Tramadol
 

Anyone have any experience with Tramadol?
Good, Bad, Ugly?

Is it milder than most?

heybro-I take tramadol on bad days. Its better than most for me-doesnt make you sleepy, can drive etc. but you need to take it on onset before pain gets too bad or as a preventative. i only take it as needed. how are you doing?

same as jkl626

It is the ONLY pain med that I have ever been able to tolerate. All others make me so sick that I rather the pain.

I was only on it for a short time for an acute issue but it is the best one I have ever taken. It did make me a little dizzy. Very little.

I find Tramadol helps only when I am having very light pain. I've been at this for 10 years and Tramadol helped in the beginning. But the combination of worse pain and built up tolerance has made Tramadol pretty ineffective for me.

Take care.

Hello Heybro
 

Yes, I am taking that medication. I have spinal issues. What I do is take that first and see if it works. Depends on the severity of the pain. If it doesn't kick in and help, I wait a few hours(4-6) and take something stronger. It does work for the most part. I do not get any side effects. I think it is better than taking a opiate as a first try. So far so good, Hope it works for you. ginnie:grouphug:

After 12 horrible hours of constant nausea and throwing up post surgery due to narcotic pain meds (apparently all the regular narcotic pain meds make me extremely sick) they started giving me tramadol and torodol. 12 hours post rib resection the combo worked great for pain and I continued to take the tramadol for pain management at home for the first week. It made me a little sleepy but no other side effects for me. Personally I loved it!

More tolerable than anything else I have tried, take the extended release and it blocks some pain but not all...can you take this somewhat post op/immediately post op the pain off the charts?

Emilina,

Me, too. Can't take pain meds. Make me sick, too. Tramadol only one that did not.

Hi Abegins
 

Well, right out of surgery, Tramadol would not have touched the pain. In my case the surgery was very very long and difficult. The pain wasn't in control even with a drip. It took a few days in the hospital before I felt like I could keep on top of it at home. I took tramadol, after the real healing process started. ginnie:grouphug:

Tramadol is very dependent on the individual person's reaction to taking it. It did nothing for me, other people swear by it.

I am a fan of gabapentin/neurotin for my TOS also lidocaine patches, trigger point injections and massage personally.

Tramadol
 

Warning to all...tramadol and certain antidepressants lead to a dangerous serotonin reactions...heads up when mixing meds. Bad experience for me.

Ginnie, I'm sorry - that sounds awful! Out of curiosity what did you take right after surgery? I'm new to pain meds and I'm worried that someday I'll need something stronger.

:hug:

Hi Teddy
 

Yes, the second fusion I had was awful. I had reversed the curve of my cervical spine..
What happened is the staff at the hospital didn't look at my records. I was already on Morphine, and a high dose at that. They didn't consider what I had been taking, and didn't up the dose to account for what I was already on. So I didn't actually get enough to stay in control. The night nurse the second night of agony, found the error, contacted the doctor, and I finally got some relief. I stayed another day, to make sure I could stay on top of it.
I was very unhappy that they didn't really pay attention to my medical chart, and the list of medications I was on. I sent a thank you card to that night nurse.
It is important I guess when anyone gets surgery, to advise the staff verbally what you have been taking for pain. I don't exactly know why my chart was not looked at, nor was the absolutely horrible pain I was in ignored. They all thought I should be OK with what I was given. Morphine has an accumulative effect, and you do grow tolerant of it after years of the medication. It was a hard lesson to learn, but one I will never forget.
A patient must be their own best advocate.
Another lesson...don't just let the nurses tell you what you should be feeling. If you are not in control, yell till you get someone to listen. There is a time for justified anger.
Be your own advocate and have someone with you too, someone who can speak up for you in the case where you are not being heard. ginnie:hug:

Hi Emilina
 

The post above it really to answer you. I am not quite awake yet! ginnie:grouphug:

PM
 

Hi Kellysf,

Same experience here with Tramadol - tolerance develops over time. Only way it works for me is if I take time off from the med. But that can be hard on the body.

I just sent you a PM and hope you have a chance to respond.