Scared to take pain medications

[Lecoffee4life]

Hi everyone,

I have been feeling pretty isolated lately, and wanted to reach out to people who I know will understand where I am coming from.
I have been in a flare for the past 4 weeks, with varryjng severity. I had botox done again, but am still needing to take Codeine more days than not during this flare. Before this I only ever took it for long drives or the random severe flare, which had been over a year prior.
My concern is that I will develop a tolerance, and that I will have to start taking more codeine than I do now, or that my dr.'s will think I am addicted. I used to be on a buprenorphine patch and it honestly made me so sick I never want to experience that again, and I don't believe it helped my pain either, even though it is supposed to be such a strong pain medication??
I currently take 60mg per dose, and it definitely helps, but it fades after 3.5-4 hours. Sometimes when I take it it kind of stops the pain cycle and I'm good for the whole day. But on days like today at work I definitely feel it fading and I had to take it again. I talked to a dr. Who said tolerance can develop in a matter of weeks on codeine, so that kind of scared me too.
I'm 24 so I am scared that if I develop a tolerance I'll run out of options for pain. As we all know there are a lot of opinions and challenges se face for taking pain medications, and I feel this can be even worse when the patient is young.
I know I am not addicted and that it is real pain, I know I should not feel bad for taking it when I need it. Yet here I am, feeling like I have failed when I reach for this bottle.

I know so many people have it worse than this, realistically I know I am lucky to have access to this medication and to something that provides relief when so many of us do not. I tried speaking with my dr. once, but it went badly, and they became more stringent with their prescribing and seemed to have lost trust in me. It was like by worrying about taking it they assumed I was already abusing it or at risk for abusing it. I feel like it should have been the opposite. That by talking about it and actually being worried I would be less likely to become addicted or abuse it. Sigh...

[steelerfan]

We struggle so badly with this disease, it’s so hard sometimes to know if we are doing the right thing or not? We try to numb the pain and sometimes we have to take more pain medication in order to feel relief... so we get stuck in this vicious cycle. It feels like we can’t win. I’m sure once your flare calms down you won’t need to feel like you need to keep taking as much. It’s scary because we don’t want to take these pain meds but we Have to in order to function... I know exactly how you feel because I’m in the same boat my pain med is not working and I’ve upped the dose and don’t feel any different! I pray we find relief!

[Lecoffee4life]

Hi everyone,

So an update. I went to my dr. Office and there was paperwork waiting for me in the office to fill before he came in.
It was one of those pain questionnaires where you circle the pain area on the body and then answer how it affects your life, etc.
But there were a bunch of questions on the back about drug abuse history and he wants me to get a urine sample test too.

Edit: he ended up being very supportive and explained to me that tolerance was absolutely something we can deal with and he isnt worried about addiction, and he said it was normal to be scared when going from seemingly fine to suddenly not for no reason.

He did say something that I have seen others here say "remember, you were in remission once, you will likely get there again, it is just a matter of time"

[ICNDonna]

Hi everyone,

So an update. I went to my dr. Office and there was paperwork waiting for me in the office to fill before he came in.
It was one of those pain questionnaires where you circle the pain area on the body and then answer how it affects your life, etc.
But there were a bunch of questions on the back about drug abuse history and he wants me to get a urine sample test too.

Edit: he ended up being very supportive and explained to me that tolerance was absolutely something we can deal with and he isnt worried about addiction, and he said it was normal to be scared when going from seemingly fine to suddenly not for no reason.

He did say something that I have seen others here say "remember, you were in remission once, you will likely get there again, it is just a matter of time"

I see a pain specialist and at every visit I have to fill in a questionnaire that sounds like it's similar to what you did. In Oregon at least, urine tests are required periodically for anybody on pain medications. I hope you feel better soon.


Donna

[jeanc]

does anyone know what kind of pain medication works which does not have too many side effects. i tried elavil and elmiron (not pain meds i know) but they did not help

[Lecoffee4life]

What pain medications have you tried Jeanc? I take a few different kinds that have been prescribed, unfortunately everyone is different so what works for one might not for another. As for side effects it's kind of the same, you just have to try it and see.
I will say advil is usually a nono for people with IC, but for me I seem to do ok on it.

[jeanc]

tried only elavil , which did not work and only made me gain weight. tried elmiron for about 5 months, it did not seem to help and is supposed to take 5 to 6 months to work
so by that time my flare could be gone
i am now taking trospium for over active bladder which only helps a tiny bit not worth mentioning
i take aspirin or tylenol
cannot take advil as i have high blood pressure

[Lecoffee4life]

If you could not tolerate elavil there are other ones you can try. I also could not take elavil because it made my burning worse. I take cymbalta and it helps. Another thing you could ask your uro about is hydroxyzine. It is an antihistamine. I find it quite helpful.
for pain if you are able to take pyridium or urelle those are bladder anesthetics.