I have severe neuropathy that was a result of diabetes that hid from testing for 5 yr, neorpathy has gone wild in feet and starting in hands. we have try all the more neuro medicine with no success so I take Lortab, Methadone, and Elavil. Good day is pain of 5 level, without meds 6-7 is normal. The neuro meds made pain worst & side effect were awful with neuro meds. I go to a pain clinic which give very little help am I destined to constant pain. It affects my whole life. what else can I do

• 59 year old – Source: MediGuard
• Posted: 2011-10-18 00:24:50

methadone is great if you can afford to stay on it.(for life) i think dying would be better than having to stop; cold turkey. i been taking 110mg for 6 yrs. now im unemployed and just got my last unemployment check. i agree methadone can save your life, but it will make u feel sick,sick if you can`t get anymore. i can`t sleep, my bowels stay tore up all the time, depression, no energy. the emergency room will only give you loritabs, and they are useless after being on methadone for years.getnoff

• 50 year old – Source: MediGuard
• Posted: 2011-10-17 17:53:43

Here's an interesting situation for your consideration. As I'm sure that you are all aware, your doctor keeps a medical file on you (no new news here). Usually stapled on the inside left hand cover is your med (medication) list. As your doctor puts you on a new medication, naturally doctor would add this to the list. When the doctor takes you off of a medication doctor (should) would cross that medication off the list and if doctor is replacing that medication with a different medication doctor would add that new medication to the list after crossing out the old medication and of course this list also contains dosage and how often or how many time per day you take that medication. My doctor had me taking 360 mg of MSContin per day (120mg 3xdaily) which I had been taking for pain management for more than a couple of years, but as I had no prescription coverage and this medication alone was $477 per month, I had a talk with doctor to see if there was something more affordable that he could prescribe for me and of course there was and he put me on 180mg of Methadose (methadone) at 60mg 3xdaily and of course this was much more affordable (it was in the neighborhood of $60 per month). Same doctor also had me taking clonazepam 1mg 3x daily (for panic attacks-as I have COPD-Emphasyma and would have severe panic attacks when I couldn't breathe) but after a while I complained to doctor that I seemed to be having a bad reaction to the clonazepam (chiefly agitation), he tried me on ativan 1mg 3xdaily for a while and I had the same complaint so this time he switched me to diazepam 5mg 3xdaily and that seemed to work much better. I had been taking lipitor which along the way got switched to simvastatin, Effexor (which he jokingly called "Side-Effexor when he changed it to zoloft due to the BAD reaction that I had to the Effexor) and a few other meds that had stayed the same throughout the duration-such as Albuterol (rescue inhaler), Dilantin (anti-seizure medication) and a couple of others. One day I was admitted to the hospital through the Emergency Room on a Friday evening and woe to me, my doctor had left that same afternoon for a little vacation (not to return until the following Thursday). So upon admission to the hospital the hospital floor's nurses' desk contacted my doctor's office and had them "fax" over my Med List (of course it was approximately 2:00 am when I was assigned and taken to my room) and come later that morning when the nurse made her rounds to distibute our morning medications-to my surprise and HORROR I was given 120mg of MSContin, 60mg of Methadose, 1mg of clonazepam,1mg of Ativan, 5mg of diazepam, lipitor and simvastatin, Effexor and Zoloft and all the other medications!!! When I tried to explain to the nurse that there was an error and that obviously as meds were changed by the doctor, he failed to cross off or remove the old meds, to which she replied that she HAD to go by the doctor's Med List and when I tried to refuse takinf some of the unnecessary medications, the answer was you either take them all or you take none-so it was take all or face withdrawals, so I took all fully expecting to get the problem straightened out later that day. Remember my doctor was on a "vacation" until the following Thursday and the doctor who was "supposedly" seeing my doctor's patient's didn't even show up to see me until that Thursday morning (apparently just in time to claim that "Yes, I saw your patients") and by which time I was on the precipice of a coma-but I was able to communicate the error to the "visiting" doctor who "fixed" the problem-just in time as I was being released on the next day-Friday. And yes I did see other doctors throughout the week to whom I attempted to convey the medication issue to, but to whom put me down as "combative". On that Monday morning my wife even brought ALL of my MEDICATIONS and their BOTTLES WITH THE PRESCRIBING INFORMATION ON THEM to the hospital to show them their mistake-all of which bottles they promptly put into their safe until my release and to make things even better all of my prescriptions had always been filled (for years) at that very same hospital's pharmacy-so they had a complete record right there at their disposal to verify what in fact I was really taking.AND TO CAP IT ALL OFF (and i guess in some type of effort to cover his own @$$ the visiting doctor wrote a letter to be placed in my file that 1. based on his own suspicions and 2.based on a supposed conversation that he had with my wife (which never took place) that I was "misusing" the morphine, which I had been off for approximately a year and taking methadone in it's stead. I guess he felt that we (my wife and I) would never see that letter-which inadvertantly we did see-although it was not his, my doctor's nor the hospital's intention that we should see that letter, it was only by a mistake on their part that we did see it. When we did see it, we promptly called that "visiting" doctor and confronted him about his "fictitous" conversation with my wife to which he swore to her face that he did have that conversation with her. It's amazing to what lengths "doctors" (and I use the term loosely) will go to cover their own mistakes but even to cover each others. What's become of the Hippocratic (Hippocrytical) Oath? In case you weren't aware it was drasticaaly rewritten a number of years ago. Anybody who can come up with the tuition money and a passing grade (a "D" is a passing grade) can become a doctor. I'll leave it to you to ponder what calibre of a doctor and point out that to the best of my understanding the American University of the Carribean is alledgedly one of the easiest med schools to get through and also has quite a well known reputation as a "Party" school, while I can't swear to this personally intodays information age it's not very hard to find these things out for yourself. I ENCOURAGE everyone to scrutinize your doctor's credentials and his records, it's very easy to do and well worth the small effort.

• 56 year old – Source: MediGuard
• Posted: 2011-09-19 23:06:40