurological level, are usually involved when you have arthritis, and this one is known to look a lot further than his own domain. The GP also agrees that there may be more to it than "just the alcohol", as the symptoms I'm having do not really make sense in the light of my 10th month of sobriety.

Anyway, in short, I feel it's a step back having to take the medication, but the joy of being almost pain free (even if it's just for a couple of days) is just incredible.

You did the right thing under the circumstances. Good for you in getting relief. Good for you in all your hard work in trying to handle things alternatively as best you could. Great job! And thank you for letting us new ppl know that the vitamins and such did work for you.

I think they are about the same. I would suggest that since you went from no meds to 2 a day, you should have started with a much lower dose to see how much you really need. I got adicted to Ultraset over a decade ago and eventually stopped it. It made me high and I felt good. This was pre neuropathy days. Now I take a half a tramodol maybe once a week with half a tylonal. Tramodal is now a controlled substance. my doctor told me just the other day that two of his patients were addicted to it. So just be careful. Sounds like you really needed something and we are all different, but I would see if you can get the same result with less.

I use tramadol at night sometimes. I find 1/2 of a 50mg enough for me. I don't use it everyday. Often I have much less pain the next morning too.

It makes me sort of hallucinate somewhat...a weird kind of high, but when I fall asleep, I don't notice it. I only had the nausea twice in the beginning. I just can't take a whole one...seems the 1/2 helps my pain anyway.

Not all states in the US have tramadol on control status. Mine does not yet. It has abuse potential, but not equally for everyone.

I had a horrible reaction to tramadol many years ago, before I knew what it really was. Do you have medical marijuana where you live? I'd much rather use that then take more pills and addictive pills. I got addicted to Percocet a little over a year ago when dealing with a bad burn. I needed it then for the burn pain, but man, that was hard to deal with. I was not happy to be addicted after 10 days and it took 6 weeks to get over it with gradual decrease of meds.

And don't feel bad for having to take something for the pain. There is no point suffering when there are options available to make your life better.

I don't know, I guess people are different, but I have been taking several 7.5 mg percocets a day for years and when I developed a sensation of sunburn all over, several people on here, including Mrs. D., suggested that the opiates could be to blame. They do rarely cause allodynia, but usually at pretty high dosages. I just stopped taking them, and while my pain levels were higher and the burning seemed unabated, I had no withdrawl or addictive issues. After a trial of several weeks I went back on them as I function better with significant pain relief. I am not really concerned about dependency, I am dependent on Miralax for my quality of life as well as my opiates, but it was good to know I could quit if I needed to.

I hear you about the addiction problems, but obviously, having come off of alcohol and xanax, that was very much on my mind, and one of the reasons I didn't really want the medication in the first place.

I think you have to make a distinction between addiction and dependency though. Although people don't really get "addicted" to xanax (or other benzos), the withdrawl is just plain *horrible*, and took at least 3 months in my case. It's also possibly lethal if not supervised properly. So trust me when I say I never ever want to go through that again ever.

A couple of months before quitting alcohol/xanax, I had quit 100mg tramadol/day very quickly without any ill effects or much effort. Yes, there is a sort of "high" in the beginning, but it's absolutely not the kind of high that I feel good about.

For the same reason, although readily available here, marijuana doesn't do it for me. Not alone does it not seem to work on the pain (for me), I do not like the way it makes me feel. It would have been great, as growing my own plant wouldn't even really be a legal problem here (grey area), but I tried it and it just doesn't work. Also: I have seen people who did become hopelessly addicted to marijuana, and it is not a pretty sight. It doesn't happen often, but it's not uncommon either (the things you learn in rehab... )

I took the double dose to establish if it worked. If not, it would have been a good reason to quit immediately, and find something else. It did work however, and I'm now back to 1 pill (37,5mg tramadol/325mg paracetamol) every 6 hours. The nausea is going away (like before) although I wouldn't drive a car yet - still feel a bit too dozy.

As MrsD said, it seems to work longer than I thought (mornings), and that may be because I finally relax the muscles in my feet/toes. So weighing the good/bad, I think it's a good plan to keep taking it for a while.

And again, I'm not stopping the vit/supp. I'm convinced that they are the only thing that can help long term. This may be semantic, but I don't even consider it "alternative". In fact, I guess a lot of people without PN, especially over 50, would benefit from D3/B12/mag./DHA-EPA etc. My GP agrees, as the number of people she sees with very low D3 for example is stunning (her words).

As for cost, with an rx here it costs me $12 for 60 pills, so it's not breaking the bank either. So far so good.