I need some help with information...
 

My husband has severe RSD and is on work comp. One of the medications he has been taking is Protonix because since starting all the medications he has to take to help control the pain gives him heart burn. The work comp doctor, who sits in an office and has never even seen nor spoken to my husband, looked at his medication list and said that nothing he takes can cause the symptoms of heartburn. He takes Morphine 3x daily, Percoset 4-6x daily, Amatiza 1x daily, Celexa 1x daily, Symbalta 2x daily, Atenelol 1x daily (which he takes due to the medications raising his heart rate, which they wont cover). Ugh I cant think of the other two he also takes.

Anyway, if anyone has ANY info or links to info that says these medications can cause acid reflux, heartburn, GERDS I could really use the help. I dont know how to find specific info on this. Thanks

You might ask about this on our medications forum also.
here -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum72.html

Hi MarriedtoRSD,


Sorry to here your husband is having this problem. There are many drug information web sites. What I do or used to do is google each medication and you will get tons of hits or go t a CVS.com or Walgreens.com the bigger chains have good information on medications. Personally I prefer googling each one because you might come across a study or somethng you would not find on a store site.

And good luck with your WC issues. There are many people on this fourm who deal with WC and I sometimes can't believe what people are put through. I had a Personal Injury Case and that was bad enought or at least I thought at the time it was. What I here you have to really push with WC. I'm sure someone will post something about it.

This fourm is just a great source of information.

Good Luck

Gabbycakes

I don't think my heartburn comes from meds. I had my accident/cond for 13 months and never had any heartburn or nausea issues unti just recently. I think stress is the issue. WC accepted my claim but recently denied my claim for compensation saying dr statements weren't clear. They didn't even give me the 30 day to respond. In the last 30 days I have applied for SSDI( required to by employer to apply for their disability retire), disability ret from my job, tried to satisfy WC(impossible!). it is more than a part-time job just dealing with the Dept of Labor. Approvals and referrals take forever. As the bread winner in my household I have not received a paycheck since Oct. I think that is what is causing my heartburn!

I would think maybe the combination of all those meds might cause the stomach distress also.

Hope you find a solution to this problem.
pat e

Lots of good advice here already. I was recently put on new/different meds because of new symptoms in mr back/neck vs rge crps in my ankle. I did a bing search and found drugs.com. You can check drug interactions there so if it's a reaction between meds vs just a side effect of a med you may be able to see something like that on there. I am sure there are other sites to do this on...this was just one that I used in the last week that I found helpful.

hmm, I know for a fact that cox-2 medicationss (Celebrex) can cause gastrointestional upset. I belive that if you go to drugs.com you can look up all of your medications. Maybe instead of telling the uninformed WC doc the protonix is for heartburn, go from the "protective" aspect of the medications to prevent gastric ulcers due to multiple medications, stress from the RSD and injury. At times it helps to work around these docs instead of butting heads with them.:eek:

This must be something new in the w.c. system. I had my protonix denied this month after they paid for it for a very long time. I did find out that with my insurance ( Medicare Part D) that it wasn't all that expensive, a little over $13. Lisa

Id think about getting a lawyer! I did find some info that says the pain type medications can cause heartburn if taken 6 months and longer. You could take it for 2 years and then get it from them.

I got with his lawyer and she's on it already, and filing an appeal this week backed with lots of info, records and doctors letters. She says she thinks he will be getting it back. Its the issue that he has been on work comp for almost 4 years. They hate paying for anything. We finally got a new surgeon approved for a visit to talk to him about the tens unit.

Thanks for all the info gang, I really appreciate it!

I've been on work comp for a over a year now and everytime I talk with my HR person, I beg her to tell me how to get out of this system. Hopefully or regretfully, now that I have a lawyer, I can work at distancing myself from at least one headache and tons of paperwork.