I took very low doses of tramadol for probably ten years. I cannot take narcotics because I have some GI motility issues and narcotics quickly effect my GI system.
I have been reluctant to post this but feel I should share this experience with all of you.
I was taking tramadol for pain due to a chronic orthopedic injury.
About 18 months ago I developed PN , very painful and rapidly progressing. I had extensive testing with the final diagnosis of idiopathic small fiber PN. In other words no one knew why I had PN, luckily it was not large fiber PN and all my test except skin biopsy were normal.
This summer was very bad, lots of pain, exhaustion,sick . I was changing from a very active women to a couch potato solely focused on not increasing my pain.At first I thought it was my inactivity making the PN stop hurting.
I have a medical background and refused to take neurotin,lyrica or anti-depressant but used xanax for sleep and ultram for pain, never more than 150-mg a day as it made me feel very strange, agitated then incredibly irritable. A real joy to live with me.
So I decided to go cold turkey. I stopped the Ultram and felt awful withdrawal symptoms. I looked so ill strangers would ask me if I needed help. Strangers! I became exhausted , could not function. At the time through on line research I read that these symptoms were possibly from quitting the Ultam but I found it hard to believe that being so very sick was all from stopping Ultram. Remember I didn't take very much but then I had used it for years PRN.
So here's the punch line!
My PN is 90% better. I can walk , hike without pain!! I have some pins and needles sensation but not painful hardly noticeable. Yes my feet get real cold on cold days and temperature sensation is still dysfunctional but ALMOST NO PAIN.
I've had several months with very little pain, no longer use the patches and am slowly returning to prior levels of activity.Yesterday I walked 4 miles without having any pain in my feet. Incredible!
The only change that I made is stopping the Tramadol/ultam.
I know this is not a valid study but for those of you taking tramadol I felt i had to share this with you just in case.
I researched Ultram and neuropathy is a side effect.
My neurologist thinks I must have had a exposure to some toxin but nothing else is different in my life but the change in drug use.
As usual doctors find it hard to believe the problems a drug can cause some patients. You know the rolled eye slight smile look you get.
So for what its worth you may want to rethink Ultam if its part of your pain control.
Meanwhile I still wait for the symptoms to return but so far I'm steadily improving. Hopefully my energy will also return to normal but even thats better.
I rode my horse this weekend. first time in 8 months. I was afraid I'd be in agony the next day as that's what happened last time I tried to ride. well I had NO increase in pain.
Fingers crossed.........

People always vary in response to drugs.

Ultram (tramadol) has typically been a difficult drug.
It works for many, others cannot stand it.
Some like it so much they will even forge Rxs for it, and cannot discontinue it.

It works on mu receptors and has some SSRI SSNI reuptake functions.

Sometimes it is the metabolites from the drug that cause the problems. I looked around tonight and could not find much
in the way of nerve toxicity. I did find some side effects reported as paresthesias however. But many drugs have those.

Whatever was bothering you is real however. I am glad for you that you discovered this. Many people get on drugs for chronic conditions and fail to notice negative side effects when they occur. Your experience is a heads up for others here.

I'll give you this personal example:
About a year or so ago, my liver functions started to change. This was puzzling. You know
what it was? Claritin !! Good old Claritin for allergies! I stopped it when I quit my job, and
bingo, the liver functions came back down. They were never really high, just beginning to go up.
I looked everywhere for confirmation and couldn't find it. But I remember a forum member from
BT had a severe liver response to it and posted once about it. So drugs always have
a potential to be difficult for some.

Many people have reactions to OTC Claritin. One patient was taking it everyday for allergies per his doctors advice. After a year he began to have horrible itching in his hands. He said he felt like red ants were biting him. He just stopped taking it after his pharmacists suggested Claritin could be a problem. In a month the sensations had ceased.
Most drugs are tested on 2500 people before coming to market. 2500 can't believe it but its true. Some people become "professional drug testers". In other words they make a living be a drug test "patients". some of these people are ex-cons, ex-drug addicts, homeless people. It becomes a lifestyle, decent food and shelter and they know how to play the game. There was a article on this process in last year New Yorker magazine. These days some drug trials are even done in other countries!
Anyway "The People Pharmacy" is a good NPR program and web site about the risk we take with new drugs.
with Ultram there is some question of how it even works. It become popular due to heavy marketing that its not addictive. Yes not psychologically very addictive but definitely now proven to be physically addictive with concurrent withdrawal effects when trying to stop.
One great pharmacist stated that as soon as you take more than four drugs ( includes OTC, herbs, vitamins) that we have little idea of what that chemical soup is doing to the body.
Ultram is well known to lower the seizure level and especially dangerous when combined with any SSRI or older anti-depressant meds. Combining it with other pain meds is exceptionally dangerous for seizures.

It's good that you have posted this and i am glad that your doing so well since stopping the Tramadol, just proves we aren't all the same in our reactions to differant meds.

I use to take 300 mg Slow Release Tramadol twice a day for a couple of years then was able to reduce it to 200 mg x 2 times a day with 150 mg of Endep at night & 25 mg endep in the mornings, tramadol was a wonder drug for me and when i decided to stop taking it, i had no side affects at all, but that's just me.

I hope you continue to improve & thanks for sharing your experience.

all the best
Brian

I take Tramadol 4xday (100mgs ea), and have been taking it for 7 years.
I take it along with Lyrica, and it definitely keeps my pain levels down,
as a combination- & works better than either, alone.
I definitely am dependent on one or the other of these two
(cannot say which, as they are taken together).
For me, its a fact of life.
No need to stop either, as when I miss a dose time,
I really can feel it. I know it!
I'm satisfied with my pain control, and am an advocate of:
"If it ain't broke.....don't fix it!"
(don't mess around with it!)

