Liver damage from meds
 

I was diagnosed 7 years ago and since have been prescribed various pain meds. Percocet 10 is one that I have taken for the 7 years and I had to insist on a liver panel to be done because I was feeling like I had the flu for several months. The levels were high and now will have to go through more testing to see the extent of the damage. How often should patients have blood work done to check for liver damage?? I am really worried about this as I am a single parent and I also care for my elderly Mother, it is bad enough to have RSD but liver damage would just make my life a living hell.

Please share any experiences that are similar to this with me.

Thank you so much

I am so sorry that you are going through this. No doctor has ever suggested a liver panel be done for me but I got extremely worried last year when I was having all sorts of problems and in addition to the NSAIDS and pain relievers they also had me taking 3000mg of tylenol a day for 4-5 months. That scared me because they found a mass on my liver (which is nothing apparently but it still freaked me out). I have since gone off of all meds (turns out I had seratonin syndrome from the combos they had me on...THAT sucked) and now my main methods of pain control are not from pills but instead are my TENS unit, Lidoderm patches, heat, voltaren gel...and that's about it. My pain is not well controlled since it's usually between 6-10 every day (usually the whole range throughout the course of the day) but never better than that. I really think adding an NSAID would help my inflammation which has been really bad but I don't like the idea of what that could be doing to my body over time since I am only 28 (first got RSD when I was 25). Instead I am trying to control the inflammation with an anti inflammatory diet and the voltaren gel and it does seem like it is better...just not all better.

I got pretty decent relief with just pills for over a year but when work comp wouldn't approve an appointment I ran out of all my meds and then the docs put me on new ones and then were starting and stopping me on them abruptly and I think that all put my body in shock. After getting seratonin syndrome and going through that hell I have decided that at this point in time I do not want to use that many pills every day. I know at some point I may change my mind...the day will come when I cannot cope with the pain anymore and may NEED to go back to taking them...but I want to try to go as long as I can without them for fear of what damage they may do in the long term.

I don't know how often you should have the panel done...definitely if you start to feel like maybe there is a problem and at least once a year when you get your physical. If I were still taking the pills I might want it done every 6 months. But not a single doctor ever recommended that I get one and that is part of what makes me nervous about taking so many pills. It was actually a member on here who recommended I get one when I told them how much tylenol the doctor's were having me take.

I hope your condition is not too severe...RSD is enough for any person for one lifetime...ten lifetimes even. Good luck and keep us posted on how you are doing.

Long time use on any medication should be mandated to have periodic blood work. Unfortunately, it is not done on a routine basis for those of us on pain medication unless we are complaining of other symptoms. I recently had labs done because of my weight gain and everything was fine. (this was a cbc) But it was my weight gain the doctor order the test and it was my primary not my pm.
Sorry to hear your having issues keep in mind that gallbladder issues can raise liver enzymes as well.

liver damage
 

you should get check every 3-6 months