I hear you, I feel it just a couple hours late. Seems like if I'm late it takes a day or so to get back up to the same pain relief level.

I've been on the maximum dosage of Tramadol plus Lyrica for two years now, couldn't tolerate without it. I've cut down several times with no adverse effects except increased pain.
There are some real horror stories about Tramadol withdrawal though but you have to remember that the people who have no problems usually don't say anything.

One thing that surprised me recently was the Tramadol prescription my friend's dog received.
It was the same as mine, two 50mg tabs up to four times a day!
This was for a 50 lb dog!
Tabs looked exactly the same as mine, wonder if they're cheaper from the vet?

I used to give tramadol to my old dogs, 70 pound dogs with painful hips and found it to be excellent fast, acting pain, relief. My drugs ( given to the dogs) were less expensive than the vets as my co=pay was ten dollars. Luckily my doc believed me when i told him why i was running low on my prescription.That said often the dogs would get agitated and anxious from tramadol, it work best for her before bedtime and early am.
For me Tramadol may be the sole cause of my neuropathy because only after i finally went through withdrawal and stopped using it did I begin to notice a MAJOR decrease is PN symptoms and pain. Going through withdrawal was bad in the sense that I felt so sick, exhausted ,could not work and I did not know it was from withdrawal . I had been using 50mg to 100 mg a day for over ten years although i would often go without tramadol for several days.
If I take as little as 25mg now my feet begin to tingle.
I'd say I'm 80% better since stopping tramadol and now not taking any pain meds, not even lidocane patch.
However am occasionally taking Ritilin for low energy and fatigue, one pill a day is all I need to function . It does give me bad dreams.

I take a low low doseage of Neurontin for my PN, and have for many many years. The low low doseage works "enough" for me. Sure I am aware of a bit of PN pain/symptoms but it's not drastic with my low doseage.
Can't do without it entirely because of the PN pain.

Last year I was prescribed Tramadol 50 mg for newly appearing Foot Arthritis pain.
Diff kind of pain so diff pain masker.
Yes, they can be taken together.

AT first the Tramadol did make my legs go completely to sleep during the night. VERY surprising and disconcerting situation that brought back horrid memories of when my PN began, so I stopped Tramadol after the monster foot arthritis pain settled down.

But the foot arthritis has become a major continueing pain problem so now I take just ½ of one 50mg Tramadol before bed and it does cut the foot arthritis pain quite a bit, but just ½ does not get rid of all of the arthritis pain. (I also take 200mg Neurontin before bed).

My thinking is that perhaps this Tramadol for arthritis pain needs to be "gotten used to" by my system. Hopefully that is what I'm doing by taking ½ a pill. I'm having no problem with that dosage at all so I'm considering starting a whole pill per night very soon.

To the person taking 4 Tramadol a day.. be careful with that!
My mother did that for many many years.
The problem is it definatly took care of her pain and she was unaware of new additional painful problems in the same areas. I mean she knew she had more pains, but chocked it all up to the same problem (it wasn't) and just took her 4 tramadol to make it be quiet.

Pain is symptom and notice to the brain that something is wrong.
A new or addition pain needs investigated.

I've promised myself NOT to dose myself so full of pain maskers that I don't pay attenion to new pains. Even of the new pain is in the same area as my PN or my arthritis.
Tramadol (fpr arthritis) does not quiet my PN pain at all and Neurontin (for PN) does not quiet my arthritis pain at all... Each masker works on a diff pain.
So I can tell the diff between my PN pain and my arthritis pain. I want to continue knowing the diff and I want to be able to be aware if something new raises it's ugly head.

By the way Mother no longer takes any Tramadol at all.
She is now bedriden and her old pain problem is gone since she rarely moves or uses the areas she took that pain masker for.

For me personally, I'm hesitate with all these "newer" drugs. For my body, the old standbys seem to work the best. Tramadol didn't do a thing for me, like taking sugar pills. Fentinel patches are fancier, but almost had my wife collecting the life insurance. Good old Methadone works just fine for me. I take Neurontin as well (3600mg a day), and this combo seems to work fine for me right now. Time will tell what dosages and meds are in my future, but I always tell the docs now, "let me try the old stuff and see how it works first". Isn't going to win over their Pharmasuetical Reps, but oh well! :-) And generally, they are cheaper, usually covered my insurance, and may even have a generic equal.

But as said before, everybody is different and different things work for different folks.

Jay

Jay - methadone is an excellent pain medicine despite it's reputation as being good only as a treatment for getting off heroine. I'm glad it works for you and wonder just how bad you need all that Neurontin.

I don't know what kind of problem you had with the Fentanyl patches - they work wonders for me. I started on 1-9-02 at the 50 strength - then to 75 and on to 100 strength on 11-18-02 and my pain went from a 9+ down to 2 to 4. I've been using these patches now for over 6 years and right now am using 125 strength changing them every 48 hours since 4-27-07.

I've had PN for 21 years come December and I'm 76 years old. I will continue using this medication till I die or till something better comes along. I take NOTHING else for PN and I'm getting around pretty good with just a cane and enjoying life and I still drive without incident. I also walk just about every day but I'm down to a mile or so instead of the 10 miles I use to run! But, hey, I'm still verticle!!